蜂鸟
潘灵剑/译
[英]D.H.劳伦斯（D.H.Lawrence，1885－1930）
我能想象，在某个原始哑默
而久远的想象世界里，
在那只有喘息和嗡嗡嘈杂，极可怕的寂静中，
蜂鸟们沿着林间通道竞飞。
在一切拥有灵魂之前，
当生命还是物质的喘动，是半生命时，
这小东西就在光辉中吱喳飞起了
飕飕穿过多汁、高大、迟钝的茎梗。
我相信那时还没有花，
在这世界，蜂鸟却闪现于万物之前。
我相信，它用长长的喙刺穿植物迟钝的叶脉。
也许它有苔藓那么大，
据说，小小的蜥蜴曾经很大。
也许它是可怕、刺戳的怪物。
如今我们倒过长长的时光望远镜看它，
这于我们是多么幸运。
◎HUMMING-BIRD
I can imagine, in some otherworld
Primeval-dumb, far back
In that most awful stillness, that only gasped and hummed,
Humming-birds raced down the avenues.
Before anything had a soul,
While life was a heave of Matter, half inanimate,
This little bit chipped off in brilliance
And went whizzing through the slow, vast, succulent stems.
I believe there were no flowers then,
In the world where the humming-bird flashed ahead of creation.
I believe he pierced the slow vegetable veins with his long beak.
Probably he was big
As mosses, and little lizards, they say, were once big.
Probably he was a jabbing, terrifying monster.
We look at him through the wrong end of the long telescope of Time,
Luckily for us. |
