Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Plath:The Couriers

Sylvia Plath Collected Poems
No. 199

   The Couriers
The word of a snail on the plate of a leaf?
It is not mine. Do not accept it.

Acetic acid in a sealed tin?
Do not accept it. It is not genuine.

A ring of gold with the sun in it?
Lies. Lies and a grief.


Frost on a leaf, the immaculate
Cauldron, talking and crackling

All to itself on the top of each
Of nine black Alps.

A disturbance in mirrors,
The sea shattering its gray one------


Love, love, my season.
         4 November 1962


普拉斯《诗全编》
第199首

   信使
       希薇娅- 普拉斯
叶子的版面上蜗牛的字?
那不是我的。别接受。

密封铁罐里的醋酸?
别接受。那不正宗。

镶了太阳的金戒指?
谎言。谎言与一场伤心。


叶子上的霜,完美无瑕的
炼锅,唠叨着、噼啪着

在九柱黑色阿尔卑斯山的
每个顶峰,一切都收了。

镜中的躁乱,
海粉碎了它的灰色一体——


爱呀,爱,我的季节。
        1962年11月4日


I believe this is one of the most difficult poems. Is there a kind of counterpoint in this poem? L1 and L7 (leaf), L3 and L8 (sealed tin & cauldron)? And then, the ring with the sun in it can be compared with the mirror with a disturbance in it? How to make out the rest images? This poem is difficult to interpret.
这首诗在我看来属于她比较难解的诗歌之一。我在想是否有某种形式上的对位方式。例如,第一行和第七行的叶子,第三行和第八行则是罐子和练锅,那么镶嵌着太阳的戒指和带着躁乱的镜子是否可以相比?其他的意象呢?普拉斯晚期诗歌中的形式有不少是这么对位或者赋格式的。

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