早上的咖啡。我不太清楚我为什么喝它。或许它是一种宗教仪式,杯子、茶匙、热水、奶、一小堆黄糖聚在一起,形成一个我可以把一天挂在上面的钉子。或许是因为在睡着和醒来之间总要做些什么。当然,确实有些事情——比起喝一杯速溶咖啡——更值得做。比如说冥想?关于什么?关于喝一杯咖啡。一杯喝第一口的时候太烫,喝最后一口的时候又太凉的咖啡,但中间的那一口口咖啡,恰似熊宝宝的燕麦粥——刚刚好。熊爸爸憋着无名火儿,他摘下眼镜,转动眼珠看着坐在熊宝宝面前的杯子,然后,在断续咳嗽几下后,展开肩肘把杯子拿起来。熊宝宝不理解早晨的惯例为什么会突然中断。熊爸爸把杯子靠近它的脸,仔细端详。杯子在它的熊爪中破碎,真真切切地炸开,把碎片和棕色的液体撒遍屋子。从某种意义上来说熊妈妈不在那里是一件好事。该庆幸它在花园外面的坟墓里长眠,不知道这个世界上发生了什么。
作者 / [美国] 朗·帕吉特
翻译 / 光诸
The morning coffee. I’m not sure why I drink it. Maybe it’s the ritual
of the cup, the spoon, the hot water, the milk, and the little heap of
brown grit, the way they come together to form a nail I can hang the
day on. It’s something to do between being asleep and being awake.
Surely there’s something better to do, though, than to drink a cup of
instant coffee. Such as meditate? About what? About having a cup of
coffee. A cup of coffee whose first drink is too hot and whose last drink
is too cool, but whose many in-between drinks are, like Baby Bear’s por-
ridge, just right. Papa Bear looks disgruntled. He removes his spectacles
and swivels his eyes onto the cup that sits before Baby Bear, and then,
after a discrete cough, reaches over and picks it up. Baby Bear doesn’t
understand this disruption of the morning routine. Papa Bear brings
the cup close to his face and peers at it intently. The cup shatters in his
paw, explodes actually, sending fragments and brown liquid all over the
room. In a way it’s good that Mama Bear isn’t there. Better that she rest
in her grave beyond the garden, unaware of what has happened to the
world.
Ron Padgett
选这首诗基于撞墙后的不清醒。在此之前我曾经试着翻译Nathaniel Hawthorne的《The Ocean》,还有Edward Thomas的《I Never Saw that Land Before》,结果发现翻译押韵的古风英文诗真是自讨苦吃。中文不押韵没有那个味儿,押上韵又会透出浓浓的中国东北风味儿,可惜小沈阳并不是“读睡”的声优。
然后,就撞到了这首名字就叫《散文诗》的诗。本诗的作者朗·帕吉特生于1942年,属于美国先锋派诗人,对法国超现实主义和达达派情有独钟。《散文诗》这个名字明显带有某种戏剧反讽的味道——我就用大白话写,看写出些什么。作为翻译者,我真的特别喜欢大白话儿。
不过,帕吉特先生虽然通篇用的是大白话儿,但是最终写出的诗并不好懂。开始瞎默叨的那几句算是茶杯风波,中产阶级的无病呻吟吧,突然形容不冷不热的速溶咖啡是“熊宝宝的燕麦粥”,仔细想想,真的是让人拍大腿叫绝的形容。但这之后,可能是诗人喝了咖啡眼皮打架又陷入了半睡眠状态,熊宝宝的气包子爸爸和死妈妈突然出场了,而且咖啡杯子还碎了一屋子。诗人这么写倒也不奇怪,他的老师法国超现实主义就是看看树上的水滴就能想遍太阳系的脑洞星人;而达达派更是“我随便甩,你随便捡”,你说你不懂——其实我自己也不懂。
可这首诗真的没有更深一步的意义,或者深度情感吗?好像也有一些。亲爱的读者们,你们对这首诗有什么自己的解读?请给“读睡”后台写信。还有,开头提到的那两首诗,大家一块儿翻翻看哟。
荐诗 / 光诸(微信号 ghostinthezoo)
2014/09/01
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