Emptiness
 
Emptiness cannot be
compressed. Nor can it
fight abuse. Nor is there
an endless West hosting
elk, antelope, and the
tough cayuse. This is
true also of the mind:
it can get used.
 
空旷
 
空旷不能
压缩。也不能
对抗浪费。没有
无边的西部乘载
麋鹿，羚羊，以及
强壮的印地安小马
头脑也如此
可以被利用
 
 
Dew
 
As neatly as peas
in their green canoe,
as discretely as beads
strung in a row,
sit drops of dew
along a blade of grass.
But unattached and
subject to their weight,
they slip if they accumulate.
Down the green tongue
out of the morning sun
into the general damp,
they’re gone. 
 
露珠
 
列队整齐
于绿色小舟中
串珠散落
连成一串
一滴露水坐于
草刃边缘
彼此独立
垂垂欲坠
一旦他们集聚便会滚动
落入绿舌上
挣脱晨阳
没入苍茫沼泽
消失不见
 
 
Age
 
As some people age
they kinden.
The apertures
of their eyes widen.
I do not think they weaken;
I think something weak strengthens
until they are more and more it,
like letting in heaven.
But other people are
mussels or clams, frightened.
Steam or knife blades mean open.
They hear heaven, they think boiled or broken. 
 
年老
 
当一些人老去
他们变得仁慈
他们眼睛的
瞳孔不断变大
我不认为他们会变得虚弱
反而某些弱点正在变强
越来越多
好似走入了天堂
而另外一些人是
贻贝或蛤蚌，恐惧伴随
蒸汽或刀刃意味着开壳
他们听到了天堂，沸水，开裂。 
 
 
Insult
 
Insult is injury
taken personally,
saying, This is not
a random fracture
that would have happened
to any leg out there;
this was a conscious unkindness.
We need insult to remind us
that we aren’t always just hurt,
that there are some sources—
even in the self—parts of which
tread on other parts with such boldness
that we must say, You must stop this. 
 
侮辱
 
侮辱是伤害
私底下发生
提示，这不是
随机的骨折
可能发生
在任何一条腿上
这是一种故意的残忍
我们需要侮辱来提醒
我们并非总是受伤
一些源头
自我部分
如此大胆践踏其他部位
我们必须说，你必须停止这一切。
 
 
Hope
 
What’s the use
Of something
as unstable
and diffuse as hope—
the almost-twin
of making do,
the isotope
of going on:
what isn’t in
the envelope
just before
it isn’t:
the always tabled
righting of the present. 
 
希望
 
有何用处
一样东西
如希望般缥缈不定
希望是
凑合的孪生兄弟
继续的同位素
没有什么
在信封里
仅在
空无之前
总是搁置于
面前
 
 
Crown
 
Too much rain
loosens trees.
In the hills giant oaks
fall upon their knees.
You can touch parts
you have no right to—
places only birds
should fly to. 
 
树冠
 
降水太多
疏松了林木
山丘上巨大的橡树
轰然倒塌
你可以去触摸
之前你无权触摸的部位
一个只有小鸟
可以飞往的地方
 
 
Home to Roost
 
The chickens
are circling and
blotting out the
day. The sun is
bright, but the
chickens are in
the way. Yes,
the sky is dark
with chickens,
dense with them.
They turn and
then they turn
again. These
are the chickens
you let loose
one at a time
and small—
various breeds.
Now they have
come home
to roost—all
the same kind
at the same speed.
 
回巢
 
小鸡们
当空盘旋
遮蔽日光
太阳
耀眼，鸡群
挡道
是的，天空黑暗
鸡群稠密。
他们翻转
一次又一次
这一群小鸡
你一个紧接一个放出
一小群
各自繁殖
现在它们
回巢
同一品种
相同速度
 
 
The Best of It
 
However carved up
or pared down we get,
we keep on making
the best of it as though
it doesn’t matter that
our acre’s down to
a square foot. As
though our garden
could be one bean
and we’d rejoice if
it flourishes, as
though one bean
could nourish us. 
 
随遇而安
 
无论如何瓜分
抑或削减我们拥有之物
我们继续
将其穷尽
似乎毫不在意
一英亩土地减为
一英寸
似乎我们的花园
可以是一粒豆子
我们仍就高兴
如果花园繁茂
仿佛一粒豆子
足以养活我们
 
 
Lighthouse Keeping
 
Seas pleat
winds keen
fogs deepen
ships lean no
doubt, and
the lighthouse
keeper keeps
a light for
those left out.
It is intimate
and remote both
for the keeper
and those afloat. 
 
灯塔看守人
 
波涛汹涌
海风肆虐
浓雾弥漫
船只倾斜
灯塔看守人
留一盏灯
给遗忘之人
亲切
而遥远
在灯塔看守人
与漂流者之间
 
 
Repetition
 
Trying to walk
the same way
to the same
store takes
high-wire balance:
each step not
exactly as
before risks
chasms of
flatness. One
tumble alone
and nothing
happens. Few
are the willing
and fewer
the champions. 
 
重复
 
试图步行
于同一条道
去往相同的商店
踩着
高空绳索加以平衡
每一步
与之不同
在经历
平地
冒出的深渊之后
独自跌倒
未见有事
少数人意愿
更少人
是赢家
 
 
We’re Building the Ship as We Sail It
 
The first fear
being drowning, the
ship’s first shape
was a raft, which
was hard to unflatten
after that didn’t
happen. It’s awkward
to have to do one’s
planning in extremis
in the early years—
so hard to hide later:
sleekening the hull,
making things
more gracious. 
 
我们一边航行，一边造船。
 
最初的恐惧
溺水
船只的雏形
为一只筏子
难以展平
若之后，并未
溺水。尴尬
未雨绸缪
设想遇险
于早年
事后难以隐藏
光滑船体
让一切
变得更加优雅 
 
 
The Edges of Time
 
It is at the edges
that time thins.
Time which had been
dense and viscous
as amber suspending
intentions like bees
unseizes them. A
humming begins,
apparently coming
from stacks of
put-off things or
just in back. A
racket of claims now,
as time flattens. A
glittering fan of things
competing to happen,
brilliant and urgent
as fish when seas
retreat. 
 
时间边缘
 
于边缘
时间变得稀薄
时间曾
黏稠
当琥珀悬垂
意图如蜜蜂
释放了它们
一声嗡鸣开始
似乎源自
一大堆
推迟的事务
在背后
如今，一系列的索赔
当时间变得扁平
众多喜爱的事情
等待一一完成
如此美好，而又急切
如一条鱼
当海水退却 
 
 
The Things of the World
 
Wherever the eye lingers
it finds a hunger.
The things of the world
Inside each pebble or leaf
or puddle is a hook.
The appetites of the world
compete to catch a look.
What does this mean
and how does it work?
Why aren’t rocks complete?
Why isn’t green adequate
to green? We aren’t gods
whose gaze could save,
but that’s how the things
of the world behave. 
 
世间万物
 
目光停留之处
寻找饥饿
世间万物
把我们当晚餐
每一片叶子
每一个水坑
都有一个钩子
世界的胃口
竞相博取眼球
这意味着什么?
又如何运转?
为什么岩石不够完整?
为什么绿色
还不够绿色?我们不是神
凝视便可得救
但这就是
万物的运行方式
 
 
Blunt
 
If we could love
the blunt
and not
the point
we would
almost constantly
have what we want.
What is the
blunt of this
I would ask you
our conversation
weeding up
like the Sargasso. 
 
率直
 
如果我们能爱
率直
而非要点
我们
似乎总会
拥有想要之物
这种率直
是什么？
我问你
我们的谈话
延绵
如马尾藻 
 
 
The Past
 
Sometimes there’s
suddenly no way
to get from
one part to
another, as though
the past were
a frozen lake
breaking up. But
not from the
top; not because
it’s warmer
up here; it’s not.
But from underneath
for some reason—
perhaps some heat
trapped on its own
for so long it’s
developed seasons. 
 
过往
 
有时，猛然无路
从一地去往
另一地
好似
过去冰冻
破裂
不是从顶端
升温
来自底部
一些原因
也许热量
蕴藏在里面
太久
形成了季节
 
 
Stations
 
As the
veldt dries,
the great cats
range farther
to drink,
their paths
looping past
this or that
ex-oasis.
However long
the water’s
been gone,
no places
are missed;
despite thirst,
every once?deep pool
is rehearsed.
It’s strange
the way our
route can’t be
straightened;
how some
cruel faith
keeps the
stations. 
 
驻地
 
当
草原干枯
庞大的猫群
向前漫游
饮水
他们的路径
环绕
这个或那个
绿洲之外
无论
水
消失多久
无处
可以幸免
尽管口渴
每次？深水池
在排练
奇怪
道路不会
变直
为何那些
残酷信仰
仍坚守
在原地
 
 
Repetition
 
Trying to walk
the same way
to the same
store takes
high-wire balance:
each step not
exactly as
before risks
chasms of
flatness. One
tumble alone
and nothing
happens. Few
are the willing
and fewer
the champions. 
 
重复
 
试图步行
于同一条道
去往相同的商店
踩着
高空绳索加以平衡
每一步
与之不同
在经历
平地
冒出的深渊之后
独自跌倒
未见有事
少数人意愿
更少人
是赢家
 
 
Polish and Balm
 
Dust develops
from inside
as well as
on top when
objects stop
being used
No unguent
can soothe
the chap of
abandonment.
Who knew
the polish
and balm in
a person’s
simple passage
among her things.
We knew she
loved them
but not what
love means. 
 
光泽剂与香油
 
灰尘满积
在内部
以及
其上
当物品
停止使用
没有药膏
可以抹去
遗弃后的裂痕
谁知道
光泽剂
与香油在
一个人
简短的旅途里
于她的所属物中
我们知晓她
爱着他们
而不知
爱是什么
 
 
Retroactive
 
If reward or
amends could
set the clock
back, as happens
in fall when
an hour is stalled
for the sake of light,
then our golgothas
could be put right.
The kiss or reform
or return of the
family farm would
soak into the
injury, ease the
knot of memory,
unname the site
of harm. If there
could be one day
—one hour—of jubilee
how many lame
would walk their property. 
 
倒带
 
若奖励
或赎罪能
让时钟
倒拨，如发生
在秋天
停滞一小时
留驻光明
我们的受难地
便可复原
家庭农场的
亲吻、改革或回归
会渗入到
创伤中，抚平
记忆的伤疤
抹平伤害的
地名
如果
仅有一天
一个小时——大赦年
有多少瘸子
会拿走他们的财产。
 
 
Shift
 
Words have loyalties
to so much
we don’t control.
Each word we write
rights itself
according to poles
we can’t see; think of
magnetic compulsion
or an equal stringency.
It’s hard for us
to imagine how small
a part we play in
holding up the tall
spires we believe
our minds erect.
Then North shifts,
buildings shear,
and we suspect. 
 
坍塌
 
言辞忠贞无二
我们无法操控
每一个我们写的词
纠正自己
依据一个极点
我们无法看见
想起磁力
或者同等的说服力
我们难以
想象自己多么渺小
在支撑起高塔
所起的作用中
我们相信
我们的精神为之竖立
然后北方移动
建筑物坍塌
我们开始怀疑
 
 
Is It Modest?
 
Is it modest or arrogant
not to enter the scene;
instead to push a parrot
forward or make the air
apparent in the spring;
to press the whole embarrassment
of riches at us, be jeweling
every mean web, glazing
water in ditches; to divest
yourself upon us till
every moth or hibiscus
or bottle fragment is some
aspect of your garment,
some hem to kiss; un-becoming
on and on, leaving us like this? 
 
谦虚吗？
 
谦虚抑或自大
不进入这个场景
反而迫使鹦鹉
前进或让空气
在春天现形
让金钱
困窘着我们，每一张陋网
装扮得珠光宝气，沟渠里的水
熠熠生辉，放弃你自己直到
每一只飞蛾，木槿花
或酒瓶碎片
装饰你的衣服
亲吻裙摆，不合时宜
仍在继续，留给我们如此这般？
 
 
The Things of the World
 
Wherever the eye lingers
it finds a hunger.
The things of the world
Inside each pebble or leaf
or puddle is a hook.
The appetites of the world
compete to catch a look.
What does this mean
and how does it work?
Why aren’t rocks complete?
Why isn’t green adequate
to green? We aren’t gods
whose gaze could save,
but that’s how the things
of the world behave. 
 
世间万物
 
目光停留之处
寻找饥饿
世间万物
把我们当晚餐
每一片叶子
每一个水坑
都有一个钩子
世界的胃口
竞相博取眼球
这意味着什么?
又如何运转?
为什么岩石不够完整?
为什么绿色
还不够绿色?我们不是神
凝视便可得救
但这就是
万物的运行方式 
 
 
A Certain Kind of Eden
 
It seems like you could, but
you can’t go back and pull
the roots and runners and replant.
It’s all too deep for that.
You’ve overprized intention,
have mistaken any bent you’re given
for control. You thought you chose
the bean and chose the soil.
You even thought you abandoned
one or two gardens. But those things
keep growing where we put them—
If we put them at all.
A certain kind of Eden holds us thrall.
Even the one vine that tendrils out alone
in time turns on its own impulse,
twisting back down its upward course
a strong and then a stronger rope,
the greenest saddest strongest
kind of hope. 
 
某种伊甸园
 
看似你可以，但
你不能返回
拔掉根须和藤蔓并重新种植
一切皆根深蒂固了
你高估了你的意图
误解了你的操控能力
你原以为是你
择取了豆类及土壤
你甚至认为你遗弃了
一个或两个花园。但这些植物
会在所拔之地继续生长
如果我们彻底拔除他们
某个伊甸园紧束我们
即便独自伸出的一根藤蔓
也会适时爆发冲动
朝上虬曲
强之愈强的藤蔓
深绿希望带着强烈的悲伤

 
How Successful Can She Afford to Be?
 
Maybe the mime’s test
would be to get you to drink
from the glass she passed.
What if you did
grasp it just right;
what if it did flash
in the window light?
Would she be glad
if it left a ring,
If she could
add to the manifest,
passing a thing
out of the dream?
How close to the door
can she lean,
how genuinely bid you enter,
where she herself is a guest
on her best behavior? 
 
她能承受多大的成功？
 
也许哑剧的测试
便是让你喝
她递过来的玻璃杯
如果你恰好
握住了它？
如果它闪耀
在窗灯之下
她可否高兴
如果它遗留一个戒指
如果她
列入清单
传递一个物件
从梦中？
离门会有多近
她能倚靠
多么真诚招呼你进入
她自己也是客人 
 
 
So Different
 
A tree is lightly connected
to its blossoms.
For a tree it is
a pleasant sensation
to be stripped
of what’s white and winsome.
If a big wind comes,
any nascent interest in fruit
scatters. This is so different
from humans, for whom
what is un-set matters
so oddly—as though
only what is lost held possibility. 
 
如此迥异
 
一棵树与其上的花
联结松散
于一棵树而言
心生愉悦之感
夺去
白色花朵及迷人之处
如果大风起
任何对于水果初发的兴致
播撒。如此迥异
与人类不同，对
人类而言，未知事物
如此怪异——好似
仅失去的东西才具可能

 
Snake Charm
 
Oh for even a fingerling snake,
a three-inch inspiration full of
genetic information about length,
the making of venom, and the start
of muscles later on used for compression.
A snake, say, in a Moorish pattern, abstract,
ornamental, repeatable over a whole Toledo
without tedium. Yes, a snake the sun stretches,
a snake that improves everything it catches:
the adventitious mouse converted to stripes
or diamond patches. This snake is reckless,
with no concern for balance. It can
slide over any surface, a silent line,
an endless pattern, a generative rhyme. 
 
蛇的魔力 
 
哦，即便一条小蛇， 
三英寸的灵感 
充盈有关长度的基因信息 
生成毒液，肇始肌肉
以便以后的紧缩
如一条蛇，摩尔图式，抽象
装饰，反复点缀整个托莱多
而不乏味。是的，一条蛇在太阳下伸展， 
一条能改善其所捕之物的蛇
外来的老鼠换了条纹
和方块补丁，该蛇无比鲁莽 
不关心平衡。它可以 
滑过任意表面，一条无声的线， 
一种无尽的模式，一波生成的韵律。 
 
 
Poetry Is a Kind of Money
 
Poetry is a kind of money
whose value depends upon reserves.
It’s not the paper it’s written on
or its self-announced denomination,
but the bullion, sweated from the earth
and hidden, which preserves its worth.
Nobody knows how this works,
and how can it? Why does something
stacked in some secret bank or cabinet,
some miser’s trove, far back, lambent,
and gloated over by its golem, make us
so solemnly convinced of the transaction
when Mandelstam says gold, even
in translation? 
 
诗歌是一种货币
 
诗歌是一种货币
其面值取决于储备金
它不是印有字迹的纸，
面值也不由自己宣告，
但是金块，从泥土里淘出
藏匿，保有其价值。 
无人知晓缘由
如何可能? 为什么一些东西
存入秘密银行或密室里
某个守财奴的宝藏，久远，闪烁
其傀儡贪婪地凝视，让我们
如此确信这场交易
当曼德尔斯塔姆言及黄金
即使在翻译中 
 
 
Masterworks of Ming
 
Ming, Ming,
such a lovely
thing blue
and white
bowls and
basins glow
in museum
Light
they would
be lovely
filled with
rice or
Water
so nice
Adjunct
to dinner
or washing
a daughter
a small
Daughter
of course
since it’s
a small basin
first you
would put
one then
the other
end in. 
 
明朝杰作
 
明，明
优美至极的精品
蓝白釉色
碗以及盆
在博物馆的灯下
闪耀光芒
愉快地
乘着米饭和水
良好
助手
用于
给女儿
喂食或洗浴
一个小
女儿
当然
既然是
一个小浴盆
你得先放
一个人
最后
再放另一个 
 
 
All Shall Be Restored
 
The grains shall be collected
from the thousand shores
to which they found their way,
and the boulder restored,
and the boulder itself replaced
in the cliff, and likewise
the cliff shall rise
or subside until the plate of earth
is without fissure. Restoration
knows no half-measure. It will
not stop when the treasured and lost
bronze horse remounts the steps.
drain back to green veins in stone.
Even this horse will founder backward
to coin, cannon, and domestic pots,
which themselves shall bubble and
And every word written shall lift off
letter by letter, the backward text
read ever briefer, ever more antic
in its effort to insist that nothing
shall be lost. 
 
一切皆需修复
 
谷物汇集
从千千万万个海岸
在那里，他们寻到了路
复原巨石
巨石自身重新进入
悬崖，同样地
悬崖上升
或下沉直到地球板块
没有裂缝
修复没有折衷之法。不会
停止，遗失的珍贵
青铜马重登台阶
流回石头中绿色的纹理
连马匹也会重铸为
硬币，大炮及日用铜罐
他们将冒泡
书上的文字将抹去
逐字逐句，其后的文本
读来更显简洁，古怪突兀
以此努力维持
不遗失任何东西

 
Full Measure
 
You will get your full measure.
But, as when asking fairies for favors,
there is a trick: it comes in a block.
And of course one block is not
like another. Some respond to water,
giving everything wet a little flavor.
Some succumb to heat, like butter.
Others give to steady pressure.
Others shatter at a tap. But
some resist; nothing in nature softens up
their bulk and no personal attack works.
People whose gift will not break
live by it all their lives; it shadows
every empty act they undertake. 
 
万全之策
 
你将得到你的万全之策
但，当你向仙女求情
有一个窍门：你得一步步来
当然每一步皆不同
较之前一步，一些喜欢水
给所有湿的东西一点味道
一些怕热，如黄油
其他的给与恒定的压力
另一些一敲即碎。但
另一些抵抗；任何自然之物软化不了
他们的身体，个人攻击也无用。
拥有这种天赋的人终其一生
生活不会因之破坏；它掩盖了
他们从事的每一个空洞的行为 
 
 
Stars of Bethlehems
 
Throughout the sky
there are cinders
black as the night.
These are unborn stars
awaiting their source of light.
The night is gritty
with things to hit,
should something
go on in a city
or the outskirts of it. 
 
伯利恒的星空
 
夜空浩渺
灰烬满布
黑如夜晚
未诞的星星
等待光之源
夜空粗砾
用某物淬击
应有某物
接续在城市
或郊区他处
 
 
How Birds Sing
 
One is not taxed;
one need not practice;
one simply tips
the throat back
over the spine axis
and asserts the chest.
The wings and the rest
compress a musical
squeeze which floats
a series of notes
upon the breeze.
 
鸟儿如何欢唱？
 
一只用不着交税
一只无需练习
一只仅需使点小招
鸣管缩至
脊柱上
胸腔扩张开来
翅膀和其他部位
挤压出乐音
一系列音调
在微风里飘扬
 
 
How a Thought Thinks
 
A thought is dumb,
without eyes, ears,
opposable thumb,
or a tongue.
A thought lives
underground, not
wholly mole-ish
but with some
of the same
disinterests.
The amazing thing
is that it isn’t helpless.
Of all creatures
it is the most
random eater.
Caring only for travel
it eats whatever
roots, ants, or gravel
it meets. It occupies
no more space
than moles. We know it
only by some holes
and the way
apparently healthy notions
topple in the garden. 
 
思想如何思考
 
思想是一个哑巴
无眼亦无耳
未长对生拇指
也无舌头
思想幽居地底
不完全似鼹鼠
但也有一些
相似的冷漠
惊诧处
它并非无助
在所有生物中
它捕食
最为随意
痴心于旅行
遇上树根，蚂蚁和沙石
皆可吃下
不比
鼹鼠
占用空间多
我们知晓它
仅通过
一些洞穴
以及貌似健康的观念
在花园里
坍塌的方式
 
 
Intention
 
Intention doesn’t sweeten.
It should be picked young
and eaten. Sometimes only hours
separate the cotyledon
from the wooden plant.
Then if you want to eat it,
you can’t. 
 
意图
 
意图不会自己变甜
我们需尽早采摘
并吃下。有时只有时间
可分离子叶
于木本植物中
那时，你想要再吃
已无可能 
 
 
If the Moon Happened Once
 
If the moon happened once,
it wouldn’t matter much,
would it?
One evening’s ticket
punched with a
round or a crescent.
You could like it
or not like it,
as you chose.
It couldn’t alter
every time it rose;
it couldn’t do those
things with scarves
it does. 
 
如果月亮仅出现一次
 
如果月亮仅出现一次
并未有什么紧要，
是吧？
一张晚上的票
打上
圆形或新月形的孔
喜欢或不喜欢
随你
改变不了
月亮每一次的上升
它不能做这些
事情
如围巾一般
 
 
New Clothes
 
The emperor who
was tricked by the tailors
is familiar to you.
But the tailors
keep on changing
what they do
to make money.
(Tailor means
to make something
fit somebody.)
Be guaranteed
that they will discover
your pride.
You will cast aside
something you cherish
when the tailors whisper,
“ Only you could wear this
It is almost never clothes
such as the emperor bought
but it is always something close
to something you’ve got. 
 
新装
 
一位皇帝
受骗于裁缝
你有所听闻
但裁缝
不断改变
他们的所作所为
来谋取利益
（订做意味着
量身制作）
确保
他们显耀
你的骄傲
你将厌弃
你所珍惜的东西
当裁缝窃窃私语
你仅能穿着的
几乎没穿衣服
如皇帝所购买的那件
但总有相近之处
在你所拥有的东西之间 
 
 
Against Gravity
 
How do we move
under weight?
What opposite force
do we generate
that keeps our clothes
floating around us,
for instance, or goes
any distance toward
explaining our fondness
For jumping?
Some pump,
like a fish tank’s, maybe;
some auto-aeration or something.
Because we’re glad some mornings,
and buoyant, as though we had
no bombs or appointments.
 
抵抗重力
 
负重下
我们如何移动？
该产生
怎样的抵抗力
才能衣袂飘飘
假定，进一步
解释我们的喜好
对于跳高？
某个泵
也许如在鱼缸里
某个自动换气机或其他
我们因此欣喜于某个清晨
如此轻快，好似
我们没有炸弹和条约 
 
 
Sonnet to Spring
 
The brown, unpleasant,
aggressively ribbed and
unpliant leaves of the loquat,
shaped like bark canoes that
something squashed flat,
litter the spring cement.
A fat-cheeked whim of air—
a French vent or some similar affair—
with enough choices in the front yard
for a blossomy puff worthy of Fragonard,
instead expends its single breath
beneath one leathery leaf of loquat
which flops over and again lies flat.
Spring is frivolous like that. 
 
关于春天的十四行诗
 
呈棕褐色，令人不悦
棱纹分明
枇杷叶僵硬
形状如独木舟
被某物压平
丢弃在春天的水泥地上
空中胖嘟嘟脸蛋的奇思妙想
法国通风孔或一些类似的韵事——
在前庭有足够多的选择
值得弗拉戈纳尔画笔的绚烂冒出
而非耗掉一次次呼吸
在皮质的枇杷叶下
翻转，复又躺平于地
春天就是这样轻佻 
 
 
Poetry in Translation
 
It is
so snug—
the skin
of the living animal
stretched out
to a rug
shaped something
like the United States.
One meditates
upon a
Florida-like flap—
a forward leg
which ran
the Russian steppes
perhaps? 
 
翻译中的诗歌
 
舒畅
动物的皮肤
磨蹭地毯
塑形事物
如美国
一个冥想
位于
佛罗里达似的襟翼
前腿
跑过
俄罗斯草原
也许？
 
 
If She Only Had One Minute
 
What would she put in it?
She wouldn’t put
she thinks; she would take,
suck it up
like a deep lake—
bloat indiscriminate
on her last instant—
feast on everything she
had released, dismissed, or
pushed away; she would make
room and room as though
her whole life of resistance
had been for this one purpose:
on the last minute of the last day
she would drink and have it; ballooning
like a gravid salmon or the moon. 
 
若她仅有一分钟
 
她会放入什么？
她不会放入
她的思想；她将吞下
吸入
如一个深湖
任胃部鼓胀
于最后的速食
盛宴，她吃下
一切，曾放弃，摒绝，
推离；她将腾出
一个个房间，好似
一生的反抗
仅为此目的
在最后一天的最后一刻
她大吃大喝；膨胀
如孕育的大马哈鱼或月亮 
 
 
Elephant Rocks
 
Here and there,
at the edges and marges,
a bit of an elephant surfaces—
a dome and a dip, a haunch
or an aspect of head—
some worn-away soft and yet
angular hump of the
shambling elephant armature,
up through the earth—a bump
or a knob with the elephant signature.
The ancient, implacable creature
comes ambling back; a bulge
reemerges, that sober, that
giveaway grey. The dirt
rubs away from a treasure
too patient and deep to be lost,
however we’ve hurt, whatever
we’ve done to the beasts,
whatever we say. 
 
大象岩石
 
此处和彼处
在边缘
大象的表层——
凸圆和凹槽，腰部
和头的侧面——
一些磨损的柔软以及
棱角凸起
摇晃的大象盔甲
穿越地表——凸块
疙瘩带有大象的特征
古老，难对付的生物
慢悠悠返回，隆起
再现，持重，
暴露的灰色，尘土
从宝物中擦拭
太过于耐心于深入不至于遗失
无论我们受过何等伤害，无论
我们曾对这种野兽做过什么
无论我们说过什么
 
 
Nothing Ventured
 
Nothing exists as a block
and cannot be parceled up.
So if nothing’s ventured
it’s not just talk;
it’s the big wager.
Don’t you wonder
how people think
the banks of space
and time don’t matter?
How they’ll drain
the big tanks down to
slime and salamanders
and want thanks? 
 
无所冒险
 
没有什么东西如空心块
无法被打包
所以如果不去冒险
那就不仅是空谈
还是一个大赌注
你难道不好奇
人们怎么认为
空间和时间的银行
不重要吗?
他们如何排干
巨大的贮水池
露出黏液和蝾螈
还想要得到感谢？ 
 
 
That Will to Divest
 
Action creates
a taste
for itself.
Meaning: once
you’ve swept
the shelves
Of spoons
and plates
you kept
for guests,
it gets harder
not to also
simplify the larder,
not to dismiss
rooms, not to
divest yourself
of all the chairs
but one, not
to test what
singleness can bear,
once you’ve begun. 
 
清除的意志
 
行动
为自己
创造品味
意味着：一旦
你清除
橱柜上的
勺子
与盘子
为客人而备
很难
不顺带
精简食物柜
也将会
减少房间，也会
移走椅子
但并非
用来测试
单身的承受度
一旦你开始的话
 
 
Winter Fear
 
Is it just winter
or is this worse.
Is this the year
when outer damp
obscures a deeper curse
that spring can’t fix,
when gears that
turn the earth
won’t shift the view,
when clouds won’t lift
though all the skies
go blue. 
 
冬天恐惧
 
仅是冬天
抑或更糟糕的情况
是这个年头吗？
正当室外潮湿
掩饰了一个狠狠的诅咒
春天无法修复
转动地球的齿轮
不再变幻景色
当云朵不再
漂浮天空
颜色变蓝
 
 
Beasts
 
Time lingers
quietly in attics.
Romantics are
always fingering
some discolored
fabric or other,
feeling a deep
nostalgia for sepia,
a mellow sadness
at what keeps
but yellows.
But other people
don’t trust ambering
or court the filigrees
of rust. They’ve
seen lost greens
of memory ignite,
dead dogs released,
and don’t invite
the rainbow beasts. 
 
野兽
 
时间悄悄
逗留在阁楼
浪漫主义
总会抚摸
褪色的布料
深深怀念
墨黑色
成熟的悲伤
于自身
仅是黄色
而他人
不会信任黄褐色
寻求生锈的金银丝饰品
他们
遗落了记忆
唤醒的绿色
无用的人释放
彩虹色的野兽
不受欢迎
 
 
Gaps
 
Gaps don’t
just happen.
There is a
generative element
inside them,
a welling motion
as when cold
waters shoulder
up through
warmer oceans.
And where gaps
choose to widen,
coordinates warp,
even in places
constant since
the oldest maps. 
 
隔阂
 
隔阂不会
自发存在
其中
自有产生机制
在内部
膨胀运动
当冷冽的水
从温热的海水中
涌出
隔阂不断
加深的地方
与之相应的偏见
在某处
不变
自最古老的地图
出现以来
 
 
The Fabric of Life
 
It is very stretchy.
We know that, even if
many details remain
sketchy. It is complexly
woven. That much too
has pretty well been
proven.
We are loath
to continue our lessons,
which consist of slaps
as sharp and dispersed
as bee stings from
a smashed nest,
when any strand snaps—
hurts working far past
the locus of rupture,
attacking threads
far beyond anything
we would have said
connects. 
 
生活的结构
 
弹性十足
我们知晓
即便许多细节依然粗略
复杂编织
那么多的事情
已经良好证明
我厌恶
继续我们的课程
由缺口组成
尖锐和分散
如蜜蜂叮着
覆巢
当任何一股断裂时
伤害过程
远超过断裂的轨迹，
攻击线程
远远超过
我们所说的
连接 
 
 
Help
 
Imagine help
as a syllable,
awkward but utterable.
How would it work
and in which distress?
How would one gauge
the level of duress
at which to pitch
the plea? How bad
would something
have to be?
It’s hard,
coming from a planet
where if we needed something
we had it. 
 
帮助
 
想象一下
帮助是一个音节
不恰当却强可言说
它如何工作
在何种困境之中？
一个人如何测定
胁迫的水平？
在何处寻求申辩？
事情会
坏到何种程度？
艰难
来自一个星球
在其上，我们需要的事物
均可得到
 
 
The Pass
 
Even in climes
without snow
one cannot go
forward sometimes.
Things test you.
You are part of
the Donners or
part of the rescue:
a muleteer in
earflaps; a
formerly hearty
midwestern farmer
perhaps. Both
parties trapped
within sight
of the pass. 
 
关口
 
即便一个地方
无雪
人也不能
随时前往
事件考验你
你来自唐纳家族
或是救援者中的一员
戴着耳罩的骡夫
原先是健壮的
中西部农民
双方都
被困在关口
视线之内
 
 
Diamonds
 
Is the snail
Sharpened
by crawling
over diamonds?
Is her foot
Hardened
so it can’t
carry her?
No. Snails
make mucus.
Even the
most precious
Barriers
to lettuce
are useless. 
 
钻石
 
蜗牛
爬越钻石
是否变得沉重？
她的脚
是否变得僵硬
不能移动
不，蜗牛
会留下粘液
即便
最扎实
的篱笆
对于生菜而言
毫无意义