Plath: Totem

Sylvia Plath Collected Poems 普拉斯《诗全编》
No. 215


　　　　Totem

The engine is killing the track, the track is silver,
It stretches into the distance. It will be eaten nevertheless.

Its running is useless.
At nightfall there is the beauty of drowned fields,

Dawn gilds the farmers like pigs,
Swaying slightly in their thick suits,

White towers of Smithfield ahead,
Fat haunches and blood on their minds.

There is no mercy in the glitter of cleavers,
The butcher's guillotine that whispers: 'How's this, how's this?'

In the bowl the hare is aborted,
Its baby head out of the way, embalmed in spice,

Flayed of fur and humanity.
Let us eat it like Plato's afterbirth,

Let us eat it like Christ.
These are the people that were important------

Their round eyes, their teeth, their grimaces
On a stick that rattles and clicks, a counterfeit snake.

Shall the hood of the cobra appall me------
The loneliness of its eye, the eye of the mountains

Through which the sky eternally threads itself?
The world is blood-hot and personal

Dawn says, with its blood-flush.
There is no terminus, only suitcases

Out of which the same self unfolds like a suit
Bald and shiny, with pockets of wishes,

Notions and tickets, short circuits and folding mirrors.
I am mad, calls the spider, waving its many arms.

And in truth it is terrible,
Multiplied in the eyes of the flies.

They buzz like blue children
In nets of the infinite,

Roped in at the end by the one
Death with its many sticks.
　　　　　　　　　　　28 January 1963

第215首

　　　　图腾
　　　　　　　　希薇娅- 普拉斯
机车在残害轨道，轨道是银的，
延伸向远处。它反正会被吞没。

它的奔逃纯属徒劳。
夜色降临时，淹没的田野其美自现，

黎明的金辉将农夫镀成肥猪，
在厚外套中一跩一跩，

史密斯乡的几座白塔就在前方，
腰腿肥硕，满脑子的血。

切肉刀的闪光、屠夫的断头台
低声问，没有一丝仁慈：“这样可好？这样可好？”

大钵里，野兔流了产，
胎儿的头位不正，腌在调料中，

剥了毛皮、去了人性。
我们把它当作柏拉图的胞衣吃了吧。

我们把它当作基督吃了吧。
这些都是曾经显要的人物——

圆圆的眼、牙齿、怪异的脸
在一根小棍上，索索有声咔嚓作响，一条假蛇。

眼镜蛇鼓胀的脖子吓唬得了我？——
就凭它孤独的眼，这群山之目、

这只令苍穹永远穿越其中的眼睛？
这是个热血而且私情的世界，

黎明满脸潮红地说出此话。
没有终点站，只有手提箱，

同一个自我如同一件外套从中抖开，
光秃秃、光闪闪，口袋里揣着愿望、

想法和票券、短路和折叠镜。
蜘蛛挥舞着所有手臂高喊：我是疯子。

说实话，这真是可怕，
在苍蝇们的复眼中还会数倍增加。

嗡嗡有声，如心脏先天残缺的婴孩
兜在永无尽头的网中，

一端被那位死神用绳子系紧，
他手拿许多小棍。
　　　　　　　　　　1963年1月28日