The name of the author is the first to go

最先走的是作者的名字，

followed obediently by the title, the plot,

然后题目、情节乖乖跟随，

the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel

然后是虐心的结局，最后是整部小说，

which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of,

变成你从没读过，

甚至从没听说过的什么东西。

as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor

decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,

这就好比啊，

to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

一个接一个，那些你曾经停在港口的记忆，

决定跑到你大脑的南半球，

Long ago you kissed the names of the nine muses goodbye

到一个没有电话的小渔村去养老。

and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,

and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,

在很久以前，你和九个缪斯女神的名字吻别，

看二次方程式打点包裹，

something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,

现在你即使试着背下行星们的座次，

the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.

肯定会有其他的什么东西溜走，可能是一种国花，

Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,

一个叔叔的地址，或者巴拉圭的首都。

it is not poised on the tip of your tongue

or even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.

无论你想记起什么，

它都不会在你的舌尖上好好呆着，

It has floated away down a dark mythological river

甚至会猫在你脾脏的什么边边角角。

whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall

它已经沿着一条黑暗的神话之河漂流而下，

well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those

我记得这条河的名字叫L……L什么来着？

who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.

好吧，你这么走下去会加入

No wonder you rise in the middle of the night

那些把如何游泳和骑车都忘了的队伍。

to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.

No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted

毫不奇怪你会在半夜起来，

out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.

从一本战争专著中翻找一个著名战役的时间；

毫不奇怪那窗前明月会漂走，

离开那首

你曾经全心热爱的诗。