One afternoon the last week in April

四月最后一周的一天下午

Showing Kai how to throw a hatchet

教卡伊怎样抛掷战斧

One-half turn and it sticks in a stump.

转动一半它就插入树桩。

He recalls the hatchet-head

他想起战斧的头

Without a handle, in the shop

没有柄，在商店

And go gets it, and wants it for his own.

拿它，想把它作为己有。

A broken-off axe handle behind the door

门后的一根断掉的柄

Is long enough for a hatchet,

长得足以作斧柄，

We cut it to length and take it

我们按长度刻划它，把它

With the hatchet head

与战斧的头

And working hatchet, to the wood block.

还有工作斧一起拿到木砧上。

There I begin to shape the old handle

在那里我开始用战斧

With the hatchet, and the phrase

给旧斧柄造型，最初

First learned from Ezra Pound

向埃兹拉·庞德学到的警句

Rings in my ears!

在我的耳里鸣响！

"When making an axe handle

“伐柯伐柯

                 the pattern is not far off."

其则不远”。

And I say this to Kai

而我对卡伊这样说

"Look: We'll shape the handle

“瞧：我们将通过核查

By checking the handle

那我们用来砍它的工作斧柄

Of the axe we cut with—"

来给战斧柄造型——”

And he sees. And I hear it again:

他明白了。我又听见：

It's in Lu Ji's Wên Fu, fourth century

在公元四世纪陆机的

A.D. "Essay on Literature"-—in the

《文赋》里——序言中

Preface: "In making the handle

说：“至于

Of an axe

操斧

By cutting wood with an axe

伐柯

The model is indeed near at hand."

虽取则不远”。

My teacher Shih-hsiang Chen

我的老师陈世骧

Translated that and taught it years ago

多年前就译出并讲授它

And I see: Pound was an axe,

而我明白了：庞德是斧子，

Chen was an axe, I am an axe

陈是斧子，我是斧子

And my son a handle, soon

而我的儿子是斧柄，很快

To be shaping again, model

再次重新造型，模型

And tool, craft of culture,

和工具，文化的技艺，

How we go on.

我们延续的方式。