Altitudes, 1978 | Helen Frankenthaler
©MoMA Collection
口吃
郑政恒 译
口吃不是残障。
这是一种言说的模式。
口吃是沉默落在
言辞及其含义之间，
正如跛脚是
沉默落在
言辞和行动之间。
口吃在语言之先
还是之后呢？
它本身只是一种方言
还是一门语言？
这些问题令
语言学家口吃。
每次我们口吃
我们正在向
意义之神献祭。
当全体族群口吃
口吃成为他们的母语：
就像我们现在一样。
上帝创造人时
也一定有口吃。
因此人类所有的言辞
带有不同含义。
因此祂所说的一切
从祂的祈祷到祂的诫命
口吃，
如诗。
Stammer
Stammer is no handicap.
It is a mode of speech.
Stammer is the silence that falls
between the word and its meaning,
just as lameness is the
silence that falls between
the word and the deed.
Did stammer precede language
or succeed it?
Is it only a dialect or
a language itself?
These questions make
the linguists stammer.
Each time we stammer
we are offering a sacrifice
to the God of meanings.
When a whole people stammer
stammer becomes their mother-tongue:
just as it is with us now.
God too must have stammered
when He created man.
That is why all the words of man
carry different meanings.
That is why everything he utters
from his prayers to his commands
stammers,
like poetry.
自我
[印度] 萨奇达南丹
郑政恒 译
我妈妈不相信
1945年，我出现在她面前
在梦中告诉她
翌年我会生下来。
我父亲一见到
我左手拇指下面的痣
他就认出了我。
但母亲自始至终相信
她所生的是别人
伪装成我。
父亲和我恳求她；
但梦不是可靠的证人。
她继续等待应许的儿子
直到她去世
只有当她重生成为我的女儿
她才会承认她所生的是我。
但到那时我又开始怀疑
这是别人的心
在我体内跳动。
有一天，我会找回我的心；
还有我的语言。
Self
My mother didn’t believe
when, in 1945 I appeared to her
in a dream and told her
I would be born to her the following year.
My father recognized me
As soon as he saw
the mole below my left thumb.
But mother believed to the very end
that someone else had been born to her
masquerading as me.
Father and I pleaded with her;
but dreams are not reliable witnesses.
She went on waiting for that
promised son till she died
Only when she was reborn as my daughter
did she admit it had really been me.
But by then I had begun to doubt
it was someone else’s heart
that was beating within my body.
One day I will retrieve my heart;
my language too.
选自2019年香港国际诗歌之夜出版物《沉默与言说》，由香港诗歌节基金会发行。
相关阅读
香港诗歌节基金会
The Hong Kong Poetry Festival Foundation is a cultural organization initiated by Chinese poet Bei Dao and established in 2017 in Hong Kong. Our flagship event is the International Poetry Nights in Hong Kong (IPNHK), held every other year since 2009. IPNHK has become Asia’s most influential international poetry festival and one of the world’s most successful international poetry events. IPNHK is also a member of the Word Alliance, which brings together the world’s leading literature festivals.
官方网站 hkpff.com
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