对它们,我们这些乱糟糟的国家是空荡的战场

Crab Canon, M.C. Escher

鬼怪螃蟹

黄昏,大海变得黑沉沉,
一种深层的黑暗变浓,从海湾和海底的不毛之地聚集
到海的边缘。开始时
好像礁石展开并碾碎它们的苍白。
渐渐潮水的努力
弃下它的产物退却,
它的力量从一个个闪光的气球吊篮消逝,这些就是螃蟹。
巨蟹,在扁平的头盖骨下,凝视着内陆,
像排满一壕堑的钢盔。
鬼怪,它们是鬼怪螃蟹。
它们浮现,
一种不可见的大海寒冷的涌吐
笼罩海滩上漫步的人。
它们涌入内陆,涌入我们树林和城镇的
烟气腾腾的红紫——一个个高大蹒跚的鬼怪
如直立的巨浪汹涌,
如闪电在水中掠过。
我们的墙壁和躯体不在它们话下,
我们看不见它们,
不能把它们驱离心头。
它们冒气泡的嘴和眼睛
在缓慢的矿物的愤怒中
逼向我们的虚空,在这其中我们伸展四肢卧身榻上,
或安坐室中。也许我们的梦会被搅扰。
也许我们在这财产的世界突然醒来,
喘着粗气,大汗淋漓,大脑把盲目挤进
电灯的光线。有时许多分钟,一种偷情的
凝视的
沉默的厚重
压在我们之间。这些螃蟹拥有这世界。
整夜,在我们周围或穿我们而过,
它们互相追逐,互相纠缠,……互相骑压,要把对方撕成碎片,
它们是这个世界的强权。
我们是它们的细菌,
死于它们的生命,活于它们的死亡。
黎明,它们侧身退回海边。
它们是历史的混沌,血液块根和合力
周期中的骚动。
对它们,我们这些乱糟糟的国家是空荡的战场。
整天它们憩息在海底。
它们的歌如同屈曲在海岬礁石里的微弱海风,
这里只有蟹在倾听。

它们是上帝唯一的玩物。

作者 / [英] 特德·休斯
翻译 / 林玉鹏

Ghost Crabs

At nightfall, as the sea darkens,
A depth darkness thickens, mustering from the gulfs and the submarine badlands,
To the sea s edge. To begin with
It looks like rocks uncovering, mangling their pallor.
Gradually the laboring of the tide
Falls back from its productions,
Its power slips back from glistening nacelles, and they are crabs.
Giant crabs, under flat skulls, staring inland
Like a packed trench of helmets.
Ghosts, they are ghost-crabs.
They emerge
An invisible disgorging of the sea s cold
Over the man who strolls along the sands.
They spill inland, into the smoking purple
Of our woods and towns–a bristling surge
Of tall and staggering specters
Gliding like shocks through water.
Our walls, our bodies, are no problem to them.
Their hungers are homing elsewhere.
We cannot see them or turn our minds from them.
Their bubbling mouths, their eyes
In a slow mineral fury
Press through our nothingness where we sprawl on beds,
Or sit in rooms. Our dreams are ruffled maybe.
Or we jerk awake to the world of possessions
With a gasp, in sweat burst, brains jamming blind
Into the bulb-light. Sometimes, for minutes, a sliding
Staring
Thickness of silence
Presses between us. These crabs own this world.
All night, around us or through us,
They stalk each other, they fasten onto each other,
They mount each other, they tear each other to pieces,
They utterly exhaust each other.
They are the powers of this world.
We are their bacteria,
Dying their lives and living their deaths.
At dawn, they sidle back under the sea s edge.
They are the moil of history, the convulsion
In the roots of blood, in the cycles of concurrence.
To them, our cluttered countries are empty battleground.
All day they recuperate under the sea.
Their singing is like a thin seawind flexing in the rocks of a headland,
Where only crabs listen.

They are God’s only toys.

Ted Hughes

 

特德·休斯与菲利普·拉金一起,被认为是第二次世界大战后英国最重要的两位诗人。

休斯写了很多动物诗,这些动物诗的主题大多是“暴力”。诗中有着凌厉的无情感、无价值取向的生命力,力量就是一切的秩序,不但统治自然,也统治着人类社会。

休斯善于运用大胆的词汇,刺耳的节奏,形成一种简括的风格。美国诗人罗伯特·洛威尔评论休斯的诗像“霹雳”。尤其是他从内部与外部两个世界来进行描写,从而展示了他自己某些形而上的思考,有很强的象征性和寓言色彩,体现了一种人类学的深度。他的诗在真实与梦魇间保持着平衡,在人与非人间维系着张力。

《鬼怪螃蟹》以非常小的视角描写了一群上岸的螃蟹,但同时又具有史诗的构架;它的篇幅并不长,却在急速变换中融合了非人和人类两个世界,在复杂的同时又极端爽利。我们人类虽然得意洋洋地享受着金钱世界,但其实,无知无觉、无痛无爱、无止无息的自然才是世界的主宰,随时准备毁灭我们。

荐诗 / 光诸
2013/03/13

 

题图 / Crab Canon, M.C. Escher

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