(Emily Dickinson,1830 – 1886)
0164. 我無法告訴你 - 然而你感覺到它
(美)狄金森
舒嘯 譯
我無法告訴你 - 然而你感覺到它 -
你也無法讓我得知 -
聖徒們,帶著喜氣的寫字板和鉛筆
解開我們四月天的謎語!
消逝了的綠茵上消逝了的嬉戲
也比不上它的甜蜜!
騎士們的馬蹄繞過夢寐的邊際
也比不上它的迅疾!
讓我們謙卑地在它中間來去
麵孔由麵紗遮蔽 -
據說那些彬彬有禮的大天使
就是這樣去謁見上帝!
輪不到我 - 拿著它誇誇其談!
也輪不到你 - 發言
去對著哪位時髦的女士說
“迷人的四月天”!
而是交給 - 天國的“彼得·帕裏”!
遲鈍的孩童們
憑借它準備好去誦讀
更加崇高的詩文!
(J65 / Fr164)
譯記:隻有聖徒才能道出四月天的奧秘。我們能夠感覺卻無力描述,隻能謙卑地漫步其中,而不要用天氣的寒暄套語來敗壞這份美好。四月天輕疾的甜蜜其實是為了讓我們準備就緒,迎接更美好的時光。
最後一節的“彼得·帕裏”是美國著名兒童讀物作家Samuel Griswold Goodrich (1793 – 1860)的筆名。“遲鈍的孩童們”是指我們,“更加崇高的詩文”是指更加美好的時光,也就是狄金森喜愛的夏天。
(門德爾鬆《無言歌》之A大調“春之歌”)
Dickinson 原詩:
“I can't tell you — but you feel it”
I can't tell you — but you feel it —
Nor can you tell me —
Saints, with ravished slate and pencil
Solve our April Day!
Sweeter than a vanished frolic
From a vanished green!
Swifter than the hoofs of Horsemen
Round a Ledge of dream!
Modest, let us walk among it
With our faces veiled —
As they say polite Archangels
Do in meeting God!
Not for me — to prate about it!
Not for you — to say
To some fashionable Lady
"Charming April Day"!
Rather — Heaven's "Peter Parley"!
By which Children slow
To sublimer Recitation
Are prepared to go!
(J65 / Fr164)
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