《城》
你曾说：“我将去另一个地方，去另一片海洋。
肯定会有另一座城市，远比这座美好。
我的每一份努力都从开始就一直多舛，
我的心犹如某种死寂之物被深深埋藏。
我的灵魂还要忍受多久如此缓慢的衰朽？
无论我看向哪里，无论我目光落在何处，
我四下所见都是我人生的黑色瓦砾，
我已抛掷给人生这么多荒废的年月。”
你不会找到新的地方，你不会找到别样的海岸。
这城市将如影相随。你溜达过的街道
都是那些街道，你闲逛的地方也都很熟，
你也将在那不变的房屋里变老。
你终将在这座城寿终正寝。别幻想有那么
一艘船、一条航线，带你去别处；那根本不存在。
你一生就是如此，被你毁掉，在这小小的角落，
而你哪怕天涯海角走遍，人生也是如此荒废。
【按】这首《城》是卡瓦菲早期最著名的一首诗，不同版本有不同译法，我之前也译过，今天又根据另一个英译翻译，可见无论是哪种语言的不同译本都有明显的不同。
The City
You said: “I will go to some other land, I will go to some other sea.
There’s bound to be another city that’s better by far.
My every effort has been ill-fated from the start,
my heart -- like something dead – lies buried away.
How long will my mind endure this slow decay?
Wherever I look, wherever I cast my eyes,
I see all round me the black rubble of my life,
where I’ve spent so many ruined and wasted years.”
You’ll find no new places, you won’t find other shores.
The city will follow you. The streets in which you pace
will be the same, you will haunt the same familiar places,
and inside those same houses you’ll grow old.
You’ll always end up in this city. Do not bother to hope
for a ship, a route, to take you somewhere else; they don’t exist.
Just as you’ve destroyed your life, here in this
small corner, so you’ve wasted it through all the world.
《终结》
我们深陷于恐惧与怀疑，
心绪纷乱，眼神惊恐，
我们心力交瘁，苦苦思索
如何躲避那可怕的
注定要来的威胁。
可是我们错了，它并不在前方：
是消息有误，
（我们要么没听到，要么没听清。）
一个我们从未想象到的灾难
突然之间毁灭性地降临，
——时间不多了——我们毫无准备，被席卷而去。
Finished
Deep in fear and in suspicion,
with flustered minds and terrified eyes,
we wear ourselves out figuring how
we might avoid the certain
danger that threatens us so terribly.
And yet we’re mistaken, that’s not it ahead:
the news was wrong
(or we didn’t hear it; or didn’t get it right).
But a disaster that we never imagined
suddenly, shatteringly breaks upon us,
and unprepared—no time left now—we are swept away.
《尽你所能》
即使你不能按自己希冀的方式安排你的生活，
至少，尽量做到
你力所能及：别让过多的社交、
过多的活动和交谈而令它卑贱。
不可令它卑贱，处处显摆它，
带着它到处转悠，展示
给日常无聊的关系，
为人脉亮相，
于是它变成一位陌路，成为负担。
As Much As You Can
And even if you cannot make your life the way you want it,
this much, at least, try to do
as much as you can: don’t cheapen it
with too much intercourse with society,
with too much movement and conversation.
Don’t cheapen it by taking it about,
making the rounds with it, exposing it
to the everyday inanity
of relations and connections,
so it becomes like a stranger, burdensome.
《遥远》
我想谈谈那段记忆……
可如今它早已消逝……好像什么都没有留下：
因为它已很遥远，在我稚嫩的青春岁月。
那皮肤，仿佛由茉莉花做成……
那个八月——是八月吗？——晚上……
我只记得那双眼睛：我敢说，它们是蓝色的……
啊，是的，蓝色：一种深蓝，蓝宝石。
Far Off
I’d like to talk about that memory…
But by now it’s long died out… as if there’s nothing left:
because it lies far off, in the years of my first youth.
Skin, as if it had been made of jasmine…
That August—was it August?—evening…
I can just recall the eyes: they were, I daresay, blue…
Ah yes, blue: a deep blue, sapphirine.
[1914]
《领悟》
我的青春岁月，我沉迷于享乐的生存——
它们的意义我现在看得多么清楚。
那么无用、愚蠢的悔恨……
但我当时却看不出它们的意义。
在我年轻放荡的人生中，
我诗歌的设计已经成形；
我艺术的界限也已划定。
所以悔恨从来就不坚定。
而我的决心——把控自我、改变——
最多只能持续两个星期。
Comprehension
The years of my youth, my pleasure-bent existence—
how plainly do I see their meaning now.
What useless, foolish regrets…
But I didn’t see their meaning then.
In the dissolute life I led in my youth
my poetry’s designs took shape;
the boundaries of my art were drawn.
That is why the regrets were never firm.
And my resolutions—to master myself, to change—
would keep up for two weeks at the most.
