良善（英诗汉译）

武夷山译

良善

作者：Naomi Shihab Nye（美国女诗人，1952年生，其父亲为巴勒斯坦人，母亲为美国人。她的诗集曾获美国国家图书奖提名）

译者：武夷山©

要想知道良善到底是什么

你得遭受损失，

感受到前途在瞬间消亡

好比盐溶解于寡淡的肉汤。

你攥在手里的东西

你看重的、小心翼翼地保存的东西，

所有这些都得失去，你才会知道

在不同的良善区域之间

景观会是多么凄凉。

你坐了一站又一站车

想着公交车永远不会停歇，

吃着玉米和鸡肉的乘客

将永远凝视窗外。

要想领会良善之柔力，

你得走万里路，看到

披着白色斗篷的印第安人死在路旁。

你必须明白那死者也可能是你，

那死者也曾是这么一个人

怀揣着计划披星戴月赶路

一息尚存就砥砺前行。

要想知道良善是内心最深处的事物，

你得先了解，悲伤是内心最深处的另一桩事物。

你必须一醒来就满怀悲伤。

你必须与悲伤交谈，直到

你的声音抓住了所有悲伤的纤维

你看见了纤维织成的布料的模样。

那时，只有良善才言之成理，

只有良善能为你系上鞋带

把你派往尘世，寄信，买面包，

只有良善从芸芸众生中抬起头来

说道，你一直寻觅的就是我，

然后，良善与你结伴走向任何地方，

如影随形，如知心伴侣。

原诗如下：

Kindness

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.

How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.