英诗汉译：数据

武夷山

    Derek Mahon是爱尔兰诗人，1941年生，自1965年以来，他已发表了25部诗集，翻译、编辑了10部国外非英语诗人的诗集。他的最新一部诗集是2018年8月刚刚出版的“Against the Clock”（与时间赛跑）。

    2018年8月20日出版的《纽约客》发表Derek Mahon的诗作，Data。试译如下。

数据

作者 Derek Mahon

武夷山 译，版权所有©

我小时候曾关注过的一些神秘

如隐身的弹簧，再次引起我注意，

还有寂静之声响，台布之小憩，

碘的海腥味，衣服的气息，

木头的原始纹理，涨潮与退潮

相互争夺形成的界面，好不热闹。

家具的光亮具有“疯狂的存在感”[1],

厨房里的金属器皿擦得亮闪闪，

乡村车库里有欢跑的母鸡和割下的干草，

样样东西焕发出光彩，即使风雨飘摇，

从我们熟悉的意向性世界反射发光

或是发出内在的辉光----

物质世界具有的力量是惯性的、潜在的。

我们的知识是工具性的，我们的事实是不实在的

因为那些事实未经体验，未被感受

除了严酷的现实，我们还能利用什么将智慧寻求？

若想欣赏夜空之音乐多么寂静

我们并不需要望远镜；

我们也不需要计算机来思忖

迁徙的雨燕之形态共振

它们在河口排成密集的阵型

向南方飞翔是它们的本能，

它们也靠本能将回程辨别

当山楂树花枝纷披的时节。

博主注：

[1]“狂热的存在感”是英国著名作家弗吉尼亚.沃尔夫在描写朝阳的光照效果时用到的一个词组，原文如下：

The sun rose. Its rays fell in sharp wedges inside the room. Whatever the light touched became dowered with a fanatical existence. A plate was like a white lake. A knife looked like a dagger of ice. Suddenly my copy of ‘The Waves’ became alive as the clouds on the cover page started floating in resplendent movements and the water of the ocean moved swiftly over the edges of several dog-eared pages carrying along thousands of words written upon them, to a world they rightfully belongs to. Drifting in the cradle of nature, under the roof of blue/black sky, amidst beauty they could equate with. Merging into the ubiquitous elements of the cosmos, they were finally home. The waves...finally broke out.

原诗如下：

Data

By Derek Mahon

I’m noticing once again the singular things
I noticed as a boy: the hidden springs,
the sound of silence, nap of tablecloths,
sea taste of iodine, the scents of clothes,
raw grain of wood, a scrambling interface
of ebbing tide and incoming tide race.

Light, hot on the “fanatical existence”
of furniture and the brightwork of kitchens,
on country garage, hen run and mown hay,
shines everything, even on the rainiest day,
with the reflected or intrinsic glow
of an intentional world we think we know—

the inert, potential force of things material.
Our knowledge instrumental, our facts unreal
because unlived, unfelt, what can we use
for wisdom but these fierce realities?
We don’t need telescopes to appreciate
the silent music of the sky at night;

nor do we need computers to contemplate
that morphic resonance where swifts migrate
in close formation from a river mouth
knowing by instinct when to travel south,
also by instinct to retrace their flight
when hawthorn is in leaf, its flowers alight.

Derek Mahon’s latest collection, published this month, is “Against the Clock.”