發酵的法式長條面包和比諾莎當妮葡萄酒

Sourdough French bread and pinot chardonnay

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杏子——

Apricots—

那有絨毛的臀部形狀

the downy buttock shape

樹枝的鐵黑色雕像

hard black sculpture of the limbs

在雨中薩拉托加山坡上

on Saratoga hillsides in the rain.

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這些曾是中國貿易的主要商品：

These were the staples of the China trade:

海獺，檀香木，以及食用海參

sea otter, sandalwood, and bêche-de-mer

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*

月桂樹的點彩畫樣子

The pointillist look of laurels

它們有斑點的淡綠色樹幹

their dappled pale green body stirs

沿著山谷在晨風中攪動

down valley in the morning wind

瑞香柔和

Daphne was supple

我太太是棕色、藍色的漣漪

my wife is tan, blue-rippled

在黑暗的空間變得蒼白

pale in the dark hollows

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Kit Carson in California:

It was the eyes of fish

凱特·卡爾森在加利福尼亞：

that shivered in him the tenderness of eyes

那是魚的眼睛

he watched the ships come in

那樣顫抖於他內心那溫柔的眼睛

at Yerba Buena once, found obscene

他曾看著船抵達

the intelligence of crabs

耶爾巴布埃納島，覺得可憎：

their sidelong crawl, gulls

蟹類的智力

screeching for white meat,

它們橫向爬行，海鷗

flounders in tubs, startled

為那白肉發出尖叫，

桶中的比目魚，驚恐

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*

Musky fall—

slime of a saffron milkcap

麝香的秋天——

the mottled amanita

黏滑的松乳菇

delicate phallic toxic

斑駁的傘形毒菌

嬌嫩的陰莖般的毒物

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How old

the fruity warmth of zinfandel

多麼古老

geometries of “rational viticulture”

果味溫和的馨芳葡萄酒

「合理的葡萄栽培」的幾何學研究

Plucked from algae sea spray

cold sun and a low rank tide

採自大海噴吐的海藻

sea cucumbers

寒冷的太陽和低落的潮汐

lolling in the crevices of rock

海參

they traded men enough

在礁石裂縫裏懶洋洋地躺著

to carve old Crocker’s railway out of rock

它們交易人足以

to eat these slugs

雕刻岩石中古老瓦罐的軌跡

bêche-de-mer

吃這些蛞蝓

食用海參

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The night they bombed Hanoi

we had been drinking red pinot

夜晚他們轟炸河內

that was winter the walnut tree was bare

我們在喝著加州紅葡萄酒

and the desert ironwood where waxwings

那是冬天胡桃樹光禿

perched in spring drunk on pyracantha

而在沙漠鐵木那兒太平鳥

squalls headwinds days gone

棲息於火棘上春天的醉熏熏裏

north on the infelicitous Pacific

風暴頂頭風的日子去了

北方在不幸的太平洋上

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The bleak intricate erosion of these cliffs

這些複雜侵蝕的陰冷峭壁

seas grown bitter

with the salt of continents

海變得苦澀

由於大陸的鹽

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Jerusalem artichokes

raised on sandy bluffs at San Gregorio

菊芋

near reedy beaches where the steelhead ran

升起在聖格雷戈里奧含沙的斷崖上

靠近蘆葦叢生、虹鱒洄遊的海灘

Coast range runoff turned salt creek

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

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That purple in the hills

owl’s clover stiffening the lupine

那群山中的紫色

while the white flowers of the pollinated plant

貓頭鷹三葉草使羽扇豆堅硬

seep red

然而異花授粉植物的白色花朵

滲出紅色

the eye owns what is familiar

felt along the flesh

眼睛認可常見的

“an amethystine tinge”

感覺屬於肉體

「一種紫水晶的淺淡色調」

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Chants, recitations:

Olema

吟詠，念誦

Tamalpais Mariposa

奧利馬

Mendocino Sausalito San Rafael

塔馬爾帕斯山蝴蝶百合

Emigrant Gap

門多西諾　索薩利托　聖拉菲爾

Donner Pass

移民城

唐納山口

Of all the laws

that bind us to the past

所有的慣例

the names of things are

那樣將我們束縛在過去

stubbornest

事物之名

難以對付

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Late summer—

red berries darken the hawthorns

夏末——

curls of yellow in the laurels

紅色的漿果將那山楂變黑

your body and the undulant

月桂樹裏黃色的卷髮

sharp edges of the hills

你的軀幹和群山

波浪形鋒利的邊緣

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Clams, abalones, cockles, chitons, crabs

蛤蚌，鮑魚，鳥蛤，石鱉，螃蟹

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Ishi

in San Francisco, 1911:

國際種子健康促進會

it was not the sea he wondered at

1911年，在舊金山：

that inland man who saw the salmon

讓他感到吃驚的不是海

die to spawn and fed his dwindling people

那個內陸人見過鮭魚

from their rage to breed

死於產卵，提供食物給他日益減少的同胞

it was the thousands of white bodies

在它們的繁殖熱裏

on the beach

是成千上萬雪白的軀體

“Hansi saltu…” so many

在海灘上

ghosts

「很多白人……」那麼多

幽靈

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The long ripple in the swamp grass

is a skunk

沼澤草叢中經久不息的漣漪

he shuns the day

是一只臭鼬

他晝伏夜出