Bill Wolak [USA]
Become a River (and other three poems)
If you spend your entire life
dealing with impostors and cheats,
how can you be surprised
when everyone recognizes
you as a swindler?
Anger threatens you most.
Envy paralyzes you.
You’re like dust
darkening a mirror.
You’ve always craved a different path.
So begin now while you still can.
Wander in this world
like welcomed kisses
across astonished flesh.
Those who love embrace
with the impatience of wind and fire.
Those who love become a river
offering to carry everything to the sea.
She was the Kind of Storm
She was the kind of storm
that blows out windows,
knocks over trees,
and leaves their roots
twitching in the air.
She had rain
that filled your cellar
up to the lightbulbs,
and wind that hurled
your roof into the river.
She was the kind of storm
that terrified you
like lightning
in the whiteout
of a blizzard.
Beauty Mark
Elusive as a raindrop
falling through
a hummingbird’s shadow,
the beauty mark waits
like the precise point
where all clouds end.
It’s the bullseye’s
only mirror.
It’s a lost watermelon seed
dropped onto a picnic blanket.
Seek in everything
light ignores
the beauty mark’s
fleeting wink of darkness.
Stranded Between Destinations
Now only sympathetic embraces
and comforting words sustain you.
Drunkenness can’t relieve such loss.
Sleep only postpones it.
You’re a traveler stranded
between destinations.
You can neither settle
where you’ve been dropped off,
nor embark for the next stop.
You trudge like someone exhausted,
as if you’ve just recovered from a fever.
Your suitcase is far too heavy,
your currency useless.
Be patient as salt and watch
how time mixes perfume and ashes.
比尔·沃拉克[美国]
化作河流（外三首）
若一生与冒牌并肩，
骗徒又在身旁常现，
当被众人识破伪装，
你又怎会感到惊惶？
怒焰相逼最甚，
妒意麻痹心神。
你似尘埃蒙镜，
黯淡了光明。
你总渴望有另路可辟，
趁时光未老，请君莫再迟疑。
在这世间漂泊，
如盛情欢迎的热吻，
遍抚惊愕的肌肤。
相爱之人，
如风火般急切拥缠。
相爱之人，化作河流奔涌，
将一切都融入大海。
她是那种风暴
她是风暴：
能吹碎窗户，
击倒树木，
留下根须
在空中颤抖。
她的雨，
把你的地下室灌满，
直到灯泡也被淹没。
她的风，掀翻你的屋顶
把它抛入河流。
她是风暴：
令你战栗的风暴，
如同在白茫茫的
暴风雪中
一道霹雳闪过。
美人痣
如雨滴般难以捉摸，
从蜂鸟的影中
坠落，
美人痣静候着，
仿佛云尽之处
那精准的一点。
它是靶心，
唯一的镜面。
它是野餐毯上
一颗遗落的西瓜籽。
在一切光明未及的
微末处，搜寻
美人痣上
那稍纵即逝的暗色秋波。
滞留在归处之间
如今，唯有温情的拥抱
和慰藉的话语与你相倚。
醉意朦胧，怅惘分毫难减，
沉睡去，悲伤只得暂缓。
羁旅天涯，你滞留在
归处之间。
既无法于下车处
安然落脚；
又难以启程去下一驿站。
你筋疲力尽，步履蹒跚，
仿佛刚高烧初愈。
行李太过沉重，
货币也毫无用处。
请你如盐般沉静，耐心静观，
看时光如何将芬芳与灰烬相掺。
（程彦钧 译；Tr. Cheng Yanjun）
About the author
Bill Wolak , born in Teaneck, New Jersey, USA, 1952, is a famous poet who began writing in 1968 and who lives in New Jersey, USA. He is a retired teacher, after 40 years of teaching, whose last position was Adjunct Professor teaching Creative Writing at William Paterson University. He has published his eighteenth book of poetry entitled All the Wind’s Unfinished Kisses with Ekstasis Editions. His poetry has appeared in over a hundred magazines. His most recent translation with Mahmood Karimi-Hakak, Love Me More Than the Others: Selected Poetry or Iraj Mirza, was published by Cross-Cultural Communications in 2014. His translations have appeared in such magazines as Basalt, Visions International, World Poetry Journal, and Atlanta Review. His critical work and interviews have appeared in Notre Dame Review, Persian Heritage Magazine, Gargoyle, Southern Humanities Review, and Prime Number Magazine. Mr. Wolak has been awarded several National Endowment for the Humanities scholarships and two Fulbright-Hays scholarships to study and travel in India. In 2007, he was selected to participate in a Friendship Delegation to Iran sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, America’s largest and oldest interfaith peace and justice organization. During the Summer of 2010, Mr. Wolak was awarded a Field Study Opportunity in China and Japan by the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia. He was selected to be a featured poet at festivals in India five times: at the Kritya International Poetry Festival in Nagpur (2011), at the Hyderabad Literary Festival (2013), at the Tarjuma: Festival of Translators in Ahmedabad (2013), at the Hyderabad Literary Festival (2014), and at the Goa Arts and Literary Festival (2017). Recently, he was a featured poet at the Mihai Eminescu International Poetry Festival in Craiova, Romania; Europa in versi, Lake Como, Italy; the Pesaro International Poetry Festival, Pesaro, Italy; the Xichang- Qionghai Silk Road International Poetry Week, Xichang, China; the Ethno Fest, Pristina, Kosovo; the Chengdu International Poetry Week, Chengdu, China; and the International Poetic Conference, Poznan, Poland.
作者简介
比尔·沃拉克，著名诗人，1952年出生于美国新泽西州蒂内克市，1968年开始诗歌创作，现居美国新泽西州。沃拉克先生曾任教四十年，最终在威廉·帕特森大学创意写作兼职教授任上退休。他的第十八部诗集《风未尽之吻》由逸思出版社出版，诗作散见于上百种杂志。与穆罕穆德·卡里米-哈卡克合译的《挚爱无双：伊拉吉·米尔扎诗选》于2014年由跨文化传通出版社出版。其翻译作品发表在《玄武岩》《国际视野》《世界诗歌杂志》和《亚特兰大评论》等刊物上。他的批评文章和访谈散见于《圣母大学评论》《波斯遗产杂志》《滴水石像兽》《南方人文学评论》和《质数杂志》。
沃拉克先生曾多次获美国国家人文基金资助，并且两度获得富布赖特-海斯奖金用以资助他在印度的学习和旅行。2007年，他被选为美国成立最早、规模最大的跨宗教和平与正义组织美国和解协会所赞助的友好代表团成员，前往伊朗交流。2010年夏，获美国亚洲教学财团资助，前往中国和日本实地考察。
沃拉克先生曾五次作为特邀诗人在印度的诗歌节上亮相，分别是：2011年在那格浦尔举办的克丽提雅国际诗歌节、2013年海得拉巴文学节、2013年在艾哈迈达巴德举办的塔尔居马译者节、2014年海得拉巴文学节，以及2017年果阿艺术与文学节。最近，他作为特邀诗人，在罗马尼亚克拉约瓦的米哈伊·爱明斯库国际诗歌节、意大利科莫湖的“欧罗巴诗歌节”、意大利佩萨罗国际诗歌节、中国西昌-邛海丝绸之路国际诗歌周、科索沃普里什蒂纳的民族节、中国成都国际诗歌周，以及波兰波兹南的国际诗歌会议上发表作品。
