How do they do it, the ones who make love

他们是怎么做到的，那些做爱

without love? Beautiful as dancers,

却没有爱的人？美得像舞者，

gliding over each other like ice-skaters

像花滑运动员一样在对方身上滑行

over the ice, fingers hooked

滑过坚冰，手指勾入

inside each other's bodies, faces

彼此的身体，脸

red as steak, wine, wet as the

红得像牛排、红酒，湿得像

children at birth whose mothers are going to

刚出生的孩子，他们的母亲正要

give them away. How do they come to the

将他们排出。他们是如何要到了

come to the come to the God come to the

要到了要到了神的身旁要到了

still waters, and not love

静静的水边，却并不爱

the one who came there with them, light

那和他们一起来到这里的人？光

rising slowly as steam off their joined

像蒸汽一样从他们的皮肤上

skin? These are the true religious,

缓缓升起。这些才是真正的信徒、

the purists, the pros, the ones who will not

纯粹主义者、专业人士，他们不会

accept a false Messiah, love the

接受假弥赛亚、爱牧师

priest instead of the God. They do not

而不是爱上帝的人。他们不会

mistake the lover for their own pleasure,

错把爱侣视为自己的快乐，

they are like great runners: they know they are alone

他们就像伟大的跑者：他们知道自己只是

with the road surface, the cold, the wind,

孤独地与路面、寒冷、风、

the fit of their shoes, their over-all cardio-

鞋子的合脚程度、心脑血管的

vascular health—just factors, like the partner

健康状况相伴——只有这些因素，才像

in the bed, and not the truth, which is the

床上的伴侣，而不是真相，真相就是

single body alone in the universe

那宇宙中唯有的身体独自

against its own best time.

对抗自己最好的时光。