本欄主持:遠(yuǎn) 行
一
這清晨的綠色,這形成的天氣,我的眉毛尚未也永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì),被這神明的微風(fēng)梳理。
那么的清晰,至少對(duì)于我。然而昨天我覺察有什么在漂浮,進(jìn)出于云霧,像只鳥,也像個(gè)人,黑色套裝,手臂伸展。
我想這個(gè)跡象可能表明,我一直是錯(cuò)的。
然后,我醒來,未來的影子投到我的床上,在外面液體廢墟的海上,也在水邊大廈的軀殼上。
一個(gè)急速的陰霾吹入,吹倒了樹木,刮平了原野。我躺在床上,希望它會(huì)過去。這可能就是一直等待的時(shí)機(jī)。
二
不管星圖告訴過我們觀察什么,或地圖說我們會(huì)找到什么,我們毫無準(zhǔn)備地迎接我們的發(fā)現(xiàn)。
我們跋涉,遠(yuǎn)離無影的中午的深處,同時(shí)一陣襲來的風(fēng)睡上枝杈,而枯葉轉(zhuǎn)為街上的浮塵。
城市之光,長(zhǎng)長(zhǎng)的、夏天的閑暇,不再屬于我們;為我們而來的,至關(guān)重要的,很久以后,將存于墳?zāi)?,像它們現(xiàn)在一樣偉大,不曾接近終點(diǎn),也沒有遠(yuǎn)離我們的起點(diǎn)。
三
夜晚的粉紅與紫色退去,奇異的熱度灼燒著我們的皮膚,直到我們?nèi)胨?,漂移到我們希望的永遠(yuǎn)遙不可及的深處——那里沒有炫耀,在那里發(fā)生的一切似乎都是為了永存。
我們流汗,懇求按時(shí)釋放到即將來臨的一天,思想里唯恐不會(huì)到達(dá),而被迫遺忘、漂移于午夜的海面上。每一千年,望見一艘船舶,或一只天鵝,或一個(gè)沉溺的泳者,他的想象力比他的命運(yùn)更持久,他游泳是為了證明,不只針對(duì)某人,他的生活是多么的虛偽。
一
是不是有些事物順?biāo)?,遠(yuǎn)離于我們——一些羞怯的事件;一些落在深處的、隱秘的光;尚不希望被發(fā)現(xiàn)的、悲傷的源泉?
我們?yōu)楹我诤酰侩y道不希望將世界這表皮粗糙的瓷具鑄造成彩虹,并以此填充空茫?為何還要尋求?
二
現(xiàn)在,當(dāng)畏懼與悲痛的擁戴者,推動(dòng)他們濕淋淋的駁船上下海灘,讓我們吃我們的比目魚,啜飲這美麗、白色的波那酒。
誠(chéng)然,光線是人造的,我們穿著也不考究。那又怎樣,我們喜歡這里。我們喜歡臨近田野上的公牛,我們喜歡風(fēng)聲在草地上吹過。你低聲說話的樣子,我們深夜的外出……為何要為其他而活?我們的杰作,是個(gè)人生活。
三
站在逡巡天鵝與無瑕恒星之間的碼頭,呼吸著夜晚的空氣。當(dāng)快樂的時(shí)刻深入, 樂趣的消失也似乎逐漸開始,它的塵染的美麗,只能是原本面目的美麗。維持它長(zhǎng)一點(diǎn)的時(shí)間, 當(dāng)它離去的時(shí)候,我相信我們自己的順利通道, 穿越等級(jí)的間隔,危機(jī)流向普通,使我們每次更困倦一些, 遠(yuǎn)離經(jīng)驗(yàn)一些,在過去,這把握、俘獲了我們?cè)S多時(shí)辰。
沿著蜿蜒的公路駕駛回到家中,大海撞擊著懸崖,桌子上一杯威士忌,打開著的書與疑問,全天的回報(bào)等候在熟睡的門檻……
2010.1.25 譯
Morning, Noon, and Night
by Mark Strand
I
And the morning green, and the buildup weather, and my brows
Have no been brushed, and never will be,by the breezes of divinity.
That much is clear, at least to me, but yesterday I noticed
Something floating in and out of clouds,something like a bird,
But also like a man, black-suited, with his arm outspread.
And I thought this could be a sign that I’ve been wrong. Then I woke,
And on my bed the shadow of the future fell, and on the liquid ruins
Of the sea outside, and on the shells of buildings at the water’s edge.
A rapid overcast blew in, bending trees and fl attening fi elds. I stayed in bed,
Hoping it would pass. What might have been still waited for its chance.
II
Whatever the star charts told us to watch for or the maps
Said we would find, nothing prepared us for what we discovered.
We toiled away in the shadowless depths of noon,
While an alien wind slept in the branches,and dead leaves
Turned to dust in the streets. Cities of light,long summers
Of leisure, were not to be ours; for to come as we had, long after
It mattered, to live among tombs, great as they are,
Was to be no nearer the end, no farther from where we began.
III
These nights of pinks and purples vanishing, of freakish heat
That stokes our skin until we fall asleep and stray to places
We hoped would always be beyond our reach—the deeps
Where nothing flourishes, where everything that happens seems
To be for keeps. We sweat, and plead to be released
Into the coming day on time, and panic at the thought
Of never getting there and being forced to drift forgotten
Of a midnight sea where every thousand years a ship is sighted, or a swan,
Or a drowned swimmer whose imagination has outlived his fate, and who swims
To prove, to no one in particular, how false his life had been.
Our Masterpieces Is the Private Life
by Mark Strand
For Jules
I
Is there something down by the water keeping itself from us,
Some shy event, some secret of the light that falls upon the deep,
Some source of sorrow that does not wish to be discovered yet?
Why should we care? Doesn’t desire cast its
rainbows over the coarse porcelain
Of the world’s skin and with its measures fi ll the
air? Why look for more?
II
And now, while the advocates of awfulness and sorrow
Push their dripping barge up and down the beach, let’s eat
Our brill, and sip this beautiful white Beaune.
True, the light is artif i cial, and we are not well-dressed.
So what. We like it here. We like the bullocks in the fi eld next door,
We like the sound of wind passing over grass. The way you speak,
In that low voice, our late night disclosures……why live
For anything else? Our masterpiece is the private life.
III
Standing on the quay between the Roving Swan and the Star Immaculate,
Breathing the night air as the moment of pleasure taken
In pleasure vanishing seems to grow, its self-soiling
Beauty, which can only be what it was,sustaining itself
A little longer in its going, I think of our own smooth passage
Through the graded partitions, the crises that bleed
Into the ordinary, leaving us a little more tired each time,
A little more distant from the experiences,which, in the old days,
Held us captive for hours. The drive along the winding road
Back to the house, the sea pounding against the cliffs,
The glass of whiskey on the table, the open book, the questions,
All the day’s rewards waiting at the doors of sleep……