雙語·《西爾維婭·普拉斯詩集》 閉嘴的勇氣

The Courage of Shutting-Up
閉嘴的勇氣

The courage of the shut mouth, in spite of artillery!
閉嘴需要勇氣，盡管大炮在眼前！

The line pink and quiet, a worm, basking.
一條粉色的幼蟲，安靜地曬太陽。

There are black disks behind it, the disks of outrage,
它身后是黑色的唱片，憤怒的唱片，

And the outrage of a sky, the lined brain of it.
還有蒼天之憤怒，儲(chǔ)存記憶的大腦。

The disks revolve, they ask to be heard—
那些唱片在旋轉(zhuǎn)，它們渴望被聽見——

Loaded as they are, with accounts of bastardies.
它們已灌滿，眾多私生子的記錄。

Bastardies, usages, desertions and doubleness,
私生子，慣例，背棄，雙重性，

The needle journeying in its groove,
那針在凹槽里滑行，

Silver beast between two dark canyons,
兩個(gè)幽暗峽谷中的銀色野獸，

A great surgeon, now a tattooist,
偉大的外科醫(yī)生，現(xiàn)在是文身師。

Tattooing over and over the same blue grievances,
針刺在反復(fù)，悲傷的苦衷也在重復(fù)，

The snakes, the babies, the tits
在美人魚，有雙腿的夢(mèng)幻女孩身上

On mermaids and two-legged dreamgirls.
文刺各種蛇，許多嬰兒、乳頭。

The surgeon is quiet, he does not speak.
外科醫(yī)生保持沉默，他不說話。

He has seen too much death, his hands are full of it.
他見過太多的死亡，雙手沾滿死亡。

So the disks of the brain revolve, like the muzzles of cannon.
于是唱片似的大腦在旋轉(zhuǎn)，猶如多個(gè)大炮口。

Then there is that antique billhook, the tongue,
還有那古老的鉤鐮，那舌

Indefatigable, purple. Must it be cut out?
不知疲倦、紫色的舌。它必須被切除？

It has nine tails, it is dangerous.
它有九條尾巴，它非常危險(xiǎn)。

And the noise it flays from the air, once it gets going!
一旦它行動(dòng)，它可在空中鞭打出噪音！

No, the tongue, too, has been put by,
不，那舌，已經(jīng)被存放一邊，

Hung up in the library with the engravings of Rangoon
掛在圖書館，連同仰光的雕刻作品

And the fox heads, the otter heads, the heads of dead rabbits.
還有狐貍頭、水獺頭、死兔的頭顱。

It is a marvelous object—
它是一個(gè)非凡之物品——

The things it has pierced in its time.
它在自己的歲月里刺穿了那些東西。

But how about the eyes, the eyes, the eyes?
但那些眼睛怎么了，那些眼睛，眼睛？

Mirrors can kill and talk, they are terrible rooms
鏡子能說話，能殘殺，可怕的房間里

In which a torture goes on one can only watch.
所持續(xù)的折磨，人只能觀看。

The face that lived in this mirror is the face of a dead man.
曾活在鏡中的臉是死亡男子的臉。

Do not worry about the eyes—
不用擔(dān)心那些眼睛——

They may be white and shy, they are no stool pigeons,
它們或許蒼白又害羞，不是密探鴿子。

Their death rays folded like flags
它們死亡之光束猶如一個(gè)國家的

Of a country no longer heard of,
旗子一樣被折疊，無人再聽說過，

An obstinate independency
一種獨(dú)立頑固不化

Insolvent among the mountains.
卻在群山中無能為力。

(1962/10/02. pp.209—210. No. 175)
* * *