Photograph by Louis Stettner ©The Louis Stettner Estate
疯子与扫把
黄运特 译
现实主义的乌鸦
一大早回来了。
那疯子拿着扫把，
穿睡衣的疯子
拿着扫把，也回来了。
他想把鸦群
从桑树枝上轰走
用扫把猛刺，急旋，
用扫把疯狂地挥舞
在夏日潮湿的空气里
越过枝杈和鸦群
对天诅咒
咒骂那在消逝的群星间消逝的众神。
可是现实主义的乌鸦知道
那不过是一个人
在清晨穿着睡衣，
扫把也不过是扫把
他的呐喊也仅仅
是一些词语和半词语
将被沉重的空气吞没。
但它们还是从树上飞起
最好让他安静
让清晨依然是清晨。
很快它们又会回来
三三两两，在伸展的枝杈间
栖息，它们的笑声仍是一样
前后不变。
Madman with Broom
The realist crows return
at earliest morning.
And the madman with broom,
madman in his nightshirt
with a broom, he too returns.
He thinks to roust the crows
from the mulberry boughs
by jabbing and swirling his broom,
by crazily twirling his broom
in the wet summer air
and hurling curses skyward
beyond the boughs and the crows
towards the fading gods among the fading stars.
But the realist crows know
it is only a man
in a nightshirt after dawn,
that the broom is a broom
and that his cries are nothing more
than words and half-words
the heavy air will swallow.
They rise anyway from the tree
as best to quiet him
and let morning be morning.
Soon enough they’ll return again
by twos and threes, settling among
the spreading limbs, their laughter the same
before and after.
那一切词语
[美] 迈克·帕尔玛
黄运特 译
那一切词语我们曾用来代替事物，而现在都抛弃了，以便我们认识事物。在山里我找到最后一棵树或字母A。它跟我讲的话很简短：“围绕我的是毫无用处的蓝色，纷纷从苦艾、百灵草和矢车菊的野地里消逝。假如你用指头把其中一种草药弄碎，那气味就会沾在你手上，可是它的颗粒很难看到。这是一种你无法理解的语言。”我把字母树的枝干折断，然后一根根地扛下山，到我们的房子，扔到火里。后来在火炭上我们烧烤用油、胡椒、盐和野牛至调味过的红鲻鱼。
All Those Words
All those words we once used for things but have now discarded in order to come to know things. There in the mountains I discovered the last tree or the letter A. What it said to me was brief, “I am surrounded by the uselessness of blue falling away on all sides into fields of bitter wormwood, all-heal and centaury. If you crush one of these herbs between your fingers the scent will cling to your hand but its particles will be quite invisible. This is a language you cannot understand.” Dismantling the beams of the letter tree I carried them one by one down the slope to our house and added them to the fire. Later over the coals we grilled red mullets flavored with oil, pepper, salt and wild oregano.
选自《疯子与扫把》，“国际诗人在香港”丛书，牛津大学出版社2011年版。
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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