What if you knew you'd be the last

要是你知道，自己会是最后一个

to touch someone?

触碰某人的人呢？

If you were taking tickets, for example,

比如，你在剧院门口

at the theater, tearing them,

检票，撕开票面，

giving back the ragged stubs,

递回那些毛边的票根，

you might take care to touch that palm,

你也许会格外用心去触碰那只手掌，

brush your fingertips

让指尖轻轻拂过

along the life line's crease.

生命线的褶痕。

When a man pulls his wheeled suitcase

当一个男人拖着带轮的行李箱

too slowly through the airport, when

在机场走得太慢，当

the car in front of me doesn't signal,

我前面的车不打转向灯，

when the clerk at the pharmacy

当药房里的店员

won't say Thank you, I don't remember

连一句“谢谢”都不说，我并不会想起

they're going to die.

他们终将死去。

A friend told me she'd been with her aunt.

一个朋友告诉我，她曾陪着姨妈。

They'd just had lunch and the waiter,

她们刚吃完午饭，那名服务生，

a young gay man with plum black eyes,

一个有着李子般漆黑眼睛的年轻同性恋男子，

joked as he served the coffee, kissed

端上咖啡时开着玩笑；她们离开时，

her aunt's powdered cheek when they left.

他吻了吻她姨妈扑着粉的脸颊。

Then they walked a half a block and her aunt

然后她们走了半个街区，她的姨妈

dropped dead on the sidewalk.

倒在人行道上，死了。

How close does the dragon's spume

龙的涎沫

have to come? How wide does the crack

究竟要逼近到什么程度？天界的裂缝

in heaven have to split?

究竟要裂开多宽？

What would people look like

如果我们能够看见人们真正的样子，

if we could see them as they are,

他们会是什么模样？

soaked in honey, stung and swollen,

浸透了蜜，被蜇伤、肿胀，

reckless, pinned against time?

莽撞地活着，被时间钉住？