After the leaves have fallen, we return

秋叶落尽，我们对事物又

To a plain sense of things. It is as if

一目了然。这就像

We had come to an end of the imagination,

我们来到了想象的尽头，

Inanimate in an inert savoir.

滞留在一种枯燥的理解里。

It is difficult even to choose the adjective

难以选中哪个形容词来应对

For this blank cold, this sadness without cause.

这空茫的冷，这莫名的哀。

The great structure has become a minor house.

鸿篇巨构变成一个小屋，

No turban walks across the lessened floors.

没有头巾帽走过萎缩了的地板。

The greenhouse never so badly needed paint.

温室急需油漆一新。

The chimney is fifty years old and slants to one side.

五十年的烟囱老旧得歪斜。

A fantastic effort has failed, a repetition

一种异想天开的努力已经失败，

In a repetitiousness of men and flies.

只用重复，重复着人和苍蝇。

Yet the absence of the imagination had

正是想象力的空缺

Itself to be imagined. The great pond,

急需被想象。巨大的池塘，急需

The plain sense of it, without reflections, leaves,

明白的体验，既无倒影，落叶，烂泥，

Mud, water like dirty glass, expressing silence

水也不像脏玻璃，满口沉默，只

Of a sort, silence of a rat come out to see,

表达出那种老鼠来偷窥时的沉默。

The great pond and its waste of the lilies, all this

大池塘和它百合花的残骸，都

Had to be imagined as an inevitable knowledge,

必须被想象成一种必然的认知，

Required, as a necessity requires.

一种急需，必不可少的急需。