特德休斯A Dream of Horses

自译自《牧神集》

马群之梦（A Dream of Horses）

我们生来就是马夫，在马厩的稻草里我们静静入眠，

我们拥有的一切就是粪便和鬃毛，属于马群，

我们谈论的一切就是马群的苦恼。

在吞没宫殿大门的黑夜之外

那里震动着蹄声与蹄声与蹄声，来自马群：

我们的马猛击畜栏，他们猝然鼓出眼白。

我们跑出去，口袋里藏着老鼠，头发上插着稻草，

进入黑暗，那里有雪崩般的马群

伴着地震般的蹄声。我们的灯笼那橘黄色的微光

给每一张睡眼惺忪的脸戴上一副圆面具，

我们失去了形体，或被其他形体占据，受制于马群

他们的呼啸与撕咬把世界从原来的位置上轰走。

高大的宫殿那样洁白，月亮那样圆，

其余一切都化作疾驰的马群

我们眼睛的边沿只得竭力寻觅声音的形状。

我们蜷缩在灯笼前，我们的身体也在啜饮着喧嚣，

我们渴望被践踏致死，死于马群

因为大地的每一粒谷物里都蕴含着马鬃与马蹄。

我们一定像醉鬼似的摔入一个

聆听的梦里，被雷声打成死寂，因为马群。

我们醒来身体僵硬，白昼已经降临。

穿过大门看见了无痕迹的沙漠延伸到

每块石头和每只蝎子脚下；我们沉稳的马群

躺倒在他们的稻草里，全身浸透汗水，无精打采，万分苦涩。

现在让我们，绑缚着，被这些可怜的马撕开，

如果末日的烈火只是伟大的马群，

那么永恒本身就是马蹄的回旋。

We were born grooms, in stable-straw we sleep still,

All our wealth horse-dung and the combings of horses,

And all we can talk about is what horses ail.

Out of the night that gulfed beyond the palace-gate

There shook hooves and hooves and hooves of horses:

Our horses battered their stalls; their eyes jerked white.

And we ran out, mice in our pockets and straw in our hair,

Into darkness that was avalanching to horses

And a quake of hooves. Our lantern's little orange flare

Made a round mask of our each sleep-dazed face,

Bodiless, or else bodied by horses

That whinnied and bit and cannoned the world from its place.

The tall palace was so white, the moon was so round,

Everything else this plunging of horses

To the rim of our eyes that strove for the shapes of the sound.

We crouched at our lantern, our bodies drank the din,

And we longed for a death trampled by such horses

As every grain of the earth had hooves and mane.

We must have fallen like drunkards into a dream

Of listening, lulled by the thunder of the horses.

We awoke stiff; broad day had come.

Out through the gate the unprinted desert stretched

To stone and scorpion; our stable-horses

Lay in their straw, in a hag-sweat, listless and wretched.

Now let us, tied, be quartered by these poor horses,

If but doomsday's flames be great horses,

The forever itself a circling of the hooves of horses.

（请不要转载，谢谢）