灰鹤和巴赫--约翰.霍兰德

她的金丝柳下，一只金色的鹤
呆在金色的水面上，
在庄严的立柱上喷刷上
厚实的棕褐色灯光：

静寂存在于一池倒影中？
抑或，小河的水暗中汩汩流淌，
还是流动的音乐映衬出寂静？

没有金色的竖琴，金色的电线悬挂于
闪着亮漆的地面上树枝的穹顶，
乌木和象牙交相辉映，

一枚结婚戒指闪闪发光，
我清贫的父亲最诚实的双手，
用被遗忘的手指弹奏他能弹奏的最好的，

喃喃低语，或变化不大地咆哮出文本：
妖精之王抚摩着男孩；鳟鱼死于它们
如今呆滞的溪流中；月光下双倍的伤感继续；

急躁在琴键上结结巴巴；水转起涟漪
的形状，总是这位老人，
在几根破裂的和弦中，仍然赤脚站着

单调低奏出他的音乐，dyum de dum dum dum：
“他的两只双脚裸露这站着冰冻的地面上，
在空空的碟子里没有硬币发出声音。”

拉里拉琴的人，几年来我不知道
你站在冬天旅程的尽头
只有随 入其静寂

而我会随着我的父亲进入他的，
河上闭着的眼脸下的黑暗，灰鹤和巴赫等待着，
寂静单腿在歌曲中站立起来。
Under her golden willow a golden crane
Hangs over golden water, stencilled on the
Heavy lamplit brown of the solemn upright:

Silence standing in a pool of reflection?
Or, if the brook’s waters rumble darkly on,
Silence reflecting by a flow of music?

No golden harp with golden wires depends from
The vaulted branch on the shiny varnished ground,
Mirroring the ebony and ivory,

And the glint of golden from a wedding-band,
And the earnest hands of my poor father, who
With forgotten fingers played as best he could,

Muttering, or even roaring out the texts:
Erl-King strokes the boy; trout die in their now-dulled
Stream; the wan Double carries on in moonlight;

Impatience stutters on the keys; water turns
Through its rippling figures, and always the old
Man, bare amid a few tattered chords, still stands

Grinding out his music, dyum de dum dum dum:
“Both his feet are bare upon the frozen ground,
In his empty saucer no coin makes a sound.”

Lyre-man, I will not know for years that you
Stand at the end of a journey of winter
To be followed only into its silence

As I would follow my father into his.
Dark under the closed lid, Kranich and Bach wait,
Silence standing up one-leggedly in song.