露易丝·格吕克 《野鸢尾 》《草场》(英汉)41首
露易丝·格吕克诗选(Louise Gluck ) 41首 李晖 译 露易丝·伊丽莎白·格吕克(LouiseElisabethGlück),美国当代杰出诗人,1993年获得普利策诗歌奖,2003被任命为国会图书馆桂冠诗人顾问。2020年10月8日,露易丝·格吕克获得诺贝尔文学奖。 路易丝·格吕克出生在纽约市一个匈牙利裔犹太人家庭,她在长岛长大,父亲是匈牙利移民。格吕克1961年从纽约市乔治休利特高中毕业后进入萨拉劳伦斯学院,后又入读哥伦比亚大学,但两所大学她都没读到毕业。格吕克现住在马萨诸塞州坎布里奇,之前是马萨诸塞州威廉姆斯学院的高级英语讲师,目前是耶鲁大学的英语教授,并参与波士顿大学的创意写作项目,同时也是爱荷华大学的教职人员,并曾在佛蒙特州戈达德学院任教。 格吕克迄今为止出版有十二部诗集和一部随笔集《证据与理论》(1994)。她的第一本诗集《头生子》(1968)获得美国诗人学会奖,诗集《阿喀琉斯的胜利》(1985)获得全美图书评论界奖,1993年以诗集《野鸢尾》获得普利策诗歌奖,诗集《七个时期》(2001)获得波林根诗歌奖,并曾多次获得古根海姆奖金。2014年,格吕克以诗集《忠诚与善良之夜》获得美国国家图书奖,2016年荣获美国总统颁发的国家人文奖章。2020年10月8日,露易丝·格吕克“以她带有冷峻之美、不会被错辨的诗歌的声音——使个体的存在具有普遍性” ("for her unmistakablepoetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existenceuniversal.")被授予诺贝尔文学奖。 EROS I had drawn my chair to the hotel window, to watch the rain. I was in a kind of dream, or trance – in love, and yet I wanted nothing. It seemed unnecessary to touch you, to see you again. I wanted only this: the room, the chair, the sound of the rain falling, hour after hour, in the warmth of the spring night. I needed nothing more; I was utterly sated. My heart had become very small; it took very little to fill it. I watched the rain falling in heavy sheets over the darkened city – You were not concerned. I could let you live as you needed to live. At dawn the rain abated. I Did the things one does in daylight, I acquitted myself, but I moved like a sleepwalker. It was enough and it no longer involved you. A few days in a strange city. A conversation, the touch of a hand. And afterward, I took off my wedding ring. That was what I wanted: to be naked. ◎爱洛斯 我将椅子拉到旅馆的窗前,看雨。 我陷入一种梦幻,或者恍惚—— 陷入爱,然而 我什么也不想要。 再碰你,见你,似乎已无必要: 我只想要这些: 房间,椅子,雨落的声音, 一小时又一小时,在春夜的温暖中。 我不再需要什么;我全然餍足。 我的心变得很小;只要一点点就可装满。 我观看雨在变暗的城市上空倾泻而下—— 你不再被牵连。我能放你 过你想过的生活。 黎明时雨小下来。我在晨光中 做一个人能做的事情,释放我自己, 走动,但像个梦游者。 这样就够了,不再与你相关。 在一个陌生城市的几日。 一场交谈,一只手的触摸。 然后,我摘下结婚戒指。 那就是我想要的:徒身无挂。 Radium When summer ended, my sister was going to school. No more staying at home with the dogs, waiting to catch up. No more playing house with my mother. She was growing up, she could join the carpool. No one wanted to stay home. Real life was the world: you discovered radium, you danced the swan queen. Nothing explained my mother. Nothing explained putting aside radium because you realized finally it was more interesting to make beds, to have children like my sister and me. My sister watched the trees; the leaves couldn't turn fast enough. She kept asking was it fall, was it cold enough? But it was still summer. I lay in bed, listening to my sister breathe. I could see her blonde hair in the moonlight; under the white sheet, her little elf's body. And on the bureau, I could see my new notebook. It was like my brain: dean, empty. In six months what was written there would be in my head also. I watched my sister's face, one side buried in her stuffed bear. She was being stored in my head, as memory, like facts in a book. I didn't want to sleep. I never wanted to sleep these days. Then I didn't want to wake up. I didn't want the leaves turning, the nights turning dark early. I didn't want to love my new clothes, my notebook. I knew what they were: a bribe, a distraction. Like the excitement of school: the truth was time was moving in one direction, like a wave lifting the whole house, the whole village. I turned the light on, to wake my sister. I wanted my parents awake and vigilant; I wanted them to stop lying. But nobody woke. I sat up reading my Greek myths in the nightlight. The nights were cold, the leaves fell. My sister was tired of school, she missed being home. But it was too late to go back, too late to stop. Summer was gone, the nights were dark. The dogs wore sweaters to go outside. And then fall was gone, the year was gone. We were changing, we were growing up. But it wasn't something you decided to do; it was something that happened, something you couldn't control. Time was passing. Time was carrying us faster and faster toward the door of the laboratory, and then beyond the door into the abyss, the darkness. My mother stirred the soup. The onions, by a miracle, became part of the potatoes. ◎镭 等夏天结束,我妹妹就要上学, 不再和狗呆在家里, 等着到年龄;不再跟 母亲玩过家家。她正在长大, 可以加入共车的行列。 没人想呆在家里。真实的生活 就是这世界:你发现了镭, 你跳天鹅皇后。没法 解释我的母亲。没法解释 把镭搁在一边因为你最终意识到 整理床铺、养育我妹妹和我 这样的孩子更有趣。 我妹妹观察那些树;树叶 变得不够快。她一直问 是秋天了吗?天够冷了吗? 但时间仍然是夏天。我躺在床上, 听着妹妹的呼吸。 我能看见月光下她的亚麻色头发, 白色被单下,她小小的精灵的身体。 书桌上,能看见我的新笔记本。 它就像我的大脑:干净,空白。六个月以内 那里写下的东西也将在我的脑海中。 我注视妹妹的脸,有一边埋在她的玩具熊里。 她正被存储进我的大脑,作为记忆, 像一本书里的事实。 我不想睡觉。这些天我从来 都不想睡。而且我不想醒。我不想 树叶变色,夜晚早早变黑。 我不想爱我的新衣服,我的笔记本。 我知道它们是什么:一份贿赂,一种消遣。 就像学校的刺激:真相是 时间朝一个方向在移动,像一道波浪正举起 整座房子,整个村庄。 我打开灯,想叫醒妹妹。 我想让我的父母保持清醒和警惕;想让他们 都别睡了。但没人醒。我坐起来 在夜灯下读我的希腊神话。 夜间寒冷,树叶凋落。 妹妹厌倦了学校,她怀念在家的日子。 但回头已经太晚,要停止已经太晚。 夏天过去,夜晚黑暗。狗 穿着毛衣出门。 接着秋天过去,一年过去。 我们在改变,在长大。 但那并非你决定要做的事情; 那是发生的事情,某种 你没法控制的东西。 时间流逝。时间载着我们 越来越快地奔向实验室之门, 然后越过门掉进那深渊,黑暗。 我母亲搅动汤。洋葱 奇迹般地,成了土豆的一部分。
以下篇目选自《野鸢尾》(THE WILD IRIS): THE WILD IRIS At the end of my suffering there was a door. Hear me out: that which you call death I remember. Overhead, noises, branches of the pine shifting. Then nothing. The weak sun flickered over the dry surface. It is terrible to survive as consciousness buried in the dark earth. Then it was over: that which you fear, being a soul and unable to speak, ending abruptly, the stiff earth bending a little. And what I took to be birds darting in the low shrubs. You who do not remember passage from the other world I tell you I could speak again: whatever returns from oblivion returns to find voice: from the center of my life came a great fountain, deep blue shadows on azure seawater. ◎野鸢尾 在我苦痛的尽头 有一扇门。 听我说完:那是你们称作死亡的 我记得。 头顶上,喧响,松树枝交错不定。 然后空无。虚弱的太阳 在干燥的表面上方摇闪。 残存是糟糕的 当意识 被埋进黑暗的泥土。 然后一切结束:你所惧怕,是成为 一个灵魂,无法 言说,骤然终结,僵硬的泥土 微微弯曲。我还当是鸟儿 在低矮的树丛里飞冲。 你,不记得 另一世界来路的人 告诉你我又能说话了:任何 自遗忘回归的,回来 是为了找到声音: 我生命的中心涌起一股 巨大的喷泉,深蓝色 投影在蔚蓝的海上。 MATINS The sun shines, by the mailbox, leaves of the divided birch tree folded, pleated like fins. Underneath, hollow stems of the white daffodils, Ice Wings, Cantatrice;dark leaves of the wild violet.Noah says depressives hate the spring, imbalance between the inner and the outer world.I make another case - being depressed, yes, but in a sense passionately attached to the living tree, my body actually curled in the split trunk, almost at peace, in the evening rain almost able to feel sap frothing and rising: Noah says this is an error of depressives, identifying with a tree, whereas the happy heart wanders the garden like a falling leaf, a figure for the part, not the whole. ◎晨祷 太阳照着,信箱边,分叉的桦树 叶子折叠,有鳍一般的褶皱。 下面,白水仙中空的茎, 冰翅,歌姬;野紫罗兰 深色的叶子。诺亚说 抑郁症患者讨厌春天,内部 与外部世界之间的不平衡,我 是另一种情况——处于抑郁,但某种意义上热切 依附于这棵活着的树,身体 真实地扭曲在开裂的树干里,几乎处于平和, 在傍晚的雨中 几乎能感觉到 汁液正泛起泡沫而上升:诺亚说这是 抑郁症患者的错觉,将自己认定 为一棵树,然而愉悦的心 在花园游荡像飘落的树叶,一个形象 为部分而非整体。 MATINS Unreachable father, when we were first exiled from heaven, you made a replica, a place in one sense different from heaven, being designed to teach a lesson: otherwise the same - beauty on either side, beauty without alternative - Except we didn't know what was the lesson.Left alone, we exhausted each other.Years of darkness followed;we took turns working the garden, the first tears filling our eyes as earth misted with petals, some dark red, some flesh colored – We never thought of you whom we were learning to worship. We merely knew it wasn't human nature to love only what returns love. ◎晨祷 不可抵达的父,当我们最初 被从天国放逐,你造了 一个复制品,某种意义上 一个不同于天国的所在,就是 设计好要给一个教训:否则 都一样——两边都是美,没有 选择的美——只是 我们不知道那教训是什么。我们, 被丢在这里,彼此消耗。接着 是数年的黑暗;我们轮流 打理花园,泪水第一次 充满我们的眼眶,当泥土 因花瓣而结了水汽,有些是 深红色,有些是肉色—— 我们从来没想起 我们正学着崇敬的你。 我们惟知人的天性并非只爱 那回报爱的东西。 SNOWDROPS Do you know what I was, how I lived?You know what despair is: then winter should have meaning for you. I did not expect to survive, earth suppressing me.I didn't expect to waken again, to feel in damp earth my body able to respond again, remembering after so long how to open again in the cold light of earliest spring – afraid, yes, but among you again crying yes risk joy in the raw wind of the new world. ◎雪花莲 你知道我曾是什么,怎样生活?你知道 什么是绝望:那么 冬天对你应该有意义。 我没指望着活下来, 大地压抑着我。我没指望 再次醒来,感知 潮湿的泥土中我的身体 能再次做出反应,回想着 这么久之后如何在 早春的冷光里 再次开放—— 害怕,是的,但又一次在你们中间 哭着说是的冒快乐之险 在新世界的寒风里。 SPRING SNOW Look at the night sky: I have two selves, two kinds of power. I am here with you, at the window, watching you react.Yesterday the moon rose over moist earth in the lower garden. Now the earth glitters like the moon, like dead matter crusted with light. You can close your eyes now. I have heard your cries, and cries before yours, and the demand behind them. I have shown you what you want: not belief, but capitulation to authority, which depends on violence. ◎春雪 看那夜空: 我有两个自我,两种力量。 我陪你在这里,在窗边, 观看你的反应。昨天 月亮升起,照着下面花园里潮湿的泥土。 现在地球像月亮般闪闪发亮, 像死物质裹了一层光。 现在你可以闭上眼睛。 我听见了你的叫喊,你叫喊之前的叫喊, 以及它们背后的要求。 我已向你展示了你想要的: 不是信仰,而是 对权.威的投降,那取决于暴.力。 RETREATING WIND When I made you, I loved you. Now I pity you. I gave you all you needed: bed of earth, blanket of blue air – As I get further away from you I see you more clearly. Your souls should have been immense by now, Not what they are, small talking things – I gave you every gift, blue of the spring morning, time you didn't know how to use – you wanted more, the one gift reserved for another creation. Whatever you hoped. you will not find yourselves in the garden, among the growing plants. Your lives are not circular like theirs: your lives are the bird's flight which begins and ends in stillness – which begins and ends, in form echoing this arc from the white birch to the apple tree. ◎撤退的风 造你们的时候,我爱你们。 现在我可怜你们。 我给了你们所需的全部: 大地之床,蓝色的空气毯子—— 离开你们越远 我看你们越真切。 你们的灵魂本应该已经广大无边, 而非它们现在的样子, 小小的说话的东西—— 我给了你们每一种天赋, 春天早晨的蓝色, 你们不懂得如何使用的时间—— 你们想要更多,一种 保留给另一种创造物的天赋。 无论你们希冀什么, 你们都不会在这个园子里,在这些生长的 植物当中找见自己。 你们的生命不像它们那样循环往复: 你们的生命是鸟的飞翔 始于并终于寂静—— 其开始与结束,形式上呼应着 从白桦到苹果树的 这段弧线。 THE HAWTHORN TREE Side by side, not hand in hand: I watch you walking in the summer garden - things that can't move learn to see;I do not need to chase you through the garden;human beings leave signs of feeling everywhere, flowers scattered on the dirt path, all white and gold, some lifted a little by the evening wind;I do not need to follow where you are now, deep in the poisonous field, to know the cause of your flight, human passion or rage: for what else would you let drop all you have gathered? ◎山楂树 并排,而非 手牵手:我看着你 走在夏天的花园里——无法 移动的事物 学着去看;我不需要 穿过花园去 追赶你;人类 处处留下感觉的 印迹,撒落在 泥土小径上的花朵, 全白或金色,有些 被傍晚的风 微微吹起;我不需要 跟到你现在的位置, 深入有毒的地界,去了解 你逃走的原因,人类的 激情或狂暴:你还会 为了什么 丢下你采撷的一切? THE JACOB'S LADDER Trapped in the earth, wouldn't you too want to go to heaven?I live in a lady's garden.Forgive me, lady; longing has taken my grace.I am not what you wanted.But as men and women seem to desire each other, I too desire knowledge of paradise - and now your grief, a naked stem reaching the porch window. And at the end, what?A small blue flower like a star.Never to leave the world!Is this not what your tears mean? ◎“雅各的梯子”* 被困在泥土中, 你不也想去 天堂吗?我住在 一个女士的花园。原谅我,女士; 渴望带走了我的优雅。我不是 你曾经想要的。但就像 男人和女人似乎 彼此渴望一般,我也渴望 天堂的知识——而现在 你的悲伤,一根秃兀的茎 直伸到门廊的窗子。 而顶端,什么?一朵蓝色的小花 像一颗星。永远 别离开这个世界!你的眼泪 不就是这个意思吗? 注释: *即花荵,一种美国东北部植物,花紫蓝色,花簇松散;叶细长而尖,呈一排排据说形似梯子。 THE RED POPPY The great thing is not having a mind.Feelings: oh, I have those;they govern me.I have a lord in heaven called the sun, and open for him, showing him the fire of my own heart, fire like his presence. What could such glory be if not a heart?Oh my brothers and sisters, were you like me once, long ago, before you were human?Did you permit yourselves to open once, who would never open again?Because in truth I am speaking now the way you do.I speak because I am shattered. ◎红罂粟 最厉害的 是心头 无念。情绪: 哦,我有那些;它们 支配我。我有一个 在天堂的主 叫太阳,我为他 开放,向他展示 我自己内心的火,火 就像他的存在。 这样的荣耀能是什么 假如不是一颗心?兄弟姐妹们啊, 你是否像我一样,很久以前, 在你成为人之前?是否 曾准许你自己 开放一次,就再也 不会打开?因为实际上 我现在讲话的方式 和你一样。我讲 是因为我支离破碎。 HEAVEN AND EARTH Where one finishes, the other begins. On top, a band of blue; underneath, a band of green and gold, green and deep rose. John stands at the horizon: he wants both at once, he wants everything at once. The extremes are easy.Only the middle is a puzzle.Midsummer – everything is possible. Meaning: never again will life end. How can I leave my husband standing in the garden dreaming this sort of thing, holding his rake, triumphantly preparing to announce this discovery as the fire of the summer sun truly does stall being entirely contained by the burning maples at the garden's border. ◎天与地 一个结束处,另一个开始。 顶上,一道蓝色;下面, 一道绿色加金色,绿色加深玫瑰色。 约翰站在地平线上:他同时 两个都想要,他同时 想要一切。 极端容易。惟独 中间是谜题。仲夏—— 一切皆有可能。 意义:生命永不再终结。 我怎能留我的丈夫 站在花园里 梦想这种事情,拿着他的 耙子,得意洋洋 准备着宣布这一发现 当夏天的太阳之火 真的熄灭 被花园边界处 燃烧的枫树 完全遏.制。 SUNSET My great happiness is the sound your voice makes calling to me even in despair; my sorrow that I cannot answer you in speech you accept as mine. You have no faith in your own language. So you invest authority in signs you cannot read with any accuracy. And yet your voice reaches me always. And I answer constantly, my anger passing as winter passes. My tenderness should be apparent to you in the breeze of summer evening and in the words that become your own response. ◎日落 我巨大的快乐 是你的意愿发出的声音 甚至在绝望中向着我呼喊;我的悲伤 是我无法用你能接受的 我的言语回应你。 你对你自己的语言没有信心。 所以你把权威 用在你无法 准确解读的征兆上。 然而你的声音一直抵达我。 我不断回答, 我的恼怒 随着冬天的流逝而消散。我的柔情 对你应该是显而易见 在夏天傍晚的微风里 在这些言词中——它们变成 你自己的回应。 THE WHITE LILIES As a man and woman make a garden between them like a bed of stars, here they linger in the summer evening and the evening turns cold with their terror: it could all end, it is capable of devastation. All, all can be lost, through scented air the narrow columns uselessly rising, and beyond, a churning sea of poppies— Hush, beloved. It doesn't matter to me how many summers I live to return: this one summer we have entered eternity. I felt your two hands bury me to release its splendor. ◎白百合 当一个男人和女人 在他们之间造一座花园 像一床星星,此时 他们逗留在夏天的傍晚 而傍晚随着他们的 恐惧而变冷:它 可能完全结束,它有能力 毁灭。一切,一切 都可能丧失,通过 缕缕的香气 徒然上升,而远处, 一片翻腾的罂粟之海—— 嘘,亲爱的。对我来说 能活着回到多少个夏季我并不在意: 这一夏我们已进入永恒。 我曾感觉到你的双手 埋葬我,释放它的辉煌。 以下篇目选自《草场》(MEADOWLANDS): 格吕克的诗用词质朴,节奏舒缓,气氛冷而不冽,叙述不动声色,却又给人很强的代入感,使在阅读中抵达某种疗愈。以下诗歌均选自格吕克诗集《草场》(MEADOWLANDS)(1996),这本集子是一组系列诗,前后有一定的连续性,里面的佩内洛普、忒勒马科斯、奥德修斯、塞壬、喀耳刻等人名均出自希腊神话,但叙事上并不照搬神话情节,而是对彼此间有类似关系的一群人的一个大致的定位;也就是说,神的故事,本是人的故事,而神性,本是普遍的人性。 PENELOPE'S SONG Little soul, little perpetually undressed one, do now as I bid you, climb the shelf-like branches of the spruce tree; wait at the top, attentive, like sentry or look-out.He will be home soon; it behooves you to be generous.You have not been completely perfect either;with your troublesome body you have done things you shouldn't discuss in poems.Therefore call out to him over the open water, over the bright water with your dark song, with your grasping, unnatural song - passionate, like Maria Callas.Who wouldn't want you?Whose most demonic appetite could you possibly fail to answer?Soon he will return from wherever he goes in the meantime, suntanned from his time away, wanting his grilled chicken.Ah, you must greet him, you must shake the boughs of the tree to get his attention, but carefully, carefully, lest his beautiful face be marred by too many falling needles. ◎佩内洛普的歌声 小灵魂,永远赤诚的小东西, 现在照我说的去做,去爬 那棵云杉树架子般的粗枝; 待在顶上,留心点,像 一名哨兵或了望员。他很快就会回家; 你理应表现得 慷慨大方。你也并不总是 完美无暇;用你那令人烦恼的身体 做过一些你不该在诗歌里 讨论的事情。因此 在开阔的水上呼唤他,在明亮的水上 用你深沉的歌声,用你执着的, 不自然的歌声——热情激昂地, 像玛丽亚·卡拉斯。谁 会不想要你呢?什么人恶魔般的胃口 会是你不能满足的?他很快 就会回来,无论此期间他去往哪里, 在外面晒得黝黑,想着 他的烧鸡。啊,你得迎接他, 你必须晃动树枝 引起他的注意, 但是小心,小心,以免 他漂亮的脸颊被太多 掉落的针叶扎伤。 CANA What can I tell you that you don't know that will make you tremble again? Forsythia by the roadside, by wet rocks, on the embankments underplanted with hyacinth— For ten years I was happy. You were there; in a sense, you were always with me, the house, the garden constantly lit, not with lights as we have in the sky but with those emblems of light which are more powerful, being implicitly some earthly thing transformed— And all of it vanished, reabsorbed into impassive process. Then what will we see by, now that the yellow torches have become green branches? ◎迦南 我能告诉你什么,你不知道、 会让你再一次颤抖的? 金钟花 在路边,在 潮湿的岩石边,在路堤上 下面种植着风信子—— 我快乐了有十年。 你在那儿;某种意义上, 你总是和我在一起,那房子,花园 不断被照亮, 不是用我们所见天上的光 而是更强大的 光的象征,隐含 某种被转换的 尘世之物—— 而所有这一切消失, 重新被吸收进冷漠的过程。那么 我们还指望什么? 既然那黄色的火炬 已变成绿枝。 OUIET EVENING You take my hand;then we're alone in the life-threatening forest.Almost immediately we're in a house;Noah's grown and moved away;the clematis after ten years suddenly flowers white. More than anything in the world I love these evenings when we're together, the quiet evenings in summer, the sky still light at this hour. So Penelope took the hand of Odysseus, not to hold him back but to impress this peace on his memory: from this point on, the silence through which you move is my voice pursuing you. ◎宁静的傍晚 你拉起我的手;然后我们单独 在威胁生命的树林。几乎一转眼 我们在一所房子里;诺亚 已经长大搬走了;十年后铁线莲 突然开出了白色。 我爱这些我们在一起的傍晚 超过世界上任何东西, 宁静的夏天的傍晚,天空这时还亮着。 因此佩内洛普拉起奥德修斯的手, 不是为留住他,而是要把这 宁静印在他记忆里: 从这一刻起,你所穿行的寂静 都是我的声音在追随你。 MOONLESS NIGHT A lady weeps at a dark window. Must we say what it is?Can't we simply say a personal matter?It's early summer; next door the Lights are practising klezmer music. A good night: the clarinet is in tune. As for the lady--she's going to wait forever; there's no point in watching longer. After awhile, the streetlight goes out. But is waiting forever always the answer?Nothing is always the answer;the answer depends on the story. Such a mistake to want clarity above all things.What's a single night, especially one like this, now so close to ending? On the other side, there could be anything, all the joy in the world, the stars fading, the streetlight becoming a bus stop. ◎无月之夜 一位女士在黑暗的窗边哭泣。 我们一定要说是怎么回事吗?难道不能简单说 是一个人的私事?现在是初夏; 隔壁的赖茨一家正在练习犹太人乐曲。 一个美好的夜:单簧管节奏和谐。 至于那位女士——她将永远等待; 再看下去没任何意义。 过了一会儿,街灯熄灭。 可永远等待 一直是答案吗?没有什么 一直是答案;答案 依故事而定。 想要在所有事情上都清楚 真是个错误。一个夜晚 算什么,尤其像今晚 这样,此时就快要结束? 而另一面,可能有任何东西, 世上所有的快乐,星星正在逝去, 街灯正变成一个巴士车站。 ITHACA The beloved doesn't need to live.The beloved lives in the head.The loom is for the suitors, strung up like a harp with white shroud-thread. He was two people. He was the body and voice, the easy magnetism of a living man, and then the unfolding dream or image shaped by the woman working the loom, sitting there in a hall filled with literal-minded men. As you pity the deceived sea that tried to take him away forever and took only the first, the actual husband, you must pity these men: they don't know what they're looking at; they don't know that when one loves this way the shroud becomes a wedding dress. ◎伊萨卡 被爱的人不需要 在世上,被爱的人 活在脑子里。织机是为 求婚者准备的,用裹尸布的白线 绷起来,像一架竖琴。 他是两个人。 是肉体和声音,一个活生生的男人 随意间的磁性,然后是 展开的梦境或形象—— 由织机上的女人塑造, 她坐在一间大厅里,里面 挤满刻板迂腐的男人。 当你可怜 受骗的大海——曾试图 将他永远掳去 且只掳去前一个 那真实的丈夫,你必须 可怜这些男人:他们不知道 他们看着的是什么; 他们不知道当一个人这样爱的时候, 尸衣就变成一件婚服。 TELEMACHUS' DETACHMENT When I was a child looking at my parents’ lives, you know what I thought? I thought heartbreaking. Now I think heartbreaking, but also insane. Also very funny. ◎《忒勒马科斯的超然》 我小的时候,看着 我父母的生活,你知道 我怎么想?我想到 心碎。现在我想着 不但心碎,也很 愚蠢。而且 非常可笑。 RAIN MORNING You don’t love the world. If you love the world you’d have images in your poems. John loves the world. He has a motto: judge not lest ye be judged. Don’t argue this point on the theory it isn’t possible to love what one refuses to know: to refuse. speech is not to suppress perception Look at John, out in the world, running even on a miserable day like today. Your staying drying is like the cat’s pathetic preference for hunting dead birds: completely consistent with your tame spiritual themes, autumn, loss, darkness, etc. We can all write about suffering with our eyes closed. You should show people more of yourself; show them your clandestine passion for red meat. ◎雨天的早晨 你不爱这个世界。 假如你爱它,你的诗里 就会有反映。 约翰爱这个世界。他 有句格言:不作评判 以免自己被评判。不要 争论这一点—— 理论上讲,一个人不可能 爱他拒绝知道的 东西:拒绝 言说,并不是 抑制感知。 看看约翰,投身这个世界, 甚至在今天这样阴郁的日子 也在奔跑。你 保持干燥,就像那只猫 猎取死鸟的可怜偏好:完全 符合你乏味的精神主题, 秋天,失落,黑暗,等等…… 关于痛苦,闭着眼睛 我们都会写。你该多向人们展示 你自己;向他们表露你对 红肉的隐密的激情。 TELEMACHUS' GUILT Patience of the sort my mother practised on my father (which in his self– absorption he mistook for tribute though it was in fact a species of rage - didn't he ever wonder why he was so blocked in expressing his native abandon?): it infected my childhood.Patiently she fed me;patiently she supervised the kindly slaves who attended me, regardless of my behavior, an assumption I tested with increasing violence.It seemed clear to me that from her perspective I didn't exist, since my actions had no power to disturb her: I was the envy of my playmates. In the decades that followed I was proud of my father for staying away even if he stayed away for the wrong reasons; I used to smile when my mother wept. I hope now she could forgive that cruelty;I hope she understood how like her own coldness it was, a means of remaining separate from what one loves deeply. ◎忒勒马科斯的罪 我母亲用在我父亲 身上的那种耐心 (在他的自我—— 吸收中,他将此误解 为致敬,尽管实际 是一种愤怒——难道他 没怀疑过为何他 如此受阻,在表达他 与生俱来的放任时?):那感染了 我的童年。她耐心地 喂养我;耐心地 监督那些照顾我的 善良的奴隶,不管我反应 如何,一种假设—— 我用越来越多的暴戾 测试过。对我来说似乎 很清楚的是,在她的角度上 我并不存在,因为 我的举动尚无力 干扰她:我是 我的玩伴们羡慕的对象。 接下来数十年里 我以我父亲的远离 在外而骄傲 即便他的远离是为了 错误的原因; 我母亲哭泣的时候 我常常微笑。 现在我希望她能 原谅那种残忍;我希望 她明白那有多像 她自己的冷酷, 一种与深爱的事物 保持区分 的手段。 ANNIVERSARY I said you could snuggle.That doesn't mean your cold feet all over my dick. Someone should teach you how to act in bed. What I think is you should keep your extremities to yourself. Look what you did - you made the cat move. But I didn't want your hand there. I wanted your hand here. You should pay attention to my feet. You should picture them the next time you see a hot fifteen year old. Because there's a lot more where those feet come from. ◎周年 我是说你可以依偎。那并不意味着 你冰冷的脚全放在我鸡*巴上。 该有人教你在床上如何表现。 我认为你该把你的四肢搁你自己那儿。 瞧你干的—— 你让猫都挪动了。 但我没想让你的手在那儿。 我要你的手在这儿。 你应该注意下我的脚。 你该想象一下它们 下次你见到一个热辣的十五岁时。 这双脚的来源还有很多。 MEADOWLANDS 1 I wish we went on walks like Steven and Kathy;then we'd be happy.You can even see it in the dog. We don' have a dog. We have a hostile cat. I think Sam's intelligent;he resents being a pet. Why is it always family with you? Can't we ever be two adults? Look how happy Captain is, how at peace in the world.Don't you love how he sits on the lawn, staring up at the birds?He thinks because he’s white they can't see him, You know why they're happy?They take the children.And you know why they can go on walks with children?Because they have children. They're nothing like us: they don't travel.That's why they have a dog. Have you noticed how Alissa always comes back from the walks holding something, bringing nature into the house? Flowers in spring, sticks in winter. I bet they're still taking the dog when the children are grown up. He's a young dog, practically a puppy. If we don't expect Sam to follow, couldn't we take him along? You could hold him. ◎《草场》 1 我希望我们去散散步 像史蒂文和凯茜;那样 我们会快乐些。你从那只狗 就能看出。 我们没有狗 有一只不友善的猫。 我认为萨姆 很聪明;它不平于 当一只宠物。 为何你总是和家人一起? 我们就不能像两个成年人? 瞧“上尉”多幸福,多平和地 在这个世界。难道你不喜欢 它那样坐在草坪上,盯着看上面的鸟儿?它以为 因为它是白的,它们看不见它。 你知道他们为什么快乐?他们 带着孩子。而且你知道他们为何跟 孩子们散步?因为 他们有孩子。 他们完全不像我们;他们 不旅行。所以他们养一只狗。 你有没有注意到艾丽萨散步回来时 总拿着什么东西,把大自然 带进家?春天的花, 冬天的树枝。 我敢说等孩子们长大时 他们还养着那只狗。 它很年轻,几乎 是只小狗崽。 假如我们不指望 萨姆跟着,难道我们不能 带着它一起? 你可以抱着它。 PARABLE OF THE BEAST The cat circles the kitchen with the dead bird, its new possession. Someone should discuss ethics with the cat as it inquires into the limp bird: in this house we do not experience will in this manner. Tell that to the animal its teeth already deep in the flesh of another animal. ◎禽兽的寓言 猫绕着厨房转来转去 带着一只死鸟, 它的新财产。 某人该和这只猫 讨论伦理学,当它 研究那只软绵绵的鸟儿时: 在这所房子里 我们不要以这种方式 体验意志。 告诉那只动物吧 它的牙齿已经 深入到另一个动物的肉体。 SIREN I became a criminal when I fell in love. Before that I was a waitress. I didn't want to go to Chicago with you. I wanted to marry you, I wanted your wife to suffer. I wanted her life to be like a play in which all the parts are sad parts. Does a good person think this way?I deserve credit for my courage – I sat in the dark on your front porch. Everything was clear to me: if your wife wouldn't let you go that proved she didn't love you. If she loved you wouldn't she want you happy? I think now if I felt less I would be a better person.I was a good waitress, I could carry eight drinks. I used to tell you my dreams. Last night I saw a woman sitting in a dark bus - \ in the dream, she's weeping, the bus she's on is moving away.With one hand she's waving;the other strokes an egg carton full of babies. The dream doesn't rescue the maiden. ◎塞壬 当我陷入爱情,我就变成了一个罪犯。 在那之前我是一名女招待。 我没想和你一起去芝加哥。 我想和你结婚,想让 你的妻子受折磨。 我想让她的生活像一出戏 里面所有的角色都是悲哀的角色。 一个好人 会这么想吗?我的勇气 真该受到嘉奖—— 我坐在你家前廊上的黑暗里。 一切在我看来很清楚: 假如你妻子不肯让你走 那说明她不爱你。 假如她爱你 她就不想让你幸福? 现在我想 假如我感受少一点我会是 一个更好的人。我是 一名不错的女招待, 我能端八杯饮料。 以前我老跟你说我的梦想。 昨晚我看见一个女人坐在黑暗的巴士上—— 是梦里,她在哭泣,她坐的巴士 正要开走。她一只手 挥动着;另一只手抚摸 一个装满了婴儿的鸡蛋托。 这梦并不解救那个女孩。 MEADOWLANDS 2 Alissa isn’t bringing back Sticks for the house; the sticks Belong to the dog. ◎草场 2 艾丽萨不是把树枝 带回家里;树枝 属于那只狗。 MARINA My heart was a stone wall you broke through anyway. My heart was an island garden about to be trampled by you. You didn't want my heart; you were on your way to my body. None of it was my fault. You were everything to me, not just beauty and money. When we made love the cat went to another bedroom. Then you forgot me. Not for no reason did the stones tremble around the walled garden: there's nothing there now except the wildness people call nature, the chaos that takes over. You took me to a place where I could see the evil in my character and left me there. The abandoned cat wails in the empty bedchamber. ◎船坞 我的心是一道石墙 你终究打破了它。 我的心是一座岛上花园 即将被你践踏。 你不想要我的心; 你正在去我身体的路上。 那都不是我的错。 对我来说你就是一切, 不只美貌和金钱。 当我们做爱时 那只猫去了另一间卧室。 然后你就把我忘了 。 那些石头 并非无缘无故 在有围墙的花园周围颤抖: 现在那儿什么也没有 除了人们称为自然的野蛮,一种 接管一切的混沌。 你把我带到了一个 我能看见我品性中邪恶的地方, 把我丢在了那里。 那只被遗弃的猫 在空荡的卧室里哀号。 TELEMACHUS' DILEMMA I can never decide what to write on my parents' tomb.I know what he wants: he wants beloved, which is certainly to the point, particularly if we count all the women.But that leaves my mother out in the cold.She tells me this doesn't matter to her in the least;she prefers to be represented by her own achievement.It seems tactless to remind them that one does not honor the dead by perpetuating their vanities, their projections of themselves. My own taste dictates accuracy without garrulousness;they are my parents, consequently I see them together, sometimes inclining to husband and wife, other times to opposing forces. ◎忒勒马科斯的困扰 我永远无法决定 该在我父母的坟墓上 写什么。我知道 他要什么:他想要 被爱,这一点 肯定切中要害,尤其 假如我们把所有的女人 都算在内。但那样 就使得我的母亲 被冷落。她告诉我说 这事对于她丝毫 不重要;她宁愿 用她自己的成就来 代表她。要提醒他们 一个人不要靠 永葆死者的虚荣、 和他们对自己的预想 来纪念他们 似乎有些不得体。 我自己的品味决定了 要准确—— 不啰里啰嗦;他们 是我的父母,所以我 看见他们在一起 有时候倾向于 夫妻,其他时则倾向于 对立的力量。 MEADOWLANDS 3 How could the Giants name that place the Meadowlands?It has about as much in common with a pasture as would the inside of an oven. New Jersey was rural.They want you to remember that. Simms was not a thug.LT was not a thug. What I think is we should look at our surroundings realistically, for what they are in the present. That's what I tell you about the house. No giant would talk the way you talk, You'd be a nicer person if you were a fan of something. When you do that with your mouth you look like your mother. You know what they are? Kings among men. So what king fired Simms? ◎草场 3 巨人队怎么能把那地方 叫“草场”?那里 与草场的共同之处简直和 烤箱的内部一样多。 新泽西 是乡下。他们想让你 记住这一点。 西姆斯 不是暴徒。LT 不是暴徒。 我想我们该实事求是地 看看我们周围的 环境,了解它们现在 什么状况。 关于那房子 我要告诉你的就是这些。 没有哪个巨人 会用你那样的方式说话, 你会是一个更好的人 假如你是某方面的爱好者。 当你用嘴巴那样做时 你看着很像你母亲。 你知道他们是什么? 男人中的王。 所以是哪个王 解雇了西姆斯? CIRCE’S POWER I never turned anyone into a pig. Some people are pigs;I make them look like pigs. I'm sick of your world that lets the outside disguise the inside. Your men weren't bad men; undisciplined life did that to them.As pigs, under the care of me and my ladies, they sweetened right up. Then I reversed the spell, showing you my goodness as well as my power.I saw we could be happy here, as men and women are when their needs are simple.In the same breath, I foresaw your departure, your men with my help braving the crying and pounding sea.You think a few tears upset me?My friend every sorceress is Pragmatist at heart;nobody sees essence who can't face limitation. If I wanted only to hold you I could hold you prisoner. ◎喀耳刻的力量 我从来没把任何人变成猪。 有些人就是猪;我就让他们 有猪的模样。 我厌倦你们的世界 让外在的东西伪饰内心。 你的人不是坏人; 没规矩的生活 造成他们这样。作为猪, 在我和我的姑娘们的 关照下,他们就 美滋滋起来了。 然后我解除咒语, 向你们展示我的 仁德和力量。我看见 在这里我们可以很快乐, 就像男人和女人 处在最简单需求时一样。紧接着, 我预见到你的离去, 你的人在我的协助下 勇敢地面对咆哮汹涌的大海。你以为 几滴眼泪就让我烦扰不安?我的朋友 每一个女巫在心里 都是实用主义者;人不能 面对局限,也就 看不见本质。假如我只想留住你 我完全可以囚*禁你。 ODYSSEUS' DECISION The great man turns his back on the island. Now he will not die in paradise nor hear again the lutes of paradise among the olive trees, by the clear pools under the cypresses.Time begins now, in which he hears again that pulse which is the narrative sea, at dawn when its pull is strongest. What has brought us here will lead us away;our ship sways in the tinted harbor water. Now the spell is ended. Give him back his life, sea that can only move forward. ◎奥德修斯的决定 这个伟大的男人背对着这座岛屿。 现在他不会死在天堂 不会再听见 橄榄树林中天堂的鲁特琴, 在柏树下清澈的水池边。现在 时间开始,从中他再次听见 那脉搏,那是叙事的 大海,在它牵引力最强大的黎明。 带我们来这里的 将引领我们离开;我们的船 在港湾色彩斑斓的水中摇晃。 现在魔咒终止。 把他的人生还给他吧, 只能前进的大海! THE BUTTERFLY Look, a butterfly. Did you make a wish? You don’t wish on butterflies. You do so. Did you make one? Yes. It doesn’t count. ◎蝴蝶 瞧,一只蝴蝶。你刚刚许愿了? 你别对着蝴蝶许愿。 是你那么做。你刚许了吗? 是啊。 那不算。 CIRCE'S GRIEF In the end, I made myself known to your wife as a god would, in her own house, in Ithaca, a voice without a body: she paused in her weaving, her head turning first to the right, then left though it was hopeless of course to trace that sound to any objective source: I doubt she will return to her loom with what she knows now. When you see her again, tell her this is how a god says goodbye: if I am in her head forever I am in your life forever. ◎喀耳刻的悲恸 终于,我让我自己 为你的妻子所熟知,作为 一个神,将在她自己家里,在 伊萨卡,一个没有身体的 声音:她停下 手中的编织,头 先转向右边,然后左边 尽管,要从那声音追踪到 任何客观来源肯定是 无望的:我不确信 她还会回到她的织机旁, 以她现在所知道的。等你 再次见到她,跟她讲 这是一个神告别的方式: 假如我永远在她的头脑中 就永远在你的生命里。 PENELOPE'S STUBBORNNESS A bird comes to the window.It's a mistake to think of them as birds, they are so often messengers.That is why, once they plummet to the sill, they sit so perfectly still, to mock patience, lifting their heads to sing poor lady, poor lady, their three-note warning, later flying like a dark cloud from the sill to the olive grove. But who would send such a weightless being to judge my life?My thoughts are deep and my memory long;why would I envy such freedom when I have humanity?Those with the smallest hearts have the greatest freedom. ◎佩内洛普的固执 一只鸟儿来到窗口。将它们 当作鸟类是个 错误,它们往往是 信使。那就是为何,一旦它们 投落在窗台上,就坐着 一动不动,假装 耐心,举着它们的脑袋唱 可怜的女士,可怜的女士,它们的 三音警告,然后 像一片乌云从窗台飞到橄榄林。 可是谁打发这样一个没重量的东西 来判定我的人生?我的思想深邃 而记忆长久;为何我会羡慕这样的自由 在我拥有着人性时?那些 有最小心脏的拥有 最大的自由。 PARABLE OF FAITH Now, in twilight, on the palace steps the king asks forgiveness of his lady. He is not duplicitous;he has tried to be true to the moment;is there another way of being true to the self? The lady hides her face, somewhat assisted by shadows.She weeps for her past;when one has a secret life, one's tears are never explained. Yet gladly would the king bear the grief of his lady: his is the generous heart, in pain as in joy. Do you know what forgiveness means?It means the world has sinned, the world must be pardoned – ◎信仰的寓言 此刻,在暮光中,宫殿的台阶上 国王请求他夫人的宽恕。 他并非 言不由衷;他一直都努力 忠于此刻;还有其它忠于自我的 方式吗? 夫人 隐藏起她的脸,多少 借着阴影的辅助;她为她的 过去哭泣;当一个人有一段秘密的生活, 她的泪水永远无需解释。 然而国王乐意承担 他夫人的悲恸:他的 是那慷慨的心, 在痛苦如在快乐中。 你知道 宽恕意味着什么?那意味着 世界犯了罪,世界 必须被赦免—— REUNION When Odysseus has returned at last unrecognizable to Ithaca and killed the suitors swarming the throne room, very delicately he signals to Telemachus to depart: as he stood twenty years ago, he stands now before Penelope. On the palace floor, wide bands of sunlight turning from gold to red.He tells her nothing of those years, choosing to speak instead exclusively of small things, as would be the habit of a man and woman long together: once she sees who he is, she will know what he's done. And as he speaks, ah, tenderly he touches her forearm. ◎团聚 当奥德修斯终于回到 无人认识他的伊萨卡,杀死了 蜂拥在王座大殿的求婚者, 他很巧妙地示意忒勒马科斯 离开:像二十年前那样,现在 他站在佩内洛普面前。 宫殿的地板上,几道宽阔的阳光 由金色变为红色。关于那些年 他什么也没跟她讲,仅仅选择说起 一些小事,就像一个男人和女人长期 在一起的习惯那样:一旦 她明白他是谁,她就会知道他做了什么。 而他一边说话,一边, 啊,温存地抚摸她的前臂。 THE DREAM I had the wierdest dream.I dreamed we were married again. You talked a lot. You kept saying things like this is realistic. When I woke up, I started reading all my old diaries. I thought you hated diaries. I keep them when I'm miserable.Anyway, all those years I thought we were so happy I had a lot of diaries. Do you ever think about it?Do you ever wonder if the whole thing was a mistake?Actually, half the guests said that at the wedding. I'll tell you something I never told you: I took a valium that night. I keep thinking of how we used to watch television. how I would put my feet in your lap.The cat would sit on top of them.Doesn't that still seem an image of contentment, of well being?So why couldn't it go on longer? Because it was a dream. ◎梦 我做了个非常古怪的梦。我梦见我们又结婚了。 你说了许多事情。你一直说这都是真的之类的。 醒来后,我开始读我所有的旧日记。 我想你讨厌日记。 我悲惨的时候就会留日记。不管怎么说, 这些年来我认为我们很高兴 我有好多日记。 你想过这事吗?有没有怀疑过 是否整件事都是一个错误?实际上, 婚礼上一半客人都那么说。 我要告诉你一件我从没跟你说过的事: 那天晚上我吃了安定。 我一直想起我们过去看电视的情形。 想起我把脚放在你怀里,那只猫 会坐在顶上。这不也像是 一幅美满、幸福的画面吗?所以 为何没能再继续? 因为那是一个梦。 Otis A beautiful morning;nothing died in the night. The Lights are putting up their bean tepees. Rebirth!Renewal!And across the yard, very quietly, someone is playing Otis Redding. Now the great themes come together again: I am twenty-three, riding the subways in pursuit of Chassler, of my lost love, clutching my own record, because I have to hear this exact sound no matter where I land, no matter whose apartment - whose apartments did I visit that summer?I have no idea where I'm going, about to leave New York, to live in paradise, as I have then no concept of change, no slightest sense of what would happen to Chassler, to obsessive need, my one thought being the only grief that touched mine was Otis' grief. Look, the tepees are standing: Steven has balanced them the first try. Now the seeds go in, there is Anna sitting in the dirt with the open packet. This is the end, isn't it? And you are here with me again, listening with me: the sea no longer torments me;the self I wished to be is the self I am. THE WISH Remember that time you made the wish? I make a lot of wishes. The time I lied to you about the butterfly.I always wondered what you wished for. What do you think I wished? I don't know.That I'd come back. that we'd somehow be together in the end. I wished for what I always wish for. I wished for another poem. ◎许愿 记不记得你许愿那次? 我许很多愿啊。 我对你撒谎那次, 关于那只蝴蝶。我一直想知道 你许了什么愿。 你觉得我许了什么愿? 我不知道。许我会回来。 许我们早晚要在一起,最终。 我为我一直许愿的事情许愿。 我许愿再写一首诗。 PARABLE OF THE GIFT My friend gave me a fuschia plant, expecting much of me, in cold April judgment not to leave it overnight in nature, deep pink in its plastic basket - I have killed my gift, exposed flowers in a mass of leaves, mistaking it for part of nature with its many stems; what do I do with you now, former living thing that last night still resembled my friend, abundant leaves like her fluffy hair although the leaves had a reddish cast: I see her climbing the stone steps in spring dusk holding the quivering present in her hands, with Eric and Daphne following behind, each bearing a towel of lettuce leaves: so much, so much to celebrate tonight, as though she were saying here is the world, that should be enough to make you happy. ◎礼物的寓言 我朋友送给我一株 梅红色植物,对我寄予 厚望,在寒冷四月的 裁判下,别整晚把它丢在 大自然中,深粉色 在它的塑料 篮子里——我把 我的物给害死了,把花 暴露在一堆叶子里, 误以为它 和它的诸多茎杆 是大自然的一部分;现在 我该拿你怎么办才好, 先前活着的东西, 昨天晚上还 像是我的朋友,茂盛的 叶子像她蓬松的头发 尽管这些叶子 呈一种淡红色:我看见她 在春天的黄昏登上石阶 双手捧着这件 颤抖的礼物,埃里克 和达芙妮跟在 后面,每人 顶着一块生菜叶毛巾: 今晚要庆祝的好多 好多呢,仿佛她在说 这就是世界,应该 足以让你快乐。 HEART'S DESIRE I want to do two things: I want to order meat from Lobel’s and I want to have a party. You hate parties.You hate any group bigger than four. If I hate it I'll go upstairs.Also I'm only inviting people who can cook. Good cooks and all my old lovers. Maybe even your ex-girlfriends, except the exhibitionists. If I were you, I'd start with the meat order. We'll have buglights in the garden. When you look into people's faces you'll see how happy they are. Some are dancing, maybe Jasmine in her Himalayan anklet. When she gets tired, the bells drag. It will be spring again;all the tulips will be opening. The point isn't whether or not the guests are happy. The point is whether or not they're dead. Trust me: no one's going to be hurt again. For one night, affection will triumph over passion.The passion will all be in the music. If you can hear the music you can imagine the party. I have it all planned: first violent love, then sweetness.First Norma then maybe the Lights will play. ◎心的欲望 我想做两件事: 我想从洛贝尔餐厅点一些肉 我想开一个party. 你讨厌party。你讨厌 任何四个人以上的群体。 要是我讨厌 我就上楼去。而且 我只邀请会做饭的人。 好厨师和所有我的旧情人。 没准还有你的前女友,除了 好出风头的。 如果我是你, 我就先从点肉开始。 花园里我们会点防虫灯。 当你观察人们的面孔 你会看见他们有多快乐。 有的在跳舞,或许 她的喜马拉雅脚镯里有茉莉。 当她累了,铃声就拖沓。 春天又要到了;所有 那些郁金香都会开放。 重点不是 客人们是否快乐。 重点是 他们是不是死了。 相信我:没一个人 打算再次受伤。 一个晚上,钟爱 将战胜激情。激情 将全在音乐中。 假如你听得见音乐 你可以想象这场party. 我都计划好了:先是 激烈的爱,然后是 甜蜜。先是《诺玛》* 然后可能赖茨一家会上场。 注释: *应指意大利歌剧作曲家文森佐·贝里尼(Vincenzo Bellini,1801-1835)的著名歌剧《诺玛》。
按:少数篇目译于2012年,大部分译于去年10月到11月。