Plate (folio 6) from the portfolio Rose or Star (Rose oder Stern), 1965 | Otto Piene
©MoMA Collection
火畔读弥尔顿
西川 译
皮尤特涧,1955年8月
“哦地狱,我这悲伤的眼睛
看见了什么?”
与一位使锤的老矿工
一起干活,他能觉察
矿脉的走向和岩石内脏的
绺裂,他能
炸开花岗岩,开出
盘曲的道路,令它能历经
雪冻冰融、骡蹄践踏的节律
而固持多年。
弥尔顿,你的蠢故事何用之有,
讲我们湮没的始祖
那吃野果的人?
那使链锯的印第安男孩
赶着一溜六头骡子
来到营地
饥饿地寻找西红柿和绿苹果。
在明亮的夜空下
他睡去,盖着亦当马鞍用的毛毯
黎明时分,河汊倾斜。
樫鸟啼鸣
咖啡煮开
万年以后这内华达群山
将干燥死寂,成为蝎子的家园。
有冰刻的石板和弯曲的树木。
没有乐园,没有堕落,
只有日晒风吹的土地
旋转的天空,
人类,和他的撒旦
将洗刷心灵的混乱。
哦,地狱!
火熄了
太暗,没法读了,道路一侧数里之遥
草地上的母马脖铃叮当
一整个夏季的一天
泥土厚积,填塞坑洼
一条经年小道
蜿蜒在乱石之间。
Milton by Firelight
Piute Creek, August 1955
“O Hell, what do mine eyes
with grief behold?”
Working with an old
Singlejack miner, who can sense
The vein and cleavage
In the very guts of rock, can
Blast granite, build
Switchbacks that last for years
Under the beat of snow, thaw, mule-hooves.
What use, Milton, a silly story
Of our lost general parents,
eaters of fruit?
The Indian, the chainsaw boy,
And a string of six mules
Came riding down to camp
Hungry for tomatoes and green apples.
Sleeping in saddle-blankets
Under a bright night-sky
Han River slantwise by morning.
Jays squall
Coffee boils
In ten thousand years the Sierras
Will be dry and dead, home of the scorpion.
Ice-scratched slabs and bent trees.
No paradise, no fall,
Only the weathering land
The wheeling sky,
Man, with his Satan
Scouring the chaos of the mind.
Oh Hell!
Fire down
Too dark to read, miles from a road
The bell-mare clangs in the meadow
That packed dirt for a fill-in
Scrambling through loose rocks
On an old trail
All of a summer’s day.
选自《水面波纹》,“镜中丛书”,译林出版社2017年版。
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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.
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