My Dolphin, you only guide me by surprise,

我的海豚，你只是出其不意地为我指路，

a captive as Racine, the man of craft,

仿佛被囚的手艺人拉辛①

drawn through his maze of iron composition

由菲德尔②无与伦比的缥缈歌声指引

by the incomparable wandering voice of Phèdre.

穿越他生铁构筑的迷宫。

When I was troubled in mind, you made for my body

当我头脑一片混乱，你让我的身体

caught in its hangman's-knot of sinking lines,

被它的刽子手吊绳的绳结套住，

the glassy bowing and scraping of my will. . . .

这绳结是我的意志无表情的恭敬……

I have sat and listened to too many

我已经坐着听到太多

words of the collaborating muse,

那同谋的缪斯的言辞，

and plotted perhaps too freely with my life,

它们太过随意地与我的生活密谋

not avoiding injury to others,

不免伤到其他人，

not avoiding injury to myself—

不免伤到我自己——

to ask compassion . . . this book, half fiction,

它们请求怜悯……这本书，半是虚构，

an eelnet made by man for the eel fighting

如一张与鳗鱼③缠斗之人织就的渔网——

my eyes have seen what my hand did.

我双手从事的，我双眼已目睹。

注释：

①拉辛（Jean Racine，1639-1699），法国剧作家。代表作有《安德罗玛克》《菲德尔》等。洛威尔1961年翻译出版过拉辛作品《菲德尔》。

②菲德尔，拉辛戏剧《菲德尔》中的同名主人公。

③鳗鱼（eel），在此处是双关修辞，ell 在英文里亦有“油滑者”之意。