弗恩·罗塔萨拉：伤心的道路

它们的悲伤像是那种
买主的懊悔。它们选择了
自己的道路但此时又后悔，
发现——太晚了——它们

本可以去海滨
或者芳香的松林。
不过有一条路我喜欢，
被工程师们遗忘，看上去

像它们中最悲伤的一个。那是
在爱达荷地图上看不见的地方
上上下下，经过摇摇晃晃的桥梁，
似乎已无路可行

可最后却蹒跚着
进入老农场的院子
一个墨黑的夜晚，岁月
层层剥去如同从一株柳树上

剥掉树皮。是时候
那老人为屋宅
清理土地并把旧房
敲钉到一起

用他的两只空拳。
今晚我捕捉到
锯木的香气，新墙仍然
白的像棵剥皮的柳树。

Sorry Roads

Vern Rutsala

Their sorrow is something like
buyer’s remorse. They chose
their paths but now regret it,
realizing—too late—they could

have gone to the seashore
or forests of sweet pines.
But there is one I like, ignored
by engineers, looking like

the sorriest of them all. It’s off
the map in Idaho and rises
and falls, goes over rickety bridges,
seems almost to lose its way

completely but finally staggers
into the yard of the old farm
one sepia evening, the years
peeling back like stripping bark

from a willow. It’s the time
the old man cleared the land
for the homestead and hammered
the old house together

with his bare fists.
Tonight I catch the scent
of sawdust, the new siding still
white as a stripped willow.

[ 本帖最后由 adieudusk 于 2008-9-3 09:14 编辑 ]