玛丽安·摩尔诗7首

玛丽安·摩尔诗7首

沉默　我的父亲常说，“上等人从不做长久地拜访不走进朗费罗的坟墓也不欣赏哈佛的玻璃花。要像猫那样独立——带着它的猎物到隐蔽地老鼠柔软的尾巴挂在它的嘴上，像一条鞋带它们有时享受孤独，被那些令他们愉悦的语言剥夺了自己的语言最深的情感总是在沉默中呈现；不是沉默，而是抑制着。”他也不无诚意地说，“将我的房子当作你的旅馆。”旅馆不是居所。
Silence　　by Marianne Moore　　My father used to say,"Superior people never make long visits,have to be shown Longfellow"s gravenor the glass flowers at Harvard.Self reliant like the cat --that takes its prey to privacy,the mouse"s limp tail hanging like a shoelace from its mouth –they sometimes enjoy solitude,and can be robbed of speechby speech which has delighted them.The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence;not in silence, but restraint."Nor was he insincere in saying, "Make my house your inn."Inns are not residences.
注  解：
 *出于诗人朗费罗的名言：“生命是真实的，生命也是诚挚的，坟墓并非他的终点。”摩尔在这里的意思是，拜访必须适时而止，不可无休无止。**哈佛大学有个著名的“玻璃花博物馆”，珍藏了3000多件用玻璃材质制作的植物标本，涵盖847个物种，全部出自欧洲一对父子玻璃手工艺师之手。
⊙读过玛丽安·摩尔诗歌的人，都可以找出若干不喜欢她的理由，晦涩的诗意，古怪的词语，冷漠僵硬的句子，一个接一个让人莫名其妙的典故，不屈不饶如同在沙漠上长途跋涉似的长诗……可是，我们也可以找出更多喜欢她的理由，她的机智与俏皮，她隐约的激情，她混杂着一丝悲悯的透彻，她特立独行的优雅，最后，是她持续一生的观望者的洒脱姿态。我喜欢摩尔，翻译她的诗歌是一段最奇特的时光，如同步入迷宫，在黑暗中前行，偶尔的光亮都会带来成功的喜悦，我记得我曾经从早到晚连续十多个小时修订她的长诗《穿山甲》，结束之后留下非凡的成就感。如同这首诗的标题一样，摩尔的诗歌有一种沉默的质地。诗说与沉默，看似悖论，其实不然，摩尔达成的是一种欲说还休，就像一只猫嘴边的老鼠尾巴，一条线索牵扯出整个生命的真相。为什么欲说还休呢？因为“最深的情感总是在沉默中显现”。这温情的句子带来的不是人间的花好月圆，而是另一种事实：“‘将我的房子当作你的旅馆’。旅馆不是居所。”原来摩尔所谓的沉默只是人与人之间一种最深刻的距离。于是，你可以感受到一丝冷风在句子中间穿梭，或许还会惊讶地看向摩尔，看到她站在一边不置可否地微笑。摩尔喜欢讽刺，但并不尖锐，喜欢揭示真相，却并不愤世嫉俗，她所揭示的真相与自己、与他人仿佛都没有切肤之痛，虽然那真相的确是真实的。比如这首诗中的父亲喋喋不休地教导女儿要沉默，显然是一种自相矛盾；沉默中隐藏的最深情感与旅馆一说显然又是自相矛盾。摩尔的语调暗含讥讽，却又带有最宽容的姿态：人与人之间，包括父女之间，本就存在着难以逾越的距离，这是人的天命。像猫那样独立则是一种积极的应对姿态，这是摩尔的选择，她终身奉行的生存法则。

迷迭香　　美，和美之子，和迷迭香——维纳斯和爱，她的儿子，简单地说——据称生于海上，在每个圣诞节，彼此相伴，编织一个欢宴的花篮。并不总是迷迭香——　　自从逃到埃及，它冷漠地开花。带着标枪似的绿叶，叶背泛着银色，它的花——起初是白色——变成了蓝色。记忆的香草，模仿了圣母玛利亚的蓝色长袍，这并不是传奇　　对这种既是象征又是香料的花来说。从海边的石头，跃到基督的高度，在他三十三岁时，它吸食露水，喂养蜜蜂 “有一种无声的语言”，在现实中是一种圣诞树。　　　　Rosemary　　by Marianne Moore　　Beauty and Beauty"s son and rosemary –Venus and Love, her son, to speak plainly -born of the sea supposedly,at Christmas each, in company,braids a garland of festivity.Not always rosemary -　　since the flight to Egypt, blooming indifferently.With lancelike leaf, green but silver underneath,its flowers - white originally -turned blue. The herb of memory,imitating the blue robe of Mary,is not too legendary　　to flower both as symbol and as pungency.Springing from stones beside the sea,the height of Christ when he was thirty-three,it feeds on dew and to the bee"hath a dumb language"; is in realitya kind of Christmas tree.

玫瑰而已
看来你们并没认识到美是一种责任而不是    一种资本——鉴于精神创造了形式这一事实，我们有理由假设       你们一定拥有头脑。因为你们，一种整体的象征，刻板而尖锐，    凭借天生的优势卓尔不群，喜欢诸事独立，喜欢一种野心勃勃的文明
所可能产生的一切：对你们而言，孤立无援地想通过纯粹的    储备，去驳斥得自观察的推论，毫无意义。你们           无法使我们相信，你们        是一种令人愉悦的自然之物。但是玫瑰，假如你们是卓越的，那    并非因为你们的花瓣是不可或缺的超凡之物。如果没有刺，你们看上去就像一个疑问。不过是一个
怪物。它们无法对抗一只毛毛虫，风雨，或者霉菌。    但那掠夺成性的手呢？没有齐心协力，卓越又如何？看守着        你们极微小的思想碎片，迫使观众    接受这一观点：与其被过分强烈地记住，不如被遗忘，你们的刺是你们最好的一部分。

Roses Only
You do not seem to realise that beauty is a liability rather than   an asset—that in view of the fact that spirit creates form we are justified in supposing     that you must have brains. For you, a symbol of the unit, stiff and sharp,    conscious of surpassing by dint of native superiority and liking for everythingself-dependent, anything an
ambitious civilisation might produce: for you, unaided to attempt through sheer   reserve, to confute presumptions resulting from observation, is idle. You cannot make us     think you a delightful happen-so. But rose, if you are brilliant, it   is not because your petals are the without-which-nothing of pre-eminence. You would look, minusthorns—like a what-is-this, a mere
peculiarity. They are not proof against a worm, the elements, or mildew   but what about the predatory hand? What is brilliance without co-ordination? Guarding the     infinitesimal pieces of your mind, compelling audience to   the remark that it is better to be forgotten than to be remembered too violently,your thorns are the best part of you.
　　一个埃及鱼形瓶　　最初，我们有渴与耐心，艺术，如一阵波浪立起供我们欣赏，其精炼的线条；
并不脆弱，而是强烈的——光谱，这激动人心，灵巧生动的鱼，它光滑的鳞片折射着太阳剑一般的锋芒。　　An Egyptian Pulled Glass Bottle in the Shape of a Fish　　Here we have thirstAnd patience, from the first,And art, as in a wave held up for us to seeIn its essential perpendicularity;　　Not brittle butIntense－the spectrum, thatSpectacular and nimble animal the fish,Whose scales turn aside the sun’s sword with their polish.

何谓岁月？　　什么是我们的清白？什么是我们的罪？所有人都袒露着，没有一个能幸免。而勇气来自何处：这没有答案的问题，这坚定的怀疑，无声的呼喊，聋子似的倾听——不幸，甚至死亡，激励着他人而失败，将　　激励灵魂自身强大起来？他深刻地认识，并因此快乐，接受必死性被束缚着仍努力提升自己，就像峡谷中的海，想要逃脱却无法得逞，当它放弃挣扎才发现了自己的延续。　　因此，他强烈地感受，积极行动。如同鸟，歌唱着，越飞越高，坚定地向上。虽然他是俘虏，他有力的歌声表明，满足微不足道快乐才是一件纯粹的事。这是必死性，这是永恒。　　　　What Are Years?　　What is our innocence,what is our guilt? All arenaked, none is safe. And whenceis courage: the unanswered question,the resolute doubt, -dumbly calling, deafly listening-thatin misfortune, even death,encourage othersand in it"s defeat, stirs　　the soul to be strong? Hesees deep and is glad, whoaccededs to mortalityand in his imprisonment risesupon himself asthe sea in a chasm, struggling to befree and unable to be,in its surrenderingfinds its continuing.　　So he who strongly feels,behaves. The very bird,grown taller as he sings, steelshis form straight up. Though he is captive,his mighty singingsays, satisfaction is a lowlything, how pure a thing is joy.This is mortality,this is eternity.

然而　　　　你看见了一颗草莓曾有过一场争斗；是的在碎片堆积的地方，　　一只刺猬或一只海星，传播了大量种子。比苹果种子　　——这果实中的果实——更好的食物，被闭锁着如同相向弯曲的一对　　榛实？霜，杀死了橡胶草*的小叶子，却无法　　伤害根；它们仍然生长在冻结的地里。那儿曾有一株仙人果　　叶子粘在带刺的铁丝网上，一条根垂着，长在两英尺下的土中；　　如同曼德拉草中生出的胡萝卜或者，一只公羊角偶尔生了根。胜利不会降临　　我，除非我走向它；一根葡萄藤缠绕了一次又一次，一共　　三十次——于是嫩枝被束缚住——无法动弹，忍耐着，不断超越。　　弱者战胜了它的威胁，强者战胜了它自己。那里存在的　　是坚韧！汁液流过纤细的脉络使樱桃变红！　　*橡胶草，青胶蒲公英一种中亚的蒲公英 （橡胶草 蒲公英属），长有能分泌一种橡胶的肉质根。在二战中被用来制造橡胶产品。　　Nevertheless　　You"ve seen a strawberrythat"s had a struggle; yetwas, where the fragments met,　　a hedgehog or a star-fish for the multitudeof seeds. What better food　　than apple-seeds - the fruitwithin the fruit - locked inlike counter-curved twin　　hazel-nuts? Frost that killsthe little rubber-plant-leaves of kok-saghyz-stalks, can"t　　harm the roots; they still growin frozen ground. Once wherethere was a prickly-pear-　　leaf clinging to barbed wire,a root shot down to growin earth two feet below;　　as carrots form mandrakesor a ram"s horn root some-times. Victory won"t come　　to me unless I goto it; a grape-tendrilties a knot in knots till　　knotted thirty times, -- sothe bound twig that"s under-gone and over-gone, can"t stir.　　The weak overcomes itsmenace, the strong over-comes itself. What is there　　like fortitude! What sapwent through that little threadto make the cherry red!

光谱原色时代*　　不是亚当和夏娃共同生活的时代，而是亚当独自一人的时代；在没有烟尘，没有早期文明艺术的雕琢，色彩只因它的原始性而美丽的时代；当雾升起，并没有　　丝毫改变，直角变为斜角，如此清晰可见亦可明白解释：现在不再是如此；不再有明亮清晰的蓝-红-黄的光谱组合显示的彩色条纹：它也是　　那些因标新立异而不忍卒读的事物之一；复杂不是一种罪，除非它变得晦涩难以明了。此外，复杂，意味着屈从于黑暗，却不承认　　自己是一种瘟疫，到处弥漫仿佛要以阴暗的谬误迷惑我们：坚持就是成功的方法而所有的真理一定是黑暗的。诡辩总是逞口舌　　之利——与最初的伟大真理相悖。“它的一截身体在爬行，另一截正准备爬行，剩余部分蜷曲在洞里冬眠。”无数短足，断断续续地前进，发出咯咯声和细微的抖动——我们有这样经典的　　多重韵脚。要看宗旨是什么！真理不是阿波罗神殿，不是有形之物。如果它愿意，波浪可以穿过它。它知道自己仍会在那里，说， “波浪过去时我仍将在原地。”　　*“prismatic colour”指光线透过三棱镜（prism）所呈现的七种原色，红、橙、黄、绿、蓝、靛、紫。此处“prismatic colour”是原始的（pristine）象征，代表本真（originality）。　　In the Days of Prismatic Colour　　not in the days of Adam and Eve, but when AdamWas alone; when there was no smoke and colour wasfine, not with the refinementof early civilization art, but becauseof its originality; with nothing to modify it but the　　mist that went up, obliqueness was a variationof the perpendicular, plain to see andto account for: it is nolonger that; nor did the blue-red-yellow bandof incandescence that was colour keep its stripe: it also is one of　　those things into which much that is peculiar can beread; complexity is not a crime, but carryit to the point of murki-ness and nothing is plain. Complexity,moreover, that has been committed to darkness, instead of granting it-　　self to be the pestilence that it is, moves all a-bout as if to bewilder us with the dismalfallacy that insistenceis the measure of achievement and that alltruth must be dark. Principally throat, sophistication is as it al-　　ways has been－at the antipodes from the init-ial great truths.“Part of it was crawling, part of itwas about to crawl, the restwas torpid in its lair.”In the short-legged, fit-ful advance, the gurgling and all the minutiae－we have the classic　　　multitude of feet. To what purpose! Truth is no ApolloBelvedere, no formal thing. The wave may go over it if It likes.Know that it will be there when it says, “I shall be there when the wave has gone by.”