核桃树挽歌柳向阳 译

ELEGY FOR A WALNUT TREEW·S·默温


记得你年轻时模样的老朋友
Old friend now there is no one alive
如今没有一个活着
who remembers when you were young
我初次见到你是在盛夏
it was high summer when I first saw you
我大半生之前的白昼强光里
in the blaze of day most of my life ago
枯草正在你的树荫下窃窃私语
with the dry grass whispering in your shade
而你已经活过了战争
and already you had lived through wars
和围绕着你的沉寂的战争回响
and echoes of wars around your silence
活过了离别的日子和缺席的季节
through days of parting and seasons of absence
年岁自行其道而房屋空空
with the house emptying as the years went their way
最终成了蝙蝠和燕子的家
until it was home to bats and swallows
你再次张开了蜷曲着沉睡的
and still when spring climbed toward summer
新生树叶的手指,仿佛什么都没发生
you opened once more the curled sleeping fingers
你和季节说着同一种语言
of newborn leaves as though nothing had happened
所有这些年我一直透过你的枝叶
you and the seasons spoke the same language
看下面的河水和屋顶和夜晚
and all these years I have looked through your limbs
你就是我看世界的方式
to the river below and the roofs and the night
and you were the way I saw the world


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