Plath: Words heard, by accident, over the phone

Sylvia Plath Collected Poems
No. 169
　
　　Words heard, by accident, over the phone

O mud, mud, how fluid!—
Thick as foreign coffee, and with a sluggy pulse.
Speak, speak! Who is it?
It is the bowel-pulse, lover of digestibles.
It is he who has achieved these syllables.

What are these words, these words?
They are plopping like mud.
O god, how shall I ever clean the phone table?
They are pressing out of the many-holed earpiece, they are looking for a listener.
Is he here?

Now the room is ahiss. The instrument
Withdraws its tentacle.
But the spawn percolate in my heart. They are fertile.
Muck funnel, muck funnel—
You are too big. They must take you back!
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　11 July 1962


普拉斯《诗全编》
第169首

　　意外听到电话上的只言片语

啊，淤泥，淤泥，多么溜滑！——
稠得像外国咖啡，带着粘乎乎的脉动。
说话呀，说话！你是谁？
那是内脏的脉动，消化物的情人。
正是他从牙缝中挤出这些音节。

这些字说的什么，说的什么？
它们像淤泥啪嗒啪嗒落下。
上帝啊，那电话台，我怎么还能擦得干净？
它们从听筒的许多小空中挤出来，它们在寻找一个听众。
他在这儿吗？

现在整个房间都嘶嘶有声，那只仪器
缩回了它的触角。
但它产的卵渗滤过了我的心。它们能繁殖。
污泥漏斗，污泥漏斗！——
你太大了。它们必须将你收回去！
　　　　　　　　　　　1962年7月11日