鱼骨随波远离哈特拉斯,
The last two sherpas were the strongest,
这里有其他死亡追求我们的迹象,在水上,
faithful companions, their faces wind-peeled,
在陆地上追求我们:在松林中,
streaked with soot and glacier-light on the snowfield
在被污染的空气中,
below the summit where we stopped to rest.
一条蜷曲的水蝮蛇在苔藓上打滚。
The first was my body, snug in its cap of lynx-
诞生,而非死亡,是重大的损失。
fur, smelling of yak butter and fine mineral dirt,
我知道。
agile, impetuous, broad-shouldered,
我也在那里留下一张皮。
alive to the frozen bite of oxygen in the larynx.
The second was my intellect, dour and thirsty,
furrowing its fox-like brow, my calculating brain
searching for some cairn or chasm to explain
my decision to send them back without me.
Looking down from the next, ax-cleft serac
I saw them turn and dwindle and felt unafraid.
Blind as a diamond, sun-pure and rarefied,
whatever I was then, there was no turning back.