法兰克·毕达特(Frank Bidart, 1939-)曾跟随罗伯特·洛厄尔习诗,融入了很深的自白派风格。他也是洛厄尔诗全集的编者。1973年出版第一本诗集,2021年出版最新诗集。他诗歌从形式、语言、写作角度和主题呈现上都很独特,且风格多变。1997年的诗集《欲望》Desire史无前例地进入美国诗歌三大奖(普利策、全国图书奖、书评人协会奖)的终选名单。诗合集《暗光:1965-2016诗合集》获得美国全国图书奖和普利策奖。他还获得加拿大的格里芬国际诗歌奖终身成就奖等。他是同性恋,这在他的诗歌中有明确的表现。
他的语言比较特别,不是那么明白直接,句子中很多插入、颠倒、非确定性的指代,读起来似乎显得躲闪规避,但主题所指又很明确,形成了他独特的一种话语方式。虽说他受到自白派的明显影响,甚至可以说有一种传承关系,但他更多的是主题的自白以一种隐晦的表述方式隐隐约约地呈现,就好像那种half-light(半光、暗光),有一种欲说还休的朦胧感。从某种角度看,美国当代诗歌太追求晓白,他的写作可说也发挥了一种平衡作用。当然,他还是美国的。
《你渴求灵魂》
却发现肉体,
直到肉体
似乎勉强足够,
而你内心
那首尚未写出的诗
坚持要存在,
你所能贡献的只有字词。字词
是肉体。字词
是渴望
成为观念的肉体,那观念
幻想:这一次,它已找到一个躯体,
一个顽石般的躯体。
要雕刻世界的躯体,
从肉体中创造
顽石般的肉体。
你俯瞰进你爱情的棺材-
摇篮,你为灵魂
所苦,渴望变成顽石。
你哀悼的不是
并非如此的存在,而是本来就不可能的存在。
那永不可能找到躯体的存在,
因为你所要的,他也要
却并没要。
普通的、分裂的、非简单的心。
你梦想的是,食用
字词的肉体,你所创造的
会使身心
合一。一次朗读会后,有人问你
如何描述你的美学,
你答道:具身美学。
As You Crave Soul
but find flesh
till flesh
almost seems sufficient
when the as-yet-unwritten
poem within you
demands existence
all you can offer it are words. Words
are flesh. Words
are flesh
craving to become idea, idea
dreaming it has found, this time, a body
obdurate as stone.
To carve the body of the world
and out of flesh make flesh
obdurate as stone.
Looking down into the casket-crib
of your love, embittered by
soul you crave to become stone.
You mourn not
what is not, but what never could have been.
What could not ever find a body
because what you wanted, he
wanted but did not want.
Ordinary divided unsimple heart.
What you dream is that, by eating
the flesh of words, what you make
makes mind and body
one. When, after a reading, you are asked
to describe your aesthetics,
you reply, An aesthetics of embodiment.
《噢,废墟,噢,闹鬼的》
O Ruin O Haunted
噢,废墟,噢,闹鬼的
不安宁的遗迹,
两具躯体的,两段
历史的,
你感觉到了那不息的
力量,
却从未理解,——
你害怕假若没有
X光,没有他们灵魂的
地形图,
你就必须重复他们的生活。
O ruin O haunted
restless remnant of
two bodies, two
histories
you felt the unceasing
force of
but never understood,—
terrified that without an
x-ray, a topography of
their souls
you must repeat their lives.
•
“你并没有重复他们的生活。”
你将信仰寄托于
艺术——
它让我们获得
模式,过程
依然带着
附着于它的肉体。
你告诉自己,
有了肉体,模式
就更真实,更微妙,不那么
沉迷于幻象,
观看让你不受幻象摆布。
You did not repeat their lives.
You lodged your faith
in Art—
which gives us
pattern, process
with the flesh
still stuck to it.
With flesh, you
told yourself, pattern
is truer, subtler, less
given to the illusion
seeing frees you from it.
•
“或者,你确实重复了他们的生活,——
……通过颠倒
而重复它们。”
你是怎么让自己猛撞爱情,如何
巧妙地
未逃避爱情。
Or, you did repeat their lives,—
… repeated them by
inverting them.
How you hurtled yourself against, how
cunningly you
failed to elude love.
•
爱
是天赐食粮,
它从天而降
让你
看到
环绕你的
沙漠
确实是沙漠。
令你相信你出生之处不是泥土。
Love
is the manna
that falling
makes you
see
the desert
surrounding you
is a desert.
Makes you think dirt is not where you were born.