隐形的访客--戴维.巴德比尔

整个八月，九月
         数以千计的，或许
数以万计，长着羽毛的
       生灵经过
这个地方，我几乎从没有看见过
        单独一只的。秋天
林莺迁徙经过这儿
       每年，它们全部，
众多的种类，看上去都有几分
         彼此相像，黄色的，棕色的，灰色的，
都是他们夏天自身沉默的变种，
       差不多彼此难以区分，至少对我来说，虽然
               绝对是难分伯仲，  
都飞驰而过，大多数在夜间，呼朋引伴
           以便他们保持鸟群不散，鸣叫着：唧唧，吉特，
叽叽喳喳，啪啪，泽普，吱吱---
那些声音让人放心，我们
       在这儿，都在一起
向南飞，我们大家只是、
      经过，只是经过，
只是经过，只是经过。
All through August and September
            thousands, maybe
tens of thousands, of feathered
            creatures pass through
this place and I almost never see
            a single one. The fall
wood warbler migration goes by here
            every year, all of them,
myriad species, all looking sort of like
            each other, yellow, brown, gray,
all muted versions of their summer selves,
            almost indistinguishable
from each other, at least to me, although
            definitely not to each other,
all flying by, mostly at night, calling to each
            other as they go to keep
the flock together, saying: chip, zeet,
            buzz, smack, zip, squeak—
            those
sounds reassuring that we are
            all here together and
heading south, all of us just passing
            through, just passing
through, just passing through, just
            passing through.
David Budbill, “Invisible Visitors” from Tumbling Toward the End. Copyright © 2017 by David Budbill.