文字難度:★★
Hart Crane(哈特·克萊恩,1899-1932),美國詩人。生于美國俄亥俄州,自幼就極度焦慮,情緒波動較大。他十幾歲就開始寫作,雖從未上過大學(xué),但他按著自己的癖好閱讀了大量文學(xué)作品。Hart致力于運用現(xiàn)代工業(yè)化都市中的景觀來創(chuàng)造強有力的新的文學(xué)語碼,其詩形式上雖依循傳統(tǒng),但在遣詞造句上常采用古語。雖常被批評晦澀難懂及故弄玄虛,但Hart同時又被公認為是當(dāng)時最具影響力的詩人之一。Hart于1932年從一艘由墨西哥駛回紐約的輪船甲板上跳海自殺,死時年僅33歲。他生前只出版了兩本詩集——《白色樓群》(1926)和《橋》(1930)。
There are no stars tonight
But those of memory.
Yet how much room for memory there is
In the loose 1)girdle of soft rain.
今夜沒有星星
卻有回憶點點。
而流云柔雨中
能容多少回憶?
There is even room enough
For the letters of my mother’s mother,
Elizabeth,
That have been pressed so long
Into a corner of the roof
That they are brown and soft,
And liable to melt as snow.
原來回憶盡在其中,
連我祖母伊麗莎白的信
也還在,
擠塞在屋頂一角
很久很久。
已經(jīng)泛黃、柔軟,
隨時像雪一般融化。
Over the greatness of such space
Steps must be gentle.
It is all hung by an invisible white hair.
It trembles as 2)birch limbs webbing the air.
走進這回憶的圣殿
腳步一定要輕柔。
它全系于一根看不見的白發(fā)。
它顫抖著,如樺樹枝在網(wǎng)羅空氣。
And I ask myself:
我問自己:
“Are your fingers long enough to play
Old keys that are but echoes:
Is the silence strong enough
To carry back the music to its source
And back to you again
As though to her?”
“你的手指是否長到能觸及
那古老琴鍵,帶來哪怕只是回音點點:
四周的靜寂是否強大到
能把音樂送至其源頭
再次傳回給你
如同傳給她一般?”
Yet I would lead my grandmother by the hand
Through much of what she would not understand;
And so I stumble. And the rain continues on the roof
With such a sound of gently pitying laughter.
而我愿拉著我祖母的手
一起穿越她難以理解的種種;
這一路我跌跌撞撞。而雨繼續(xù)敲打著屋頂,
發(fā)出輕柔憐憫的笑聲。
這首詩富有內(nèi)涵,意境很美。歲月一刻不停地流逝,祖母已白發(fā)鬢鬢,她的情書卻還被完好保存著,雖已泛黃,“隨時像雪一般融化”。情書是跟隨她一生的行李之一,就像一把開啟青春,開啟美好回憶的鑰匙。輕,但貴重。回憶的圣殿不容喧嘩,被珍藏著的愛也將繼續(xù)被呵護,永不褪色。當(dāng)詩人拉著祖母的手“一起穿越她難以理解的種種”,他一路“跌跌撞撞”,也有自己難以理解的東西,包括他生活的那個時代,人們嚴重歧視同性戀者,而他就有同性戀傾向。欽佩“飛蛾撲火”之精神的他,最后選擇縱身投向大海,只灑脫地在人間留下最后一句話:“Goodbye, everyone!”