华莱士·史蒂文斯（Wallace Stevens, 1879-1955）
《好人不成样子》
数世纪来，他活在贫困中。
唯有上帝是他唯一的优雅。
然后一代接一代，他越发
强大、自由，也稍显好过。
他每种生活都过了，因为若不
遂意，他就说好生活还有可能。
好生活终于到来，好睡，佳果，
而拉撒路却把他出卖给其他人，
他们杀害了他，羽毛插进他的肉，
嘲弄他。他们在他墓里放置酸酒，
警告他，留一本空白的书给他读；
并在坟上竖一块犬牙交错的标牌，
作为他死亡的墓志铭，上面写着：
好人不成样子；仿佛他们早就知道。
The Good Man Has No Shape
Through centuries he lived in poverty.
God only was his only elegance.
Then generation by generation he grew
Stronger and freer, a little better off.
He lived each life because, if it was bad,
He said a good life would be possible.
At last the good life came, good sleep, bright fruit,
And Lazarus betrayed him to the rest,
Who killed him, sticking feathers in his flesh
To mock him. They placed with him in his grave
Sour wine to warn him, an empty book to read;
And over it they set a jagged sign,
Epitaphium to his death, which read,
The Good Man Has No Shape, as if they knew.
《取代一座山的诗篇》
就在那里，一字一字对应，
那首诗取代了一座山。
他呼吸的是它的氧气，
甚至当书在他桌上的灰尘中翻动书页。
它提醒了他，他曾那么需要
一个地方，让他按自己的方向走过去，
他曾如何让松树重获平静，
移动岩石，在云朵间小心走路，
为找到那正确的观点，
让他在一种未明的完整中完满：
那岩石的确切中，他的不确切
终于发现了它们逐渐转向的景致，
他可以在那里躺下，俯视大海，
认出他独特而孤单的家。
The Poem that Took the Place of a Mountain
There it was, word for word,
The poem that took the place of a mountain.
He breathed its oxygen,
Even when the book lay turned in the dust of his table.
It reminded him how he had needed
A place to go to in his own direction,
How he had recomposed the pines,
Shifted the rocks and picked his way among clouds,
For the outlook that would be right,
Where he would be complete in an unexplained completion:
The exact rock where his inexactnesses
Would discover, at last, the view toward which they had edged,
Where he could lie and, gazing down at the sea,
Recognize his unique and solitary home.
如果把这里的两首诗联系起来读，我们是否更容易接受将第一首解释为一种诗歌美学宣言，而第二首也是一种对诗歌技艺甚至诗歌观念的论述？当然，我们可以说，所有诗歌都是对诗歌观念的展示与论述。
