Judith Wright - Drought Year 汉译

That time of drought the embered air<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

burned to the roots of timber and grass.

The crackling lime-scrub would not bear

and Mooni Creek was sand that year.

The dingo’s cry was strange to hear.

 

I heard the dingoes cry

in the scrub on the Thirty-mile Dry.

I saw the wedgetail take his fill

perching on the seething skull.

I saw the eel wither where he curled

in the last blood-drop of a spent world.

 

I heard the bone whisper in the hide

of the big red horse that lay where he died.

Prop that horse up, make him stand,

hoofs turned down in the bitter sand

make him stand at the gate of the Thirty-mile Dry.

Turn this way and you will die—

and strange and loud was the dingoes’ cry.

 

旱年

朱迪斯·赖特

 

大旱之年，灰烬的气息

燃烧至 草木的根。

石灰岩上干裂的灌木几乎难以承受，

那一年，穆尼河中只有沙子。

野狗的叫声无比怪异。

 

我听见野狗

在三十里旱地的灌木丛中吠叫，

我看见鹡鸰，心满意足地

栖息在发烫的骷髅上

我看见鳗，枯萎，卷曲，

耗尽了这衰颓的世界中最后一滴血。

 

我听见骨头在死去的大红马

的毛皮中，低语。

请让它活过来吧，让它站起来，

马蹄踏着苦涩的沙地，

让它站立在三十里旱地之前。

角色调换一下，死去的将是你——

野狗的叫声奇怪而响亮。

 

（倪志娟 译）