Friday, May 1, 2009

Plath: The Night Dances

Sylvia Plath Collected Poems
No. 201
  The Night Dances

Plath wrote of tigerlily two times, in "The Night Dances" and "Years." The tigerlily image in "Years" (No 206) is absolutely amazing, very admirably used.


Sylvia Plath Collected Poems
No. 201

  The Night Dances

A smile fell in the grass.
Irretrievable!

And how will your night dances
Lose themselves. In mathematics?

Such pure leaps and spirals------
Surely they travel

The world forever, I shall not entirely
Sit emptied of beauties, the gift

Of your small breath, the drenched grass
Smell of your sleeps, lilies, lilies.

Their flesh bears no relation.
Cold folds of ego, the calla,

And the tiger, embellishing itself------
Spots, and a spread of hot petals.

The comets
Have such a space to cross,

Such coldness, forgetfulness.
So your gestures flake off------

Warm and human, then their pink light
Bleeding and peeling

Through the black amnesias of heaven.
Why am I given

These lamps, these planets
Falling like blessings, like flakes

Six-sided, white
On my eyes, my lips, my hair

Touching and melting.
Nowhere.
     6 November 1962


普拉斯《诗全编》
第201首

  夜舞
    希薇娅- 普拉斯
一缕笑容落入草丛。
不可复收!

你的夜舞又将如何
丢了自身。在数学里?

这么纯粹的跳跃与旋转——
它们一定会永远

穿行于世界,我不会全程干坐,
腾空各色的美、你轻微气息

带来的礼物、你睡眠散发出的
湿草味,百合、还有百合。

它们的肉身并不孕育关系。
自我的冰冷皱褶、马蹄莲、

虎纹百合,美饰它自己——
用斑点、展开的热烘烘的花瓣。

有待彗星
穿越的空间那么杳阔,

如此清冷、善忘。
所以你的姿势一片片剥落——

温暖、人情味十足,然后它们的粉光
滴着血、蜕着皮

穿过天堂的黑色健忘症。
为什么要给我

这些灯,这些行星
像祝福一样降临,像雪片

六个边、白色
落上我的眼睛、嘴唇、头发,

轻轻落下、静静溶化。
无处可寻。
         1962年11月6日


  普拉斯在两首诗歌中用了虎纹百合这种花,我也很喜欢这种花,一首诗这儿,另一首是第206首《岁月》,后一首中用得超绝。

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