Thursday, April 24, 2008

Sylvia Plath: Words

Sylvia Plath Collected Poems
No. 221

   Words
Axes
After whose stroke the wood rings,
And the echoes!
Echoes traveling
Off from the center like horses.

The sap
Wells like tears, like the
Water striving
To re-establish its mirror
Over the rock

That drops and turns,
A white skull,
Eaten by weedy greens.
Years later I
Encounter them on the road------

Words dry and riderless,
The indefatigable hoof-taps.
While
From the bottom of the pool, fixed stars
Govern a life.
      1 February 1963

第221首
    
        tr. Fan Jinghua
斧头,
树木因其砍击而鸣响,
回声荡漾!
自树心荡开,
回声如群马奔离。

树汁
泉涌似泪,又如
流水勉力
在石块上
重展它的明镜。

石块下落、翻滚,
一只白脑壳,
被杂草丛生的绿水吞没。
多年后的我
邂逅它们于路上——

词,干枯而无人驾驭,
毫无倦意的蹄音。
而同时
恒定的星辰自那潭水深处
宰制着某人一生。
     1963年2月1日

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