Me trying to understand say whence
我试着理解比如说“何时”,
say whither, say what, say me with a pencil walking,
比如说“去哪儿”,比如说“什么”,比如说信手涂写,
say reading the dictionary, say learning medieval
比如说阅读字典,比如说学习中世纪拉丁语
Latin, reading Spengler, reading Whitehead,
读斯宾格勒,读怀特海,
William James I loved him, swimming breaststroke
威廉·詹姆斯我爱他,游蛙泳
and thinking for an hour, how did I get here?
思考一小时,“我为什么会在这里”?
Or thinking in line, say the 69 streetcar
或者在排队的时候思考,比如在等69路电车
or 68 or 67 Swissvale,
或者68路或者67路,在斯维斯维尔市,
that would take me elsewhere, me with a textbook
它将把我带到别处,我带着一本教材
reading the pre-Socratics, so badly written,
讲的是前苏格拉底时代,它写得真差,
whoever the author was, me on the floor of
不管作者是谁,我交叉着双腿坐在仓库地板上,
the lighted stacks sitting cross-legged,
之后步行穿过公园
walking afterwards through the park or sometimes
或者有时跨过桥梁跑上山坡,
running across the bridges and up the hills,
在我狭小的饭厅坐下,
sitting down in our tiny diningroom,
以某种方式燃烧,此刻仍在燃烧。
burning in a certain way, still burning.