沿街而下
那是离开迈克尔后我租的，他把它漆成亮黄色，几十年后
它还是同样的颜色，迈克卷曲的黑发上沾着油漆的星星，
站在门口，拿着啤酒罐，说着，好了，说着，你确定
要这样做吗，像一个二十二岁的年轻人一样确定，他是我第一个恋人，
我嫁给他是因为他求婚了，也因为他眼中的神情，好像没有人会更爱我，
我们吻别，他身上那种甜丝丝的烟味儿，他上了他的卡车，开往科罗拉多，我走进屋里，
打开窗户，坐在单人床上，那是唯一能坐的地方，除了那张伤痕累累的桌子旁边的折叠椅，
我在那里吃芥末三明治，在活页本上写作，读《时间与河流》，900页，
读完后又重新开始，深夜站在外面，蜥蜴在路灯下的小巷里乱窜，
微风中树影如水，我的影子融入其中，
那颗心年轻而又苍老。
Down the Lane
Down the lane winding between & behind houses, I find the cottage
I rented after I left Michael, he painted it bright yellow, decades later
it’s the same color, Mike with stars of paint in his curly black hair,
standing at the door, beer can in hand, saying, Done, saying, You sure
about this, sure as a twenty-two-year-old, he was my first lover
who I married because he asked & because of the look
in his eyes like no one could love me more, we kissed good-bye,
his smoky-sweet smell, he got into his truck, drove to Colorado, I went inside,
opened the windows, sat on the twin bed, only place to sit except a folding
chair at the scarred table where I ate mustard sandwiches, wrote in a spiral
notebook, read Of Time and the River, 900 pages, starting over again
when I finished, stood outside late at night, lizards darting across
the lane under streetlights, in the breeze the trees’ shadows watery,
mine mixed among them, the heart young & old at once.
I rented after I left Michael, he painted it bright yellow, decades later
it’s the same color, Mike with stars of paint in his curly black hair,
standing at the door, beer can in hand, saying, Done, saying, You sure
about this, sure as a twenty-two-year-old, he was my first lover
who I married because he asked & because of the look
in his eyes like no one could love me more, we kissed good-bye,
his smoky-sweet smell, he got into his truck, drove to Colorado, I went inside,
opened the windows, sat on the twin bed, only place to sit except a folding
chair at the scarred table where I ate mustard sandwiches, wrote in a spiral
notebook, read Of Time and the River, 900 pages, starting over again
when I finished, stood outside late at night, lizards darting across
the lane under streetlights, in the breeze the trees’ shadows watery,
mine mixed among them, the heart young & old at once.
今天给大家介绍一首挺“正常”的爱情诗。就连这首诗的作者的名字都有些过于“正常”，苏珊·布朗，给人一种“路人甲”的感觉。
她是出生在美国的异性恋白人女诗人，在美国的文艺创作界实在是一枚没有故事的女同学，以至于简历上没有什么可以抓住的东西。不过也许正是因为缺乏“特殊性”，使她的诗更具“普遍性”，让我们“读睡”的读者更容易理解和接受。
诗人贾斯温德·博利纳 (Jaswinder Bolina）如此评价布朗的诗集《怪物粥》（Monster Mash）：“在她机敏而又极具亲和力的新诗中，苏珊·布朗呈现了一种世界观，这种世界观有时充满哀伤，有时充满不祥的预感，但始终扎根于温柔而细腻的人性之中。这些诗歌描写了‘地点’……但它们也是‘时间’的诗篇，在其中，诗人对自身死亡和时间性的思考贯穿始终，为我们带来了引人注目的观察和深刻的视角。”
这个评价也适用于今天这首诗，它融合了时间和空间，讲述了一个关于爱和成长的故事。
对于写作者来说，读这首诗还有一种特别的乐趣。这种乐趣有点像在网上发现一个实拍的，但是却无限循环的视频，有心人会去找那个剪辑点在哪里。
这首诗也颇似一个无限循环的视频，它让几十年前的自己和现在的自己的生活无缝连接在了一起。 如果仔细分析，会发现作者“沿街而下”找到那个小屋，是不可能进去的，所以“坐在床上”应该是22岁时发生的事情。
但是“树影如水”是在何时呢？也许它发生在两个时刻，把过去和现在连接起来。这个时刻，这个地点，凝结成一个本身有生命的物体，它是永恒的，既苍老又年轻。
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