1
I.
“天空之母呀，云朵的女王，
"Mother of heaven, regina of the clouds,
太阳的节杖 ，月亮之皇冠，
O sceptre of the sun, crown of the moon,
没有东西，对，绝对没有什么，
There is not nothing, no, no, never nothing,
像两个戕杀的词彼此迸撞的边角。”
Like the clashed edges of two words that kill."
于是我用华丽的诗章嘲弄她，
And so I mocked her in magnificent measure.
或许我反倒是嘲弄了我自身？
Or was it that I mocked myself alone?
我愿变成一块想事儿的石头。
I wish that I might be a thinking stone.
满海吐泡沫的思想又托举起
The sea of spuming thought foists up again
晶亮的水泡，大海的化身。而
The radiant bubble that she was. And then
过咸的水井里某种幽深忽然溢出，
A deep up-pouring from some saltier well
在我的体内，它喷出似水的音节。
Within me, bursts its watery syllable.
2
II.
一只小红鸟儿掠过镀金的地板。
A red bird flies across the golden floor.
这小红鸟儿在找着它的歌队，
It is a red bird that seeks out his choir
在风和雨以及翅膀的合唱队中。
Among the choirs of wind and wet and wing.
一找到，它就会抛出一股瀑布。
A torrent will fall from him when he finds.
我该不该把皱破的东西弄回原样？
Shall I uncrumple this much-crumpled thing?
我有的是钱，与继承人周旋，
I am a man of fortune greeting heirs;
我也是如此年年跟着春天寒暄。
For it has come that thus I greet the spring.
那些欢迎我的合唱对我高唱起骊歌。
These choirs of welcome choir for me farewell.
没有哪个春天能越过子午线。
No spring can follow past meridian.
但你老用鸡毛蒜皮的赏心事
Yet you persist with anecdotal bliss
来冒充你有着星空般的知识。
To make believe a starry connaissance.
3
III.
那么，悠久的中国人是否徒劳地
Is it for nothing, then, that old Chinese
理好衣冠，在深山幽池打坐？
Sat tittivating by their mountain pools
或于扬子江畔细细研究着胡须？
Or in the Yangtse studied out their beards?
我不要摆弄历史平稳的秤盘。
I shall not play the flat historic scale.
你可知道浮世绘的美人儿会是如何
You know how Utamaro's beauties sought
以身殉情，吞吃着意味深长的辫髻。
The end of love in their all-speaking braids.
你也知道芭丝那高山般的发式。
You know the mountainous coiffures of Bath.
唉，莫非所有的理发匠都白活了，
Alas! Have all the barbers lived in vain
竟没让一丝美发存活在大自然？
That not one curl in nature has survived?
你，既然对苦读的幽灵毫无怜悯，
Why, without pity on these studious ghosts,
为何要披头散发，从睡寐中走来？
Do you come dripping in your hair from sleep?
4
IV.
这甜腻的，圆满的生存之果，
This luscious and impeccable fruit of life
坠地，似乎再担不起自身之重。
Falls, it appears, of its own weight to earth.
你若还是夏娃，酸果就还会甜，
When you were Eve, its acrid juice was sweet,
未被尝过，还长在伊甸园的气候里。
Untasted, in its heavenly, orchard air.
一只苹果可充当一个骷髅，
An apple serves as well as any skull
进而变成那可通读一遍的圣书，
To be the book in which to read a round,
也好得很，因为它的组成部分
And is as excellent, in that it is composed
正是那些骷髅般腐朽落地的东西。
Of what, like skulls, comes rotting back to ground.
而它的长处是充当了爱之果，
But it excels in this, that as the fruit
这是一本狂野得难以细读的书，
Of love, it is a book too mad to read
谁也不能随便读读，打发时光。
Before one merely reads to pass the time.
5
V.
高高在上，西天燃烧着一颗烈星。
In the high west there burns a furious star.
它安装在那儿本是为了照耀
It is for fiery boys that star was set
热乎乎的少年和身边吐香的处女。
And for sweet-smelling virgins close to them.
浓烈的爱欲的尺度也正好是
The measure of the intensity of love
测量大地之活力的尺度。
Is measure, also, of the verve of earth.
而对于我，萤火虫带电的流光
For me, the firefly's quick, electric stroke
嘀嗒回响着又一年倦怠的时光。
Ticks tediously the time of one more year.
你呢？你记得蟋蟀如何爬出
And you? Remember how the crickets came
母亲草地，像一群小小的亲戚，
Out of their mother grass, like little kin,
在夜色苍茫中。这时，你最初的
In the pale nights, when your first imagery
形象，已露出与尘土相联的端倪。
Found inklings of your bond to all that dust.
6
VI.
四十岁的男人如果还要画山水，
If men at forty will be painting lakes
必将把短命的众蓝混为一谈，
The ephemeral blues must merge for them in one,
石板的底色，宇宙的天光。
The basic slate, the universal hue.
有一种实质一直主宰着我们。
There is a substance in us that prevails.
而从我们的肉欲，色情家看出
But in our amours amorists discern
好些让他们气喘吁吁的波动，
Such fluctuations that their scrivening
诡诈的细节，他们无从恭录。
Is breathless to attend each quirky turn.
当色情家秃了头，色情也就
When amorists grow bald, then amours shrink
萎缩进罗盘和课表，经受
Into the compass and curriculum
内省的放逐，到处布道。
Of introspective exiles, lecturing.
这是一个留给风信子的主题。
It is a theme for Hyacinth alone.
7
VII.
天使骑着驴子慢悠悠地下凡，
The mules that angels ride come slowly down
从太阳那边，经过耀眼的光芒。
The blazing passes, from beyond the sun.
他们悦耳的铃铛声越来越近。
Descensions of their tinkling bells arrive.
赶驴人也个个优雅得体。
These muleteers are dainty of their way.
这当儿，百夫长们大笑起来，
Meantime, centurions guffaw and beat
在桌上拍打着呼啸的酒盏。
Their shrilling tankards on the table-boards.
这则寓言的喻意可归结如下：
This parable, in sense, amounts to this:
天国之蜜可得，也未必可得，
The honey of heaven may or may not come,
而大地之蜜却是来了又去。
But that of earth both comes and goes at once.
试想：这些信使在其列队中
Suppose these couriers brought amid their train
也带了个如花似玉的好闺女。
A damsel heightened by eternal bloom.
8
VIII.
像个愚笨的学究，我钟情地凝注
Like a dull scholar, I behold, in love,
古典的课题触动新的心灵。
An ancient aspect touching a new mind.
显形，开花，结果，尔后死去。
It comes, it blooms, it bears its fruit and dies.
这譬喻虽俗，却多少启示了真理。
This trivial trope reveals a way of truth.
我们的花已谢，我们演变成果实。
Our bloom is gone. We are the fruit thereof.
我们的蔓藤上两只金葫芦鼓囊囊的，
Two golden gourds distended on our vines,
深入秋天，通体点缀着银霜，
Into the autumn weather, splashed with frost,
肥硕得走了样，变得有点荒唐。
Distorted by hale fatness, turned grotesque.
带着条纹和斑斓，我俩像疣瘤似的
We hang like warty squashes, streaked and rayed,
南瓜一样悬着。笑眯眯的天空看着
The laughing sky will see the two of us
冬雨把我们浇烂，蹂成碎皮。
Washed into rinds by rotting winter rains.
9
IX.
狂野的诗章中，充满了动和响，
In verses wild with motion, full of din,
哇啦又砰嘭，喧闹声此起彼伏，
Loudened by cries, by clashes, quick and sure
像战场上男子汉想着致命的念头，
As the deadly thought of men accomplishing
落实古怪的命运。监护神丘比特，
Their curious fates in war, come, celebrate
来吧，让我们庆贺四十岁的信仰。
The faith of forty, ward of Cupido.
最可敬的心，那最色情的思想
Most venerable heart, the lustiest conceit
也不能使博大的你心旌摇荡。
Is not too lusty for your broadening.
为了配置帝王的乐曲和派头，
I quiz all sounds, all thoughts, all everything
我盘查每个音，每个想法，等等，
For the music and manner of the paladins
安置好祭品。哪儿我才能找到
To make oblation fit. Where shall I find
一段华彩，来配合这宏大的颂歌？
Bravura adequate to this great hymn?
10
X.
空想的花花公子在诗行中留下
The fops of fancy in their poems leave
玄妙的水龙头喷出的大事记，
Memorabilia of the mystic spouts,
忽发奇想，浇灌他们多石的地皮。
Spontaneously watering their gritty soils.
我是自由民，跟大伙儿一样。
I am a yeoman, as such fellows go.
我没有见识过什么魔树香枝，
I know no magic trees, no balmy boughs,
也不知何谓银红或朱金的水果。
No silver-ruddy, gold-vermilion fruits.
不过，我深知有那么一棵树，
But, after all, I know a tree that bears
它跟我心灵中的那件东西相似。
A semblance to the thing I have in mind.
它高高耸立，含着一种脆响，
It stands gigantic, with a certain tip
吸引着各路鸟雀飞落其间。
To which all birds come sometime in their time.
即便它们飞走，树儿仍脆响不绝。
But when they go that tip still tips the tree.
11
XI.
如果性是一切，那每只哆嗦的手
If sex were all, then every trembling hand
都能捏叫我们欲望之词，像洋娃娃。
Could make us squeak, like dolls, the wished-for words.
但请留心乖戾命运骇人的捉弄，
But note the unconscionable treachery of fate,
叫你哭，笑，叫你哼，叫你闹，
That makes us weep, laugh, grunt and groan, and shout
大放悲歌，从疯癫或快活中
Doleful heroics, pinching gestures forth
捏出各种怪样子，完全不顾
From madness or delight, without regard
那原初的戒律。苦闷的时辰啊！
To that first, foremost law. Anguishing hour!
昨夜，我们坐在一个粉红的池边，
Last night, we sat beside a pool of pink,
四周剪落的百合，闪亮的铬栏
Clippered with lilies scudding the bright chromes,
汇合着星辉的指点。而一只
Keen to the point of starlight, while a frog
田蛙，从肚皮下吼出可憎的歌。
Boomed from his very belly odious chords.
12
XII.
瞧，一只蓝鸽子，在蓝天盘旋，
A blue pigeon it is, that circles the blue sky,
翅儿侧着。一圈一圈又一圈。
On sidelong wing, around and round and round.
瞧，一只白鸽子，飞落到地面，
A white pigeon it is, that flutters to the ground,
倦于再飞。像个幽黑的经师，我
Grown tired of flight. Like a dark rabbi, I
年纪轻轻在庄重的书斋静观
Observed, when young, the nature of mankind,
人之本性。每天我竟发现，
In lordly study. Every day, I found
人是我假斯文世界里的小注脚。
Man proved a gobbet in my mincing world.
后来，像个洪亮的经师，我
Like a rose rabbi, later, I pursued,
我叩问又叩问爱之起源和它的
And still pursue, the origin and course
演变，但只到此刻我才领悟
Of love, but until now I never knew
展翅的事物有着如此清晰的投影。
That fluttering things have so distinct a shade.