《春展  2 》__ 羅伯特‧哈斯  江紹倫譯

Robert Hass

A man says lilacs against white houses, two sparrows, one streaked, in a  thinning birch, and can’t find his way to a sentence.
有人說像白屋前的紫丁香兩隻麻雀
迷失在樺木林間不識句子

In order to be respectable, Thorstein Veblen said, desperate in Palo Alto, a thing must be wasteful, i.e., “a selective adaptation of forms to  the end of conspicuous waste.”
泰斯汀華布蘭說在高樹名城人們必須濫用
即是說造形必須展示明顯的廢棄

So we try to throw nothing away, as Keith, making dinner for us as his
grandmother had done in Jamaica, left nothing; the kitchen was as clean
at the end as when he started; even the shrimp shells and carrot fronds
were part of the process,
所以我們努力不拋棄任何東西
就像金生模彷他祖母在牙美加做飯
其廚房前後一樣清潔
把蝦殼和胡蘿蔔苗一齊煮湯

and he said, when we tried to admire him, “Listen, I should send you
into the chickenyard to look for a rusty nail to add to the soup for iron.”
在我們的欣賞聲中他戲說要
我們去雞欄裡尋拾一枚銹釘
給他加入湯中增添鐵質營養

The first temptation of Sakyamuni was desire, but he saw that it led to
fulfillment and then to desire, so that one was easy.
薩奇若慕里高舉慾望但他視之
如完成自我的宗旨

Because I have pruned it badly in successive years, the climbing rose
has sent out, among the pale pink floribunda, a few wild white roses
from the rootstalk
因緣連年拙剪我花棚上的粉紅薔薇
從根底長起幾朵白色玫瑰

Suppose, before they said silver or moonlight or wet grass, each poet
had to agree to be responsible for the innocence of all the suffering on
earth,
苟若每一位詩人都要異口同聲
確認必須對地球一切災難負責
而停止高歌銀色月華或潤濕青草

because they learned in arithmetic, during the long school days, that if
there was anything left over,
因為他們在學校長年學習算術
便再沒有時間

you had to carry it. The wild rose looks weightless, the floribunda are
heavy with the richness and sadness of Europe
只學會逢十進一而忽視了白玫瑰在歐洲的
富麗與悲傷文明中佔着多麽重要的地位

as they imitate the dying, petal by petal, of the people who bred them
所以忙着模彷長輩按照花瓣染色
絲毫不苟

You hear pain singing in the nerves of things; it is not a song.
你聽人們神經質的高唱那並不是歌曲

The gazelle’s head turned; three jackals are eating his entrails and he
is watching.
瞪羚靜靜回頭盯着三隻野狗
正在搶吃它的內臟