这是一首里面有黄瓜的诗

0512

里面有黄瓜的诗

有时从这片山坡刚刚日落
天边呈现一抹极苍白的
绿,像一条黄瓜的肉
当你小心翼翼削它的时候

*

一次在克里特,夏日,
午夜依然很热,
我们坐在水边的酒馆
望着捕鱿鱼船摇摆在月光里,
喝着松香味希腊葡萄酒,吃着混杂
凉拌碎黄瓜、酸奶
和一点儿小茴香的沙拉。

*

少许盐味,在舌头上有像淀粉的东西,
一种草或绿叶的香精油的东西
是舌头
和黄瓜
相互朝对方演变。

*

既然累赘的(cumbersome)是一个词,
拖累(cumber)必然也是一个词,
我们现在无从知晓了,即使那时,
对于一个觉得受拖累(encumbered)的人,
站在水槽边,切一条黄瓜(cucumber),
必定已经感觉到秩序和公正。

*

假如你以为我要在这首诗里制造
一个色情笑话,你就错了。

*

在大地古老的痛苦之根里
当火冷却并把自己安置
在花岗岩、石灰岩、蛇纹石和泥板岩里,
可以想象,淡黄色的化学云下,
熔融泡沫,已燃烧够久,
早就梦想被释放,
而那个梦,模糊
而逐渐清晰,以水的
形式,而就在此时,
仍然更模糊,它想象的
那黄瓜的暗绿色表皮和猫眼石绿的肉。
作者 / [美国]罗伯特·哈斯
翻译 / 远洋
选自 / 《亚当的苹果园》,江苏凤凰文艺出版社

With A Cucumber In It

Sometimes from this hillside just after sunset
The rim of the sky takes on a tinge
Of the palest green, like the flesh of a cucumber
When you peel it carefully.

In Crete once, in the summer,
When it was still hot at midnight,
We sat in a taverna by the water
Watching the squid boats rocking in the moonlight,
Drinking retsina and eating salads
Of cool, chopped cucumber and yogurt and a little dill.

A hint of salt, something like starch, something
Like an attar of grasses or green leaves
On the tongue is the tongue
And the cucumber
Evolving toward each other.

Since cucumber is a word,
Cumber must have been a word,
Lost to us now, and even then,
For a person feeling encumbered,
It must have felt orderly and right-minded
To stand at a sink and slice a cucumber.

If you think I am going to make
A sexual joke in this poem, you are mistaken.

In the old torment of the earth
When the fires were cooling and disposing themselves
Into granite and limestone and serpentine and shale,
It is possible to imagine that, under yellowish chemical clouds,
The molten froth, having burned long enough,
Was already dreaming of release,
And that the dream, dimly
But with increasingly distinctness, took the form
Of water, and that it was then, still more dimly, that it imagined
The dark green skin and opal green flesh of cucumbers.

Robert Hass
诗人说:“假如你以为我要在这首诗里制造一个色情笑话,你就错了。”各位读者,这句话同样送给你们。即便如此,我们也不能不说,这首诗仍然有那么一点“游戏”的嫌疑。

我们不妨从每一节的变化,来勾勒一下作者构建一首诗的思考轨迹。

首先,从日落时的天空的颜色,联想到削掉皮的黄瓜,这可以说是一种不期而至的灵感。而再从黄瓜联想到拌着碎黄瓜、酸奶和一点儿小茴香的沙拉,就比较自然了。通过这沙拉,又想起吃这份沙拉的那个夏日的午夜,水边的酒馆,摇摆的月光……然后是沙拉所唤起的味觉的记忆,“舌头和黄瓜相互朝对方演变”,绝妙的修辞。

接下来,是一段巧妙的文字游戏。切入点是黄瓜的拼写cucumber,通过与累赘的(cumbersome)、拖累(cumber)、受拖累(encumbered)三个词的巧妙互动,完成洗黄瓜的人对“秩序和公正”的自我嘲讽。

当一切“游戏”适可而止,为了完成一首不那么戏谑的诗,诗人的联想趋向“严肃”,从天空的颜色,联想到地下——大地古老的痛苦之根,喷涌的地火,冷却的熔岩。

哈斯是一个热衷于描写自然的诗人,他对自然有着不懈的观察和融入,力图通过这种努力,去获得一种迥然不同的修辞,传达一种洞察的力量。与此同时,他的诗又有着“学院派”特有的幽默、戏谑和反讽。诗歌,不仅仅在于表达的准确,更在于表达中一点点智性的愉悦。

荐诗 / 何信步
2018/05/12

 

 

题图 / Eugenia Gapchinska

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