Black Cat

A ghost, though invisible, still is like a place
your sight can knock on, echoing; but here 
within this thick black pelt, your strongest gaze 
will be absorbed and utterly disappear:

just as a raving madman, when nothing else 
can ease him, charges into his dark night 
howling, pounds on the padded wall, and feels 
the rage being taken in and pacified.

She seems to hide all looks that have ever fallen 
into her, so that, like an audience,
she can look them over, menacing and sullen,
and curl to sleep with them.
But all at once 

as if awakened, she turns her face to yours;
and with a shock, you see yourself, tiny,
inside the golden amber of her eyeballs 
suspended, like a prehistoric fly.

黑貓

一個鬼魂， 即使看不到，還是會像一個空間
你的目光可以去敲擊 呼應，但是 現在 這裏
在這堆厚實的黑色皮毛裏 你最強烈的凝視
也會被吸入 直至完全消失

就像是一個狂暴的瘋子 當沒有什麽
能夠讓他得到緩解  他衝進了自己的暗夜裏
嚎叫著 一下一下重擊著加了襯墊的牆， 感覺到 感覺著
憤怒被牆麵吸收 平息

她看上去像把所有的目光 所有落進她身體裏的
目光 都收集了起來 不動聲色地 像個旁觀者
這樣在某個時候
她可以把它們重新拿出來審視，那些氣勢洶洶的陰鬱的它們
然後蜷縮起身體 在它們的身旁 跟它們一起睡去

但是突然一下子

就像是從沉睡中醒了過來， 她扭轉了自己的臉 麵向你
在震驚中 你看到了你自己 那樣渺小
在她金色的琥珀一樣的眼球裏麵
懸掛著 像個遠古時代的昆蟲
 

附：

”Rilke (1875-1926), is considered one of the greatest lyric poets of modern Germany. He created the "object poem" as an attempt to describe with utmost clarity physical objects, and the "silence of their concentrated reality." In my opinion, the above poem is a prime (and successful) example of this style, in both its composition and effect. [Where is the reader that does not see and sense and know the cat in this poem, as presented?] Rilke believed in the coexistence of the material and spiritual realms, but human beings were for him only spectators of life, grasping its beauties momentarily only to lose them again. With the power of creativity an artist can try to build a bridge between two worlds, although the task is almost too great for a man. I only mention these points because I think they become relevant toward an understanding of what he is doing with this poem. Using something fairly describable (a cat) to awaken us to something mysterious, ineffable, perhaps even numinous.”

http://bookpuddle.blogspot.ca/2005/08/rilkes-black-cat_22.html