白昼是我们在彼此之间翻开的一本书,湖泊是我们在一起反复阅读的一个句子

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湖泊效应

她说:“湖泊像一本翻开的书,
白昼像一位读者恒久的凝视。”

我说:“白昼是我们在彼此之间翻开的一本书,
湖泊是我们在一起反复阅读的
一个句子,我们的声音
是鬼魂、面包和地平线。”

她说:“一首以多种声音唱起的
在许多房间回旋飘荡的歌。”

我说:“心思像一个湖泊,
而你的声音泡沫状。”

她说:“书像一个声音,每天晚上
它的书页在鸟儿们预言的房间里燃烧。”

我说:“湖泊持续地变化着它的心思,
在八月末这个词
和葡萄成熟前夕的颜色之间
犹豫不决。”

她说:“书召唤读者来读
水、风、火、尘土的规律
和声音的命数。”

我说:“一个临湖房间里的声音,
湖泊本身就像是一个古老的声音,一种
难以言传的规律,为彼此讲起
各自故事中丢失部分的
哥哥和姐姐的
一个伙伴。”

她说:“湖泊是一本书。翻开
这书说:

‘这世界满是人,但很少
有人被发现。

这世界满是光,然而谁
见过这东西?

这世界全黑,然而一只手找到了抵达另一只手的
途径,一张嘴发现了通往另一张嘴的路线。’”

我说:“湖泊持续地变化着它的心思,
一本翻页的书,

现在云影投在书页上,
现在书页的影子投在水波上。”

她说:“落在这书上
鸟儿的和风刮起的
树叶的影子,

书页之中处于静默之骚乱状态的
鸟儿、云朵和树叶。

白昼是一道大门,一块难以辨识的石头,
一座园子,一个膝上翻开着一本书的女人。

而这书说:‘银白的,
歌唱她们的身体和男人的女人。

更暗的,歌唱他们的祖先和女人的男人。

最为黑暗的是孩子们歌唱
一切更大的圈的抱负。

垂死的,每个在自己认知的边缘歌唱的人。

未知的在我们心里,那唱歌的
裂口通过跳跃变得可见。’”

我说:“湖泊是坚定的瞪视,
一张在白昼之火里翻动的书页。”

她说:“这书页被一位读者的脸投影。”

我说:“书在这读者凝视
之明亮火焰里翻动。
书中的声音波浪一般抵达。”

她说:“波浪像我们白天展开的
所有言谈一样抵达。”

我说:“书页正在旅行,
书没有地平线,

而在火焰汗迹斑斑的身体上面,
长翅膀的手持续地变换位置。

因此,一个声音首先传来,这世界随后赶到,
而书最后抵达。

翻开,这书说:

‘灰烬和露水歌唱那些关于世界、书籍、
时间和身体的编撰中的笔记。

这书页提示我们可以听到它们的地方。’”

她说:“撒谎的声音倒塌在这些翻开的
书页上,困惑不解。当这些声音飘荡,
我们便听出谁是谁。

一阵风吹起,这书便翻开
朝向一个在夜里问询的
声音:‘我们是众多还是一个?

对于字词的命运和愿望的未来,蓝
这颜色其过去的生活不得不做些什么?’”

我说:“湖泊的蓝正是绿的记忆。
夜晚愈发黑暗时,波浪变白。”

她说:“时间是一颗烤好的蛋,一只缝制中的篮子。
时间是舟船的名字,一只制作中的风筝的历史。

变作一群的鸟儿,是时间震耳欲聋之声
其转瞬即逝之形。”

我说:“一张书页上鸟儿的影子
简直是在讲述一则故事。”

她说:“我的凝视荫翳你脸之书页。”

我说:“即便在这无边际的空间里,
假如我俩同时把脸
转向彼此

我们的嘴将被
一只蛾子不触及我俩谈话内容
便无法飞越的一个间隔分开。”

她说:“湖泊,白昼的首页和末页,
覆盖写在那儿的每一个字。”

我说:“那么,曾是谁在雨中沿着
博物馆前的台阶奔跑?
谁醒来坐在一列行驶的火车车窗内?”

作者 / [美国] 李立扬
翻译 / baiya
选自 / Behind My Eyes

Lake Effect

She said, “The lake is like an open book,
day like the steady gaze of a reader.”

I said, “The day is a book we open between us,
the lake a sentence we read together
over and over, our voices
ghost, bread, and horizon.”

She said, “A spoken song in several voices
moving in and out of many rooms.”

I said, “The mind like a lake,
and your voice a figure of the foam.”

She said, “The book a voice, its pages
burning in rooms birds foretell every evening.”

I said, “The lake keeps changing its mind,
undecided between
the word for the end of August
and the color just before grapes ripen.”

She said, “The book summons the reader
to read the laws of water, wind, fire, dust,
and the destiny of voices.”

I said, “Voices in a room by the lake,
the lake itself an older voice, unutterable
law and companion
to a brother and sister telling
each other the missing parts
of each other’s stories.”

She said, “The lake is a book. Open the book
and the book says:

The world is full of people, but seldom
is a person to be found.

The world is full of light, yet who
has seen such a thing?

The world is all dark, yet a hand finds its way
to other hands, a mouth its way to another mouth.”

I said, “The lake keeps changing its mind,
a book turning,

now the shadows of clouds on the pages,
now the shadows of pages on the waves.”

She said, “Shadows of birds
and leaves blown in a wind
have fallen on the book

birds and clouds and leaves in silent tumult
among the pages.

Day is a get, an illegible stone,
a garden, a woman with a book open in her lap.

And the book says: Silver,
the women sing of their bodies and the men.

Darker, the men sing of their ancestors and the women.

Darkest is the children’s ambition
to sing every circle wider.

Dying, each sings at the edge of what he knows.

Inside us is the unknown, that chasm
singing makes visible by overleaping.”

I said, “The lake is an unblinking glare,
a single page turning in day’s fire.”

She said, “The page is shadowed by a reader’s face.”

I said, “The book turns in the clear fire
of the readers’ gaze.
The voices in the book arrive like waves.”

She said, “The waves arrive like the unfolding
sum of our days speaking.”

I said, “The pages are traveling,
the book is without horizon,

and over the form-flecked body of fire,
hands keep changing places with wings.

Therefore, a voice was first, the world comes after,
and the book comes last.

Open the book and the book says:

Ash and dew sing the founding notes
of world, book, time, and body.

The page remains the place where we can hear them.”

She said, “Voices lie toppled, confused
on the open pages, When the voices move,
we hear who is who.

A wind blows, the book is open
to a voice at evening
asking, Are we many or one?

What do the past lives of the color blue have to do
with the fate of words and the future of wishing?”

I said, “The lake’s blue is the very memory of green.
The waves whiten as evening grows darker.”

She said, “Time is a roasted egg, a sewing basket.
Time is the names of ships, a history of kite making.

Birds, turning in a flock, are a fleeting shape
of Time’s deafening voice.”

I said, “The shadows of birds on a page
almost tell a story.”

She said, “My gaze clouds the page of your face.”

I said, “Even in this boundless space,
if both of us turned our faces
toward each other at the same time

our mouths would be separated by an interval
a moth could not fly through without touching
both of what we said.”

She said, “The lake, the first and last page of the day,
overwhelms every word written there.”

I said, “So who was running down the steps
in front of the museum in the rain?
Who woke up sitting in the window of a moving train?”

Li-Young Lee

 

《湖泊效应》是一首初读即能感觉到优美,但需要反复阅读来慢慢接近的诗。诗经里写:“溯洄从之,道阻且长。溯游从之,宛在水中央。” 有时候,诗也像一个美人,勾魂摄魄,在水一方。

《湖泊效应》留给读者的第一印象大约是诗句中层层叠叠的换喻,这些跳跃的比喻如此富有游戏性。湖泊是“一本翻开的书”,“是一起反复阅读的句子“,”是一个声音”,“是坚定的瞪视”,是“白昼的首页和末页”,同时,白昼也是“读者的凝视”,是“翻开的一本书”,是“一道大门”,是“火焰”,这个罗列如果继续下去,将相当于重复这首长诗一半以上的诗句。

粗略的规律是:湖泊,白昼,波浪,泡沫,云朵和飞鸟这些围绕湖泊的自然之物是一组意象,书,凝视,句子,声音,故事,房间这些与阅读有关之物构成另一组;而两组事物之间不断发生着指认/指涉/渗透/对照,配得上一个结构主义爱好者为这些比喻建立一种特殊的抽象代数运算关系。

但这毕竟是一首诗,而且即使你真的在纸上把词语和词语间的联系画成一张繁复的网络,你也只会进入/制造一个谜团。两面相对而立的镜子展开一条镜子的长廊,而诗人所构建的两组互相映射的喻体,投射出众多变动的影子/凝视/火焰在这些诗句之上,湖泊和阅读在不断的渗透和映照间最终变的难分难解。

在诗行的前进中变得难分难解的不仅仅是湖泊和阅读,作为一首对话诗,“她说”的声音和“我说”的声音依次展开,从分歧,到共鸣,直至结尾的默契和声。诗句在意象的繁衍间悄悄暗示了两人背后的故事:

Voices in a room by the lake,
the lake itself an older voice, unutterable
law and companion
to a brother and sister telling
each other the missing parts
of each other’s stories.”

她说,我说,她说,我说,原来这是一对姐弟/兄妹,“为彼此讲起各自故事中的丢失部分”。而湖泊(书)的声音始终牵引着两人的对话,诗行里用斜体注明的句子都来自于书,书,是湖泊的镜像和喻体,湖泊,是书的自然化身,这些来自“书”的声音,正是湖泊效应。

让我们回到诗的标题,湖泊效应(Lake Effect)是指人类修建大型水库(人造湖泊)而产生的相应的库区周围的气候改变。水库对气候的影响相当于湖泊对气候的影响一样。由于水体巨大的热容量和水分供应,可使水库附近的平均气温升高,气温日较差和年较差变小,并引起风、湿度和降水量的变化,所以把水库对气候的作用称为“湖泊效应”。(from 百度百科)

不妨再次重读这首诗,观察来自书的声音,仿佛从湖泊蒸腾而出的水汽,如何逐渐浸润了整首诗,如何一步一步的影响着“她”和“我”的对话方向,直至最后,诗行里密密蓄积的情感如同倾盆大雨终于从天而降, 离别时刻的痛苦回忆从心中涌出。

我说:“那么,曾是谁在雨中沿着
博物馆前的台阶奔跑?
谁醒来坐在一列行驶的火车车窗内?”

荐诗 / NullPointer
2015/08/05

 

 

 

题图 / Cover illustration for Squet magazine, April 2015 issue, Ryo Takemasa

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