Was it worth waiting in consulates

是否值得在領事館等待

for some clerk’s fleeting good humor

某個職員一閃即逝的好脾氣

and waiting at the station for a late train,

和在火車站等待晚班車，

seeing Etna in its Japanese cloak

值得看披著日本斗篷的埃特納火山

and Paris at dawn, as Haussman’s conventional caryatids

和拂曉的巴黎，當奧斯曼那些傳統手法的女像柱

came looming from the dark,

從黑暗中迎面聳立，

entering cheap restaurants

值得進入廉價餐館

to the triumphal smell of garlic,

去聞那喜氣洋洋的大蒜味，

was it worth taking the underground

值得搭乘我想不起是

beneath I can’t recall what city

什麽城市下的地鐵

to see the shades of not my ancestors,

去看不是我的祖先的幽靈，

flying in a tiny plane over an earthquake

值得坐小型飛機盤旋在西雅圖

in Seattle like a dragonfly above a fire, but also

一次地震上猶如蜻蜓在火堆上，卻又

scarcely breathing for three months, asking anxious questions,

幾乎三個月不能呼吸，提些焦慮的問題，

forgetting the mysterious ways of grace,

忘記恩典的神秘方式，

reading in papers about betrayal, murder,

在報紙上讀背叛和謀殺的故事，

was it worth thinking, remembering, falling

是否值得思考、回憶、陷入

into deepest sleep, where gray hallways

最深的沉睡，沉睡中灰色的門廳

stretched, buying black books,

伸展，值得購買黑書，

jotting only separate images

匆匆從一個比我未見過的塞維利亞的大教堂

from a kaleidoscope more glorious than the cathedral

還輝煌的萬花筒裏

in Seville, which I haven’t seen,

記下零散的影像，

was it worth coming and going, was it—

是否值得來來去去，是否——

yes no yes no

是也好不是也好

erase nothing.

都抹不掉什麽。