七月，在萨斯奎哈纳河岸垂钓
作者：比利·柯林斯
译者：人土土


我从未在萨斯奎哈纳河里钓过鱼
说实话
我从未在河里钓过鱼。

不论是七月份还是几月份
我都未曾有幸——假如这算是种幸运——
在萨斯奎哈纳河里钓过鱼。

我更有可能出现在
这般安静的房间里——
壁上挂着女人的画像，

桌上摆着一碗橘子——
试图营造在萨斯奎哈纳河里钓鱼
的感觉。

毫无疑问的是
有人在萨斯奎哈纳河里
钓过鱼，

乘小木舟向上游划行，
船桨划入水中
又划出水面滴落着阳光。

我离在萨斯奎哈纳河里钓鱼
最近的一刻是一日午后
在费城一座博物馆中

当我在一幅画前
平衡时间的卵
画中的河道弯曲

白云扰乱的蓝天之下，
浓密的树木沿着河岸生长，
以及一位戴着红头巾的人

坐在一只
绿色平底小船上
手握细桨。

这看起来像是我这辈子都
不会去做的事，我还记得
我这样对自己和身旁的人说道。

随后我眨眨眼
去看其他的美国景色
比如稻草堆、扑在石头上的白色水花、

以及有幅画中有只
看来十分警惕的棕色兔子
我幻想他蹦跳出画框。



Fishing on the Susquehanna in July
BY BILLY COLLINS

I have never been fishing on the Susquehanna
or on any river for that matter
to be perfectly honest.

Not in July or any month
have I had the pleasure—if it is a pleasure—
of fishing on the Susquehanna.

I am more likely to be found
in a quiet room like this one—
a painting of a woman on the wall,

a bowl of tangerines on the table—
trying to manufacture the sensation
of fishing on the Susquehanna.

There is little doubt
that others have been fishing
on the Susquehanna,

rowing upstream in a wooden boat,
sliding the oars under the water
then raising them to drip in the light.

But the nearest I have ever come to
fishing on the Susquehanna
was one afternoon in a museum in Philadelphia

when I balanced a little egg of time
in front of a painting
in which that river curled around a bend

under a blue cloud-ruffled sky,
dense trees along the banks,
and a fellow with a red bandanna

sitting in a small, green
flat-bottom boat
holding the thin whip of a pole.

That is something I am unlikely
ever to do, I remember
saying to myself and the person next to me.

Then I blinked and moved on
to other American scenes
of haystacks, water whitening over rocks,

even one of a brown hare
who seemed so wired with alertness
I imagined him springing right out of the frame.

这果真应该是他看画展时的灵机之作吧，巧妙与幽默和旷远都在其中了。问好。

很棒的诗歌，翻译也赞！

苍凉 发表于 2020-8-30 11:05
这果真应该是他看画展时的灵机之作吧，巧妙与幽默和旷远都在其中了。问好。

周版版好哇！还真有可能~ 我觉得柯林斯写日常生活写到出神入化了

大河原 发表于 2020-8-30 17:49
很棒的诗歌，翻译也赞！

超喜欢柯林斯的诗。把口语+日常写出意思。