Plath: Among the Narcissi

Sylvia Plath Collected Poems
No. 161
　　　　Among the Narcissi

Spry, wry, and gray as these March sticks,
Percy bows, in his blue peajacket, among the narcissi.
He is recuperating from something on the lung.

The narcissi, too, are bowing to some big thing:
It rattles their stars on the green hill where Percy
Nurses the hardship of his stitches, and walks and walks.

There is a dignity to this; there is a formality--
The flowers vivid as bandages, and the man mending.
They bow and stand: they suffer such attacks!

And the octogenarian loves the little flocks.
He is quite blue; the terrible wind tries his breathing.
The narcissi look up like children, quickly and whitely.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　5 April 1962

普拉斯《诗全编》
第161首

　　　　水仙丛中

敏捷，扭曲，灰暗如三月的树枝，
珀西身穿蓝色的水手尼夹克，弯着腰，在水仙丛中。
他在休养，肺部长了东西。

水仙花也弯着腰，对着某个庞然大物：
它不停地对这片绿山上的星星说话，珀西
在这儿调养他缝合的苦头，来回散步。

对待这一切，有一种尊严；一种礼仪——
鲜花栩栩如生，如绷带，而这男人在修补。
它们弯了腰，又站直：承受这许多侵袭！

而八十高龄的人，爱着这些小小的群聚。
他很忧伤；凌厉的风考验着他的呼吸。
水仙花抬眼一瞥，孩子似地，很快，苍白。
　　　　　　　　　　　　1962年4月5日