他们俩都相信
是一股突来的激情撮合他们。
这么肯定固然美丽，
但不肯定还要美丽。

由于他们以前没见过面，所以他们相信
他们之间没有任何牵扯。
但听听街道、楼梯、走廊怎么说──
也许他们已擦肩而过一百万次？

我想问他们
他们是否记得──
在某个旋转门
面对面的瞬间？
也许在人群中轻声说过“对不起”?
打电话时对方一句粗率的“拨错号”？──
但我知道答案。
不，他们想不起来。

要是他们知道
偶然已经暗暗捉弄了他们好多年了
他们一定会吃惊。

它还不太想
成为他们的命中注定，
它把他们拉近，又把他们推远，
挡住他们的路，
堵住一个笑声，
然后躲到一边。

有过种种信号和迹象，
尽管他们都还没读懂它们。
也许三年前，
甚至就在上星期四
有一片叶子
从一个肩膀飘到另一个肩膀？
一个掉了什么，另一个把它捡起来。
谁知道呢，也许是那个消失到
童年灌木丛里的球？

有些门柄和门铃，
一个握过按过，另一个
又握过按过。
行李箱检查过后并排着。
也许，某夜，做一个梦，
到早上便模糊了。

每一个开始
无非是一个后续，
那绵延不绝的事件之书
永远从中间看起。

作者 / [波兰] 维斯瓦娃·辛波丝卡 (Wislawa Szymborska)
翻译 / 黄灿然

Love at First Sight

Both are convinced
that a sudden surge of emotion bound them together.
Beautiful is such a certainty,
but uncertainty is more beautiful.

Because they didn’t know each other earlier, they suppose that
nothing was happening between them.
What of the streets, stairways and corridors
where they could have passed each other long ago?

I’d like to ask them
whether they remember– perhaps in a revolving door
ever being face to face?
an “excuse me” in a crowd
or a voice “wrong number” in the receiver.
But I know their answer:
no, they don’t remember.

They’d be greatly astonished
to learn that for a long time
chance had been playing with them.

Not yet wholly ready
to transform into fate for them
it approached them, then backed off,
stood in their way
and, suppressing a giggle,
jumped to the side.

There were signs, signals:
but what of it if they were illegible.
Perhaps three years ago,
or last Tuesday
did a certain leaflet fly
from shoulder to shoulder?
There was something lost and picked up.
Who knows but what it was a ball
in the bushes of childhood.

There were doorknobs and bells
on which earlier
touch piled on touch.
Bags beside each other in the luggage room.
Perhaps they had the same dream on a certain night,
suddenly erased after waking.

Every beginning
is but a continuation,
and the book of events
is never more than half open.

English translated by Walter Whipple

黑手团的张小台推荐了这一首很有名的诗，我猜她的意思是或然性才是愚人节的主角吧。

人生的或然性与必然性之争由来已久。庞加莱的《科学与方法》一书中分析了四种“或然性的来源”，初始条件的不确定、计算手段有难以弥补的缺陷、理论的复杂程度，都会导致我们不知道一件事是怎么发生的。而第四种来源则是，宇宙运行的规律本质就在或然性基础之上，这超出了前三种人类理智所能解释的范畴。

作分析总是很枯燥的，我个人更倾向于认为，我们的一生有着某种必然性，每一个决定都不是毫无缘故，每一次遭遇的人都不是毫无理由。过于随意地对待周遭的一切，是浪费珍贵的时间。

这首诗有点长，也许我们永远不知道明天会吃到哪一颗巧克力，也许什么都不想会睡得更舒服。

荐诗 / 范致行
2013 /04/01