Plath: Lyonnesse

Sylvia Plath Collected Poems
No. 190

　　　　Lyonnesse

No use whistling for Lyonnesse!
Sea-cold, sea-cold it certainly is.
Take a look at the white, high berg on his forehead---

There's where it sunk.
The blue, green,
Gray, indeterminate gilt

Sea of his eyes washing over it
And a round bubble
Popping upward from the mouths of bells

People and cows.
The Lyonians had always thought
Heaven would be something else,

But with the same faces,
The same places ...
It was not a shock---

The clear, green, quite breathable atmosphere,
Cold grits underfoot,
And the spidery water-dazzle on field and street.

It never occurred that they had been forgot,
That the big God
Had lazily closed one eye and let them slip

Over the English cliff and under so much history!
They did not see him smile,
Turn, like an animal,

In his cage of ether, his cage of stars.
He'd had so many wars!
The white gape of his mind was the real Tabula Rasa.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　21 October 1962

普拉斯《诗全编》
第190首

　　　里昂尼斯

怎么吹哨也唤不起里昂尼斯！
它真的只是一汪海水，冷，冷。
看一眼他额头矗立的白色冰山——

那是它沉陷的地方。
幽蓝、碧绿、
灰暗、不定的镀金

海水在他眼中，漫过它，
一只圆形的泡
从钟的口中啪地升起，

人、奶牛。
里昂尼斯人一直以为
天堂是另一种东西，

不过有着相同的面目、
相同的地方……
不会令人震惊——

那清澈、碧绿、沁人肺腑的大气，
脚下凉凉的砂砾，
田野和街道上蛛网般闪光的水。

从没人想到这一切会被遗忘，
那个大神
竟会懒洋洋地闭起一只眼睛，任由它们

从英格兰的悬崖滑落，进入久远历史之下！
他们不曾见过他微笑、转身，
像一只动物

在它以太的笼子、星辰的笼子。
他已参与了那么多战事！
脑子的白色哈欠可谓是真正的心灵白板。
　　　　　　　　　1962年10月21日