Plath: Mirror

Sylvia Plath Collected Poems
No. 154

　　　Mirror

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful---
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.
　　　　　　　　　23 October 1961


普拉斯《诗全编》
第154首

　　　镜子

我，银质，精确。绝无先入之见。
无论看到什么，我都立即吞下，
原封不动，不因爱憎喜恶而蒙上雾气。
我并非残忍，只不过实话实说——
一个小神的眼睛，四角方正。
大多数时间，我沉思默想着对面的墙。
它是粉红的，有褐斑。我已盯着它很久了，
以为那是我心地的一部分。但它会闪动。
人脸和黑暗再三再四地将我们分隔。

如今我是一潭湖水。一个女人弯身就我，
搜遍我的幅员，查证她自己究竟是什么。
然后，她转向那些说谎者、蜡烛或月亮。
我看到她的后背，忠实地将它呈现。
她对我报以泪水，以及双手的激愤。
我对她至关重要。她来来往往。
每个清晨总是她的脸取代那片黑暗。
在我深处她已淹没一个少女，而自我深处
一位老妇日复一日向她浮现，像一条可怕的鱼。
　　　　　　　　　　　　1961年10月23日