The Speed ofBelief – (Excerpt) by tracy K. Smith
In memoriam,Floyd William Smith 1935–2008
When yourown sweet father died
You wokebefore first light
And ate halfa plate of eggs and grits,
And ate halfa plate of eggs and grits,
And drank aglass of milk.
當你自己親愛的父親去世時
你在天亮之前醒來
吃了半碟的雞蛋和玉米糊，
喝一杯牛奶。
After you’d left,I sat in your place
And finishedthe toast bits with jam
And the coldeggs, the thick bacon
Flanged infat, savoring the taste.
在你離開之後，我坐在你的位置
吃完塗果醬的烤麵包丁
涼雞蛋，厚培根
泡在脂肪裏，細細品味。
Then Islept, too young to know how narrow
And gravethe road before you seemed—
All thehouses zipped tight, the night’s
Few cloudsmuddy as cold coffee.
然後我入睡了，太年幼還意識不到
在你麵前的路是多狹窄艱難
所有房屋緊閉，夜晚
幾朵雲渾濁如冷咖啡
You stayed gonea week, and who were we
Without yourclean profile nicking away
At anythingthat made us afraid?
One neighborsent a cake. We ate
你去了一星期，我們迷惘了，
沒有你的清晰形象阻擋
任何使我們恐懼的東西？
一個鄰居送來蛋糕，我們吃了
The bakedchickens, the honeyed hams.
We bowed ourheads and prayed
You’d comeback safe,
Knowing you would.
Knowing you would.
烤雞，蜂蜜火腿。
我們低頭祈禱
你會平安歸來，
確信你會。
這篇譯作得到京燕等朋友的修改指正，特此致謝！
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