Anne Stevenson - Making Poetry 汉译

‘You have to inhabit poetry

if you want to make it.’

And what’s ‘to inhabit’?

To be in the habit of, to wear

words, sitting in the plainest light,

in the silk of morning, in the shoe of night;

a feeling bare and frondish in surprising air;

familiar… rare.

And what’s ‘to make’?

To be and to become words’ passing

weather; to serve a girl on terrible

terms, embark on voyages over voices,

evade the ego-hill, the misery-well,

the siren hiss of publish, success, publish,

success, success, success.

And why inhabit, make, inherit poetry?

Oh, it’s the shared comedy of the worst

blessed; the sound leading the hand;

a wordlife running from mind to mind

through the washed rooms of the simple senses;

one of those haunted, undefendable, unpoetic

crosses we have to find.

作诗

安·史蒂文森

“想要作诗

你必须置身其中。”

何为“置身其中”？

习惯于，穿着

文字的衣服，坐在最浅淡的光线里，

早晨的丝绸，夜间的鞋；

在奇异空气中像蕨菜叶子般裸露的感觉；

熟悉……罕见。

何为“作”诗？

融入和成为文字瞬间的

阴晴；为残酷的缪斯女孩儿

效力；在争议声中开始远航，

逃离自我之山，痛苦之源，

和塞壬女妖的发表、成功、发表，

成功、成功、成功的嘶嘶声。

为何要置身诗中，创作，继承？

哦，这是最不幸的人们共有的

喜剧；声音带领着手，

一种文字生活在心灵之间流淌

冲刷过简单知觉的房间；

那些令人困扰、无力反抗、毫无诗意的灾难，

我们必须悉数寻见。

（王冬菊 译）