When a blizzard powders the harbor, when the creaking pine

当一场暴风雪把海港搅成粉末，当嘎吱作响的松树

leaves in the air an imprint deeper than a sled’s steel runner,

在空中留下比雪撬的钢滑板更深的印痕，

what degree of blueness can be gained by an eye? What sign

何种程度的蓝可以被一只眼睛获得？从谨慎的

language can sprout from a chary manner?

风度中可以长出什么手势语？

Falling out of sight, the outside world

跌出视野以外，外部世界

makes a face its hostage: pale, plain, snowbound.

劫持一张面孔作人质：苍白、平凡、被雪困住。

Thus a mollusk stays phosphorescent at the ocean’s floor

因此一只软体动物把磷光留在海底，

and thus silence absorbs all speeds of sound.

也因此寂静吸收所有的声速。

Thus a match is enough to set a stove aglow;

因此一根火柴足以令一个火炉通红；

thus a grandfather clock, a heartbeat’s brother,

因此一个落地大摆钟，这心跳的兄弟，

having stopped this side of the sea, still tick-tocks to show

在停止了这边的大海之后，仍然要滴答，证明

time at the other.

另一边的时间。