雪和雪　

雪有时是个她，一个轻柔的人。
她的吻落上你的脸颊，手指抚过你的衣袖
在十二月初，在一个温暖的夜晚，
你一转身遇见了她，喊道“下雪了!”
但是没有下。那里无人。
天空中空寂、幽静。

雪有时是个他，一个偷偷摸摸的家伙。
用一个潮湿的斑点他在干冷的石头上微弱地标下印记。
无家可归，他飘荡，落进池塘，消失不见。
陷在危险的赤贫中，他踉跄着轻叩窗户。
他附着于草尖，稍许长久些
抓住他的握杆。

而她多么依人，多像条毛茸茸的狐狸皮围巾
用其温暖环抱天空，用柔软依偎大地。
她那些闪亮、扎堆的童话是怎样地沉陷空间的静寂
建起她的宫殿，直到它闪烁出星光——
地基则太过脆弱
或者说不过是一点煤烟。

他无声的军团是怎样地整夜行进
等我们醒来，所有道路已被封锁
每座山头都被攻取，全部农场均被占领
他营帐的耀眼白光反射在天花板上。
沉闷忧郁的一整天，直到暮色如斯
我们只能看着更多的雪来到。

而在堆满垃圾的世界里，万物
在她施行的奇迹下都是伴娘。
粪堆和暗黑发脆的旧谷仓在她光彩的礼拜堂里弯腰行礼，
树林中阴森的潮湿地窖
是一场正在进行的
婚礼，遍布蕾丝。

作者 / [英国]特德·休斯
翻译 / 赵四
选自 / 《季节之歌》，广西人民出版社|大雅

Snow and Snow   　

Snow is sometimes a she, a soft one.
Her kiss on your cheek, her finger on your sleeve
In early December, on a warm evening,
And you turn to meet her, saying ‘It’s snowing!’
But it is not. And nobody’s there.
Empty and calm is the air.

Sometimes the snow is a he, a sly one.
Weakly he signs the dry stone with a damp spot.
Waifish he floats and touches the pond and is not.
Treacherous-beggarly he falters, and taps at the window.
A little longer he clings to the grass-blade tip
Getting his grip.

Then how she leans, how furry foxwrap she nestles
The sky with her warm, and the earth with her softness.
How her lit crowding fairytales sink through the space-silence
To build her palace, till it twinkles in starlight –
Too frail for a foot
Or a crumb of soot.

Then how his muffled armies move in all night
And we wake and every road is blockaded
Every hill taken and every farm occupied
And the white glare of his tents is on the ceiling.
And all that dull blue day and on into the gloaming
We have to watch more coming.

Then everything in the rubbish-heaped world
Is a bridesmaid at her miracle.
Dunghills and crumbly dark old barns are bowed in the chapel of her sparkle,
The gruesome boggy cellars of the wood
Are a wedding of lace
Now taking place.

Ted Hughes