● 早晨，中午和晚上

　 马可－斯特兰德 原作 / 阿九 译

一

那早晨的青冥，还有渐渐加重的水汽，而我的眉头
还没有，也从来不会，被天国的清风梳理。
至少对我而言，这一切都很明显，但昨天我注意到
一种在云雾里出没的东西，象一只鸟，
但也象一个人，身着黑衣，展开双臂。
而我以为这也许只是我出错的征兆。我于是醒来，
未来的阴影落在我的床上，在外面大海
那流动的废墟上，还有水边建筑的廓影上。
一阵疾风吹进，它弯曲了树干，夷平了田野。而我仍在床上，
盼着它走远。或许早该发生的事情还在等待时机。

二

星图上告诉我们要留意的，或者地图上说
我们会找到的，都没有让我们为自己的发现做好准备。
当我们在正午连影子都看不见的深处辛劳，
一阵异己的风却在枝间歇息，几张枯叶
已在街面化为尘土。光华的城市，悠闲的长夏
我们消受不起；因为象我们曾经的那样到来，远过了
要紧的时候，在坟墓间生活，象它们一样伟大，
就是不比终点更近，也不比我们开始之处更远。

三

这些夜晚，霓虹正在消逝，古怪的热气
划过皮肤直到我们入睡，并且漫游到
我们想来一直遥不可及的地方－－那些什么
也不能生长的深处，那些所有事物看来
都只配封存的场所。我们汗出如浆，恳求按时被释放
进下一个日子，而且一想起来就深恐
到不了那里，因为被遗忘，只能漂泊在
午夜的海上，那里一千年才能看见一条船，或一只天鹅
抑或一个溺水的泳者，他的想象远比他的命数活得更久，而他漂游
只是要向随便什么人证明一下，他的一生多么乌有。

(1997)


Morning, Noon and Night

Mark Strand

I

And the morning green, and the build-up of weather, and my brows
Have not been brushed, and never will be, by the breezes of divinity.
That much is clear, at least to me, but yesterday I noticed
Something floating in and out of clouds, something like a bird,
But also like a man, black-suited, with his arms outspread.
And I thought this could be a sign that I've been wrong. Then I woke,
And on my bed the shadow of the future fell, and on the liquid ruins
Of the sea outside, and on the shells of buildings at the water's edge.
A rapid overcast blew in, bending trees and flattening fields. I stayed in bed,
Hoping it would pass. What might have been still waited for its chance.

II

Whatever the starcharts told us to watch for or the maps
Said we would find, nothing prepared us for what we discovered.
We toiled in the shadowless depths of noon,
While an alien wind slept in the branches, and dead leaves
Turned to dust in the streets. Cities of light, long summers
Of leisure were not to be ours; for to come as we had, long after
It mattered, to live among the tombs, as great as they are,
Was to be no nearer the end, no farther from where we began.

III

These nights of pinks and purples vanishing, of freakish heat
Stroking our skin until we fall asleep and stray to places
We hoped would always be beyond our reach - the deeps
Where nothing flourishes, where everything that happens seems
To be for keeps. We sweat, and plead to be released
Into the coming day on time, and panic at the thought
Of never getting there and being forced to drift forgotten
On a midnight sea where every thousand years a ship is sighted, or a swan,
Or a drowned swimmer whose imagination has outlived his fate, and who swims
To prove, to no one in particular, how false his life had been.

(1997)


译注：

（1）    关于此诗，马可－斯特兰德写道：“这首诗是如何写成的我已记不大清楚了。在很长的一段时间里，我一次又一次地整理过它，把它从抽屉里拿出来看看，又放回抽屉里。大概就是这样。到最后，为了整完它（姑且这么说吧），我重写了不少次。有个别词语嵌入了一种精致的、令人不快的悖论。”
（2）    Morning green中的green因为用了单数，我理解它是指早晨淡绿的天光，或者叫青冥。如果用复数，也许可译为绿地。
（3）    Cities of light, long summers of leisure应该是两个并列的主词（城市、夏日），但也不排除一个主词（城市）的可能。姑且按两个并列主词译。
（4）    False译为“乌有”，是为了避开“虚假”这个很容易引起更多歧义的词。“虚空”也许是另一个考虑，但结尾之处，我想找一个仄声的词去表达全诗忧郁的色调。