我试着理解比如说“何时”，

Me trying to understand say whence

比如说“去哪儿”，比如说“什么”，比如说信手涂写，

say whither, say what, say me with a pencil walking,

比如说阅读字典，比如说学习中世纪拉丁语

say reading the dictionary, say learning medieval

读斯宾格勒，读怀特海，

Latin, reading Spengler, reading Whitehead,

威廉·詹姆斯我爱他，游蛙泳

William James I loved him, swimming breaststroke

思考一小时，“我为什么会在这里”？

and thinking for an hour, how did I get here?

或者在排队的时候思考，比如在等69路电车

Or thinking in line, say the 69 streetcar

或者68路或者67路，在斯维斯维尔市，

or 68 or 67 Swissvale,

它将把我带到别处，我带着一本教材

that would take me elsewhere, me with a textbook

讲的是前苏格拉底时代，它写得真差，

reading the pre-Socratics, so badly written,

不管作者是谁，我交叉着双腿坐在仓库地板上，

whoever the author was, me on the floor of

之后步行穿过公园

the lighted stacks sitting cross-legged,

或者有时跨过桥梁跑上山坡，

walking afterwards through the park or sometimes

在我狭小的饭厅坐下，

running across the bridges and up the hills,

以某种方式燃烧，此刻仍在燃烧。

sitting down in our tiny diningroom,

burning in a certain way, still burning.