夏日  　

谁创造了世界？
谁创造了天鹅，和黑熊？
谁创造了蚱蜢？
蚱蜢，我指的是——
跳出草丛的这一只，
正在我手中吃糖的这一只，
正在来回而不是上下移动她的颚——
正在用她巨大而复杂的眼睛四处张望的这一只。
现在她抬起柔弱的前臂，彻底洗净她的脸。
现在她张开翅膀，飞走了。
我不能确定祷告是什么。
我只知道如何专注，如何躺进
草里，如何跪在草中，
如何偷懒并享受幸福，如何在田野闲逛，
这是我整天所做的事。
告诉我，我还应该做什么？
难道一切不是最终都死去了？
告诉我，你打算做什么，
用你疯狂而宝贵的一生？

作者 / [美国]玛丽·奥利弗
翻译 / 倪志娟

The Summer Day  　

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean–
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down–
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?

by Mary Oliver