Sourdough French bread and pinot chardonnay

發酵的法式長條面包和比諾莎當妮葡萄酒

*

*

Apricots—

杏子——

the downy buttock shape

那有絨毛的臀部形狀

hard black sculpture of the limbs

樹枝的鐵黑色雕像

on Saratoga hillsides in the rain.

在雨中薩拉托加山坡上

*

*

These were the staples of the China trade:

這些曾是中國貿易的主要商品：

sea otter, sandalwood, and bêche-de-mer

海獺，檀香木，以及食用海參

*

*

The pointillist look of laurels

月桂樹的點彩畫樣子

their dappled pale green body stirs

它們有斑點的淡綠色樹幹

down valley in the morning wind

沿著山谷在晨風中攪動

Daphne was supple

瑞香柔和

my wife is tan, blue-rippled

我太太是棕色、藍色的漣漪

pale in the dark hollows

在黑暗的空間變得蒼白

Kit Carson in California:

*

It was the eyes of fish

that shivered in him the tenderness of eyes

凱特·卡爾森在加利福尼亞：

he watched the ships come in

那是魚的眼睛

at Yerba Buena once, found obscene

那樣顫抖於他內心那溫柔的眼睛

the intelligence of crabs

他曾看著船抵達

their sidelong crawl, gulls

耶爾巴布埃納島，覺得可憎：

screeching for white meat,

蟹類的智力

flounders in tubs, startled

它們橫向爬行，海鷗

為那白肉發出尖叫，

*

桶中的比目魚，驚恐

Musky fall—

*

slime of a saffron milkcap

the mottled amanita

麝香的秋天——

delicate phallic toxic

黏滑的松乳菇

斑駁的傘形毒菌

*

嬌嫩的陰莖般的毒物

How old

*

the fruity warmth of zinfandel

geometries of “rational viticulture”

多麼古老

果味溫和的馨芳葡萄酒

Plucked from algae sea spray

「合理的葡萄栽培」的幾何學研究

cold sun and a low rank tide

sea cucumbers

採自大海噴吐的海藻

lolling in the crevices of rock

寒冷的太陽和低落的潮汐

they traded men enough

海參

to carve old Crocker’s railway out of rock

在礁石裂縫裏懶洋洋地躺著

to eat these slugs

它們交易人足以

bêche-de-mer

雕刻岩石中古老瓦罐的軌跡

吃這些蛞蝓

*

食用海參

The night they bombed Hanoi

*

we had been drinking red pinot

that was winter the walnut tree was bare

夜晚他們轟炸河內

and the desert ironwood where waxwings

我們在喝著加州紅葡萄酒

perched in spring drunk on pyracantha

那是冬天胡桃樹光禿

squalls headwinds days gone

而在沙漠鐵木那兒太平鳥

north on the infelicitous Pacific

棲息於火棘上春天的醉熏熏裏

風暴頂頭風的日子去了

*

北方在不幸的太平洋上

The bleak intricate erosion of these cliffs

*

seas grown bitter

這些複雜侵蝕的陰冷峭壁

with the salt of continents

海變得苦澀

*

由於大陸的鹽

Jerusalem artichokes

*

raised on sandy bluffs at San Gregorio

near reedy beaches where the steelhead ran

菊芋

升起在聖格雷戈里奧含沙的斷崖上

Coast range runoff turned salt creek

靠近蘆葦叢生、虹鱒洄遊的海灘

in the heat and indolence of August

在八月的炎熱和懶散裏

*

海岸山脈徑流變成含鹽的小溪

That purple in the hills

*

owl’s clover stiffening the lupine

while the white flowers of the pollinated plant

那群山中的紫色

seep red

貓頭鷹三葉草使羽扇豆堅硬

然而異花授粉植物的白色花朵

the eye owns what is familiar

滲出紅色

felt along the flesh

“an amethystine tinge”

眼睛認可常見的

感覺屬於肉體

*

「一種紫水晶的淺淡色調」

Chants, recitations:

*

Olema

Tamalpais Mariposa

吟詠，念誦

Mendocino Sausalito San Rafael

奧利馬

Emigrant Gap

塔馬爾帕斯山蝴蝶百合

Donner Pass

門多西諾　索薩利托　聖拉菲爾

移民城

Of all the laws

唐納山口

that bind us to the past

the names of things are

所有的慣例

stubbornest

那樣將我們束縛在過去

事物之名

*

難以對付

Late summer—

*

red berries darken the hawthorns

curls of yellow in the laurels

夏末——

your body and the undulant

紅色的漿果將那山楂變黑

sharp edges of the hills

月桂樹裏黃色的卷髮

你的軀幹和群山

*

波浪形鋒利的邊緣

Clams, abalones, cockles, chitons, crabs

*

*

蛤蚌，鮑魚，鳥蛤，石鱉，螃蟹

Ishi

*

in San Francisco, 1911:

it was not the sea he wondered at

國際種子健康促進會

that inland man who saw the salmon

1911年，在舊金山：

die to spawn and fed his dwindling people

讓他感到吃驚的不是海

from their rage to breed

那個內陸人見過鮭魚

it was the thousands of white bodies

死於產卵，提供食物給他日益減少的同胞

on the beach

在它們的繁殖熱裏

“Hansi saltu…” so many

是成千上萬雪白的軀體

ghosts

在海灘上

「很多白人……」那麼多

*

幽靈

The long ripple in the swamp grass

*

is a skunk

he shuns the day

沼澤草叢中經久不息的漣漪

是一只臭鼬

他晝伏夜出