論難度

【美】喬麗·格雷厄姆　陳子弘 譯

他們想要知道自己心中有誰，
從高處看下去，看向半枯半榮的
樹林，四月末，定不下是否應(yīng)該
回頭。
樹林不是他們的家。
榮景也不是他們的家。不管背后有
什么，都不是。有點什么浮在
他們周圍的空氣中，
仿佛那就是
白天淹沒的地方，
哭喊的邊緣地帶，比如那裂縫，閃著光。
現(xiàn)在他伸出手。
她是否有個身形可以填滿的空洞？
他們的太陽穴里嗡嗡作響，像在說
“我做了什么？”——但還不是問題，真還
不是從嗓子里溜出來像咸澀泡沫漂浮在
虛空——
哦，你們會明白，你們倆，在那個
藤蔓生發(fā)處，你們會明白，
你們推理所趨之地，那意義的漂浮物
被放下之地，
而海岸
岸穩(wěn)。他們在想，我們一定睡了一會兒，
那變了的是什么？他們在想
灌木多低矮嘛，最終，在等待中
選擇的可能性好有
局限哦（是吧）。更像明亮的分叉
總在陰影中戛然止于這片或那片，
打破慣性然后止步，
最終劈開水流成形，而后再
駐足——
如果你問他們，他們最先在哪里找到彼此
身體的邊界，幸福
藏在哪里，他們會透過綠意中的縫隙
抬頭看你俯視的地方。
他們想搞懂——（左邊）關(guān)閉的教堂中沉默的
　　圣像，
（右邊）視野里沉默的遠(yuǎn)方——
把自己如何交出去，
所以他們現(xiàn)在抬頭看，
所以他們現(xiàn)在觸碰彼此（讓你
關(guān)注），所以他們想知道這
讓你回想起什么，
抬頭，互相觸及讓你看見，讓你借此看見，
　　長眠
伊始，相似的長眠，
為了永生開始，更深地觸及彼此，就在你們
　　之間，
讓短而有力的青草托起他們，供你細(xì)數(shù)，
為場景涂上可信的顏色，
讓千萬朵單獨的花累加起來
幾乎（更深地觸及她）擋住你對他們的視線——
當(dāng)你移開目光，
他們會是誰，親愛的上帝，會是什么？

詩人簡介：喬麗·格雷厄姆（Jorie Graham，1950年5月9日－），美國當(dāng)代著名詩人、哈佛大學(xué)教授，以其深刻而復(fù)雜的詩歌風(fēng)格聞名。她出生于紐約，在意大利和法國長大，深受歐洲文化影響。格雷厄姆的詩作探索自然、歷史、哲學(xué)及人類經(jīng)驗，常以細(xì)膩的觀察和多層次的語言結(jié)構(gòu)呈現(xiàn)，融合個人與普世主題。她的作品包括《侵蝕》（1983）、《物質(zhì)主義》（1993）等，曾獲普利策詩歌獎（1996）、麥克阿瑟天才獎等殊榮。她擅長用詩歌捕捉時間的流動與存在的矛盾，被譽為“當(dāng)代詩歌的立法者”。格雷厄姆的創(chuàng)作不僅展現(xiàn)語言的美感，還挑戰(zhàn)讀者對世界與自我的認(rèn)知，是美國現(xiàn)代詩歌的重要聲音。

JORIE GRAHAM

On Difficulty

It's that they want to know whose they are,
seen from above in the half burnt-out half blossomed-out
woods, late April, unsure as to whether to
turn back.
The woods are not their home.
The blossoming is not their home. Whatever's back there
is not. Something floats in the air all round them
as if it were the place
where the day drowns,
and the place at the edge of cries, for instance, that fissure, gleams.
Now he's holding his hand out.
Is there a hollow she's the shape of?
And in their temples a thrumming like
what-have-I-done?—but not yet a question, really, not
yet what slips free of the voice to float like a brackish foam
on emptiness—
Oh you will come to it, you two down there
where the vines begin, you will come to it,
the thing towards which you reason, the place where the flotsam
of the meanings is put down
and the shore
holds. They're thinking we must have slept a while,
what is it has changed? They're thinking
how low the bushes are, after all, how finite
the options one finds in the
waiting (after all). More like the branchings of whiteness
always stopping short into this shade or that,
breaking inertia then stopping,
breaking the current at last into shape but then
stopping—
If you asked them, where they first find the edges of each other's
? ? ? ?bodies, where
happiness resides they'd look up through the gap
in the greenery you're looking down through.
What they want to know—the icons silent in the shut church (to
? ? ? ?the left),
the distance silent in the view (to the right)—
is how to give themselves away,
which is why they look up now,
which is why they'll touch each other now (for your
looking), which is why they want to know what this
reminds you of
looking up, reaching each other for you to see, for you to see by,
? ? ? ? the long sleep
beginning, the long sleep of resemblance,
touching each other further for you that Eternity begin, there,
? ? ? ? between you,
letting the short jabs of grass hold them up for you to count by,
to color the scene into the believable by,
letting the thousands of individual blossoms add up
and almost (touching her further) block your view of them—
When you look away
who will they be dear god and what?

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? from The End of Beauty