Edward Thomas: Words 詞語

《詞語》

 

傾盡我們所有
來譜製音韻，
你會選擇麽
有時——
就像風，利用
一道牆上的裂縫
或一條水渠，
其樂，或其痛
一路密密耳語——
用我吧，
你這些詞語？

我懂你：
你輕若夢幻，
堅韌如橡樹，
珍比黃金，
如同罌粟，玉米，
或一件舊披風：
婉轉似鳥兒
在耳邊唱，
就像密刺野薔薇
在仲夏的
炙熱中
怪異如亡故和未出生者之間
形形色色的競賽：
乖張而甜美，
同樣地，
之於眼睛，
也稔熟如故，
正如一個男人銘心於
那些最心愛的麵孔
正如失去的家園：
雖比最太古的紅豆杉
還遠為古老
正如我們的山丘，蒼老，——
磨損的新
一次又一次：
年輕如我們的溪流
在雨後：
正如親密的人兒
正如你確證我們熱愛的
大地。

讓我得以滿足
用某種來自威爾士的
甘美
其夜鶯
沒有雙翅，——
來自威爾特郡和肯特郡
以及赫裏福德郡，
和那兒的村莊，——
來自其名，其物
不多不少。
讓我偶爾與你
共舞，
或攀登，
或並立，偶爾
狂喜迷失中，
固定而自由
在一個音韻中，
正如詩人所做的那樣。

 

（微笑 譯）

 

Edward Thomas: Words

 

Out of us all
That make rhymes,
Will you choose
Sometimes –
As the winds use
A crack in the wall
Or a drain,
Their joy or their pain
To whistle through –
Choose me,
You English words?

I know you:
You are light as dreams,
Tough as oak,
Precious as gold,
As poppies and corn,
Or an old cloak:
Sweet as our birds
To the ear,
As the burnet rose
In the heat
Of Midsummer:
Strange as the races
Of dead and unborn:
Strange and sweet,
Equally,
And familiar,
To the eye,
As the dearest faces
That a man knows,
And as lost homes are:
But though older far
Than oldest yew, -
As our hills are, old, -
Worn new
Again and again:
Young as our streams
After rain:
And as dear
As the earth which you prove
That we love.

Make me content
With some sweetness
From Wales
Whose nightingales
Have no wings, –
From Wiltshire and Kent
And Herefordshire,
And the villages there, –
From the names, and the things
No less.
Let me sometimes dance
With you,
Or climb,
Or stand perchance
In ecstasy,
Fixed and free
In a rhyme,
As poets do.