● 马可·斯特兰德 作 / 阿九 译

现场阅读

设想有一首诗，开头处有对夫妇在
眺望山谷，看见他们的房子, 后院草坪
还有几把木椅，几处墨绿的树荫，
木制的栅栏, 以及栅栏之外纹银般的水波
自不远的池溏散开，对岸有一丛漆树，暗红地
长在渐逝的天光里。现在，设想有人在读这首诗
并且在想, “我从没想过会有这样的事, ”
然后就把它夹到一本书的末尾，而那对健忘的夫妇
却并未感到失去什么，甚至连一只啄木鸟的尾巴
扇出的白晕也都还在眼中，风中轻轻
摇曳的叶子也在，于是，他们将目光移向附近
葱郁的山头，那里，黄昏的紫烟开始上升，
而那个在秋夜里出来散心的读者，以及
囚禁于天地间的将逝的万籁，不仅虚构了
这首诗，而且杜撰了他的地点，代之以遐想中的
一面黯淡的威尼斯铜镜，挂在旋转楼梯旁边的
大厅墙上，还有黛色的天空上的群星
落下，又泡沫一样让海浪打上岸边。
在别处，永远敞开的房间里，一切都在流逝，
他已记不清这是谁的屋子，或者他何时在此住过。
现在，设想几年之后，他端坐灯下，
从书架上抽出一本书；那首诗恰好落在
他的腿上。那对夫妇正在往回走，
穿过一片田野，对一切还是浑然不觉，
而他们仍将自在地生活，封存在
熹微的琥珀天色里。但那个读者如何知道，
(尤其当他没看一眼，就将那首诗放回
夹在书里，)书中有个诗人正在望着天空，
并对某个飞页说：“我这是在天堂的什么地方？”

原文：

Reading in Place

Mark Strand

Imagine a poem that starts with a couple
Looking into a valley, seeing their house, the lawn
Out back with its wooden chairs, its shady patches of green,
Its wooden fence, and beyond the fence the rippled silver sheen
Of the local pond, its far side a tangle of sumac, crimson
In the fading light. Now imagine somebody reading the poem
And thinking, “I never guessed it would be like this,”
Then slipping it into the back of a book while the oblivious
Couple, feeling nothing is lost, not even the white
Streak of a flicker’s tail that catches their eye, nor the slight
Toss of leaves in the wind, shift their gaze to the wooded dome 
Of a nearby hill where the violet spread of dusk begins,
But the reader, out for a stroll in the autumn night, with all
The imprisoned sounds of nature dying around him, forges
Not only the poem, but where he is, and thinks instead
Of a bleak Venetian mirror that hangs in a hall
By a curving stair, and how the stars in the sky’s black glass
Sink down and the sea heaves them ashore like foam.
So much is adrift in the ever-opening rooms of elsewhere,
He cannot remember whose house it was, or when he was there.
Now imagine he sits years later under a lamp
And pulls a book from the shelf; the poem drops
To his lap. The couple are crossing a field
On their way home, still feeling that nothing is lost,
That they will continue to live harm-free, sealed
In the twilight’s amber weather. But how will the reader know,
Especially now that he puts the poem, without looking,
Back in the book, the book where a poet stares at the sky
And says to a blank page, “Where, where in Heaven am I?”

简注：

1．斯特兰德是美国当代主要诗人，作品不时有形而上的思辨和一丝来历不明的神秘。最早读他的诗是在1987年的一个袖珍版《当代美国诗选》里，其中有他的一首《保持事物完整》，至今还记得最后几行：
　　别人移动，都有自己的理由，
　　而我移动，只是为了
　　保持事物的完整。
这首《实地阅读》选自《美国诗萃》(The Best of the Best of American Poetry, 1988-1997)。

2．按原意，rippled silver sheen 与“纹银”绝无关系，它的直译是“泛起涟漪的银色波光”。纹银只是译者添加的意象，其契机是rippled silver在原文中正好放在一起，激发了我的一点遐思。纹银是一种轻轻一吹就能发出悦耳声音的银币，这一意象或可给水波之美增添一点天籁般的音色。

3。关于这首诗，斯特兰德自己说：“我也没什么好说的，就让它自己说话吧。只是有一点要补充的：‘我这是在天堂的什么地方’是摘自弗罗斯特《迷路在天堂》里的诗句。”