David Wright - An Invocation to the Goddess 汉译

O sea born and obscene<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Venus I see ascend

Fishbright upon a shell

Out of a salty pool

Angels and flesh attend,

The dolphin-sewn and blown

Mirrors of sea surround

As bawdy as a boy

That blank desirous form.

The goddess smiles from joy,

I look her in the groin;

Her seakale coloured eyes

Acknowledge her concern.

Not the ideal but real

Half sheltered by her hand,

Sty of ambiguities

Offensive and divine.

Venus preferring joy

Defenceless from the sea

Attending to defend,

Feminine, debonair,

Step naked to the shore.

Step, wound in your hair,

And singing galleries

Fish, fowl, flesh, surround you.

I cry your worshipper

Upon this island ground

Down by a sky and still

Crying borne by a sea,

Rejected and acclaimed.

Announce perfection, smile

Upon what is deformed,

Accept what is, and be.

Beach, beach your scallop here

By pillars of a sea

Whose black-backed dolphins plunge,

Plunge and thrash salty hair.

 

                                                 1958