〔愛爾蘭〕謝默斯·希尼/著 祁亞平/譯
此刻,燃油取暖鍋爐突然沸騰
懶洋洋地,如一棵被鋸倒的樹
定時(shí)坍塌,我想象他們
是在夏日里,必定無疑,
而地點(diǎn),我忽然發(fā)覺,
可能是橡樹被砍伐前的格羅弗山,
在涼爽的星期日,我們常一起站在
山頂與小腿齊深的藍(lán)風(fēng)鈴花叢間,放眼遠(yuǎn)眺
馬拉費(fèi)爾特的四個(gè)塔尖。
唉,為時(shí)已晚,有關(guān)愛的貼切引語,
這種愛由堅(jiān)定不移的凝視證實(shí),
不是彼此凝望,而是張望同一個(gè)方向。
櫟木,橡樹。尋找,汝當(dāng)尋求。
在馬賽克般綠葉和橡果間
(我們學(xué)院的盾徽頂部雄踞著鴿子,
教會(huì)之鴿,德里圣林之鴿)
已被踩得模糊不清的箴言依舊不可磨滅:
汝當(dāng)首先尋求他的國……正大光明地
我站在低年級(jí)的宿舍過道里
一只灰色的眼睛將回頭凝望
視他們?yōu)橐粚?duì),我此刻發(fā)覺,
第一次,他們更加合拍,
因?yàn)楫?dāng)他們不得不轉(zhuǎn)身離去時(shí),
與到來時(shí)一般親近(或者靠得更近)。
是在冬日的海邊,他們共進(jìn)
新婚盛宴。而我在桌旁,
未經(jīng)邀請(qǐng),卻又無法逃離。
海鷗的尖叫。烹魚的香味。
突然放下未用的銀餐具。擱淺的沉默。淚水。
系圍裙的女侍者叮當(dāng)作響地揭開一道佳肴
便任他們?nèi)ハ碛?,在枝形吊燈下?/p>
對(duì)類似所有的結(jié)婚周年紀(jì)念日
在隨后的歲月里
他們都將不再慶祝,甚至提及。
而此時(shí),那開車送他們到此的人
將送他們回家,我們晚上就會(huì)到家。
若說我在某處摟抱過他,
那一定是上大學(xué)前的那個(gè)夏天
在河堤上,他正值壯年,
當(dāng)時(shí)我不知他為何一直堅(jiān)持
陪我來,只因我不久將離家遠(yuǎn)行。
那應(yīng)該是第一次,但卻并未發(fā)生。
第二次發(fā)生了,一天晚上在新弗里
他喝得爛醉,需要人幫忙
系好褲子紐扣。第三次
是在他生命的最后一周,在樓梯拐角,
我攙扶他去洗手間,右臂
在他腋下承受著絲網(wǎng)般的重量。
讓孫子去做再合適不過,
突襲扶手椅里的他
一把摟住他的脖子,
證明他對(duì)歡悅?cè)绱瞬豢耙粨簦?/p>
如重大證明通常來臨一般
突至,驟臨,繼而是諸如此類的
被證實(shí)的堅(jiān)定醒悟。
恰如那遠(yuǎn)古一刻,兒子三次嘗試
極樂世界里的一次擁抱
它游入我真實(shí)的懷抱里,出入于
拉丁詞干本身,幽靈般的
確然,閃過了“確實(shí)”。
By Seamus Heaney
Now the oil-fired heating boiler comes to life
Abruptly, drowsily, like the timed collapse
Of a sawn down tree, I imagine them
In summer season, as it must have been,
And the place, it dawns on me,
Could have been Grove Hill before the oaks were cut,
Where Id often stand with them on airy Sundays
Shin-deep in hilltop bluebells, looking out
At Magherafelts four spires in the distance.
Too late, alas, now for the apt quotation
About a love thats proved by steady gazing
Not at each other but in the same direction.
Quercus, the oak. And Quaerite, Seek ye.
Among green leaves and acorns in mosaic
(Our college arms surmounted by Columba,
Dove of the church, of Derrys sainted grove)
The footworn motto stayed indelible:
Seek ye first the Kingdom… Fair and square
I stood on in the Junior House hallway
A grey eye will look back
Seeing them as a couple, I now see,
For the first time, all the more together
For having had to turn and walk away, as close
In the leaving (or closer) as in the getting.
Its winter at the seaside where theyve gone
For the wedding meal. And I am at the table,
Uninvited, ineluctable.
A skirl of gulls. A smell of cooking fish.
Plump dormant silver. Stranded silence. Tears.
Their bibbed waitress unlids a clinking dish
And leaves them to it, under chandeliers.
And to all the anniversaries of this
They are not ever going to observe
Or mention even in the years to come.
And now the man who drove them here will drive
Them back, and by evening well be home.
Were I to have embraced him anywhere
It would have been on the riverbank
That summer before college, him in his prime,
Me at the time not thinking how he must
Keep coming with me because Id soon be leaving.
That should have been the first, but it didnt happen.
The second did, at New Ferry one night
When he was very drunk and needed help
To do up trouser buttons. And the third
Was on the landing during his last week,
Helping him to the bathroom, my right arm
Taking the webby weight of his underarm.
It took a grandson to do it properly,
To rush him in the armchair
With a snatch raid on his neck,
Proving him thus vulnerable to delight,
Coming as great proofs often come
Of a sudden, one-off, then the steady dawning
Of whatever erat demonstrandum.
Just as a moment back a sons three tries
At an embrace in Elysium
Swam up into my very arms, and in and out
Of the Latin stem itself, the phantom
Verus that has slipped from ‘very.
謝默斯·希尼
愛爾蘭著名詩人、劇作家、翻譯家,1939年出生于一農(nóng)民家庭,自小接受正規(guī)英國教育,1961年畢業(yè)于貝爾法斯特女王大學(xué)英文系。1966年以詩集《一位自然主義者之死》(Death of a Naturalist)一舉成名,主要詩集還有:《通向黑暗之門》(Door into the Dark,1969)、《在外過冬》(Wintering Out,1972)、《北方》(North,1975)、《田間勞作》(Field Work,1979)、《苦路島》(Station Island,1984)、《山楂燈》(The Haw Lantern,1987)、《幻視》(Seeing Things,1991)、《水平儀》(The Spirit Level,1996)、《電光》(Electric Light,2001)、《區(qū)線與環(huán)線》(District and Circle,2006)和《人鏈》(Human Chain,2010)等。希尼繼承了愛爾蘭文學(xué)的優(yōu)秀傳統(tǒng),以極富感情色彩的田園抒情詩見長。其詩歌具有濃郁的民族風(fēng)味,蘊(yùn)涵豐富的哲理于日常生活,他還對(duì)古希臘和英國的史詩做了深入的研究和介紹,從而拓寬了現(xiàn)代詩的表現(xiàn)領(lǐng)域,被譽(yù)為“自葉芝之后最重要的愛爾蘭詩人”。1995年,由于其詩“具有抒情詩般的美和倫理深度,使日常生活中的奇跡和活生生的往事得以升華”,謝默斯·希尼榮膺諾貝爾文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)。
《相冊》譯自希尼的最新詩集《人鏈》?!度随湣肥窃娙嗽?006年患中風(fēng)痊愈后創(chuàng)作的詩歌集,出版后反響強(qiáng)烈,摘得2010年英國向前詩歌獎(jiǎng)(the Forward Poetry Prize)最佳詩集獎(jiǎng),并于次年榮獲《愛爾蘭時(shí)報(bào)》詩歌現(xiàn)在獎(jiǎng)(Irish Times Poetry Now Award),另入圍2011年第11屆加拿大格里芬詩歌獎(jiǎng)(Griffin Poetry Prize)決選名單。“人鏈”本義指手挽手以示團(tuán)結(jié)的游行、示威、靜坐、絕食等活動(dòng),是一種抗議的方式。詩人采用類比手法,將父母與子女、親朋好友、丈夫和妻子、逝者和活著的人、過去與現(xiàn)在之間千絲萬縷的聯(lián)系以鏈條的方式呈現(xiàn)給讀者,在詩歌中充分流露出了對(duì)親情、友情以及人性的呼喚。