英诗汉译：贝里曼

武夷山

    John Berryman（约翰·贝里曼，1914 .10.25.–1972.1.7.）是美国诗人，二十世纪美国自白派诗歌奠基人之一，最后是跳河自杀的。W.S. Merwin ( 默温,1927.9.30–2019.3.15)也是美国诗人，是贝里曼的弟子。默温有一首标题就是“贝里曼”的诗，记叙导师的教导，现将其译出，以纪念前不久去世的默温。

   2003年河北教育出版社出版的《W.S.默温诗选（上·中·下）》（董继平 译）中未收入“贝里曼”。

贝里曼

作者：W.S.默温

译者：武夷山 版权所有©

我要将他在大战刚结束的年月里

所告诉我的东西告诉你们

那场战争

我们那时称为第二次世界大战

他说，现在还不要抛弃你的自负

等你年纪大了再抛弃自负也不迟

过早地抛弃自负

恐怕只会以虚荣取而代之

只有一次，他建议

将几个词在诗行中的通常顺序

给改变一下

一件事干嘛要说两次

他曾建议我向缪斯祈祷

跪下来虔诚祈祷

就在那个墙角跪下

他说他是认真的不开玩笑

那时他尚未蓄须

也没酗酒，但他已深深沦陷

陷入自身思绪的潮流中不能自拔

他下巴倾侧，脑袋倾斜，如抢风行驶的单桅帆船

他三十多岁时就过早呈现老相

与我三十多岁时相比老得不行

他封闭鼻腔

发出我猜是在英国时感染的口音

至于发表，他对我建议说

用退稿通知把墙贴满

当他发表对诗歌的强烈看法时

他的嘴唇和细长手指的骨节都在震颤

他说，那在诗歌里

允许一切并改变一切的

伟大的存在物便是激情

激情是才能，他还颂扬运动和发明

我还未开始阅读时就问他

你怎么有把握说

你写的东西就有多大价值

他说没有把握

不可能有把握，永远没有

到咽气的那一天你也不明白

你写的任何东西是否有任何价值

你要真想要把握，你就别写

 原文如下：

BERRYMAN 
by W.S. Merwin

I will tell you what he told me
in the years just after the war
as we then called
the second world war

don’t lose your arrogance yet he said
you can do that when you’re older
lose it too soon and you may
merely replace it with vanity

just one time he suggested
changing the usual order
of the same words in a line of verse
why point out a thing twice

he suggested I pray to the Muse
get down on my knees and pray
right there in the corner and he
said he meant it literally

it was in the days before the beard
and the drink but he was deep
in tides of his own through which he sailed
chin sideways and head tilted like a tacking sloop

he was far older than the dates allowed for
much older than I was he was in his thirties
he snapped down his nose with an accent
I think he had affected in England

as for publishing he advised me
to paper my wall with rejection slips
his lips and the bones of his long fingers trembled
with the vehemence of his views about poetry

he said the great presence
that permitted everything and transmuted it
in poetry was passion
passion was genius and he praised movement and invention

I had hardly begun to read
I asked how can you ever be sure
that what you write is really
any good at all and he said you can’t

you can’t you can never be sure
you die without knowing
whether anything you wrote was any good
if you have to be sure don’t write