英诗汉译：残酷惊人的真相

武夷山

残酷惊人的真相

作者： Maya Angelou（玛雅.安杰卢）

译者：武夷山©

生活于渺小孤独的星球上的我们，人类族群

在无所用心的空间中穿行

经过了冷漠的恒星，穿过没心没肺的众多太阳的路径

抵达一个目的地，那里的所有迹象都告诉我们

我们有可能、有必要了解一个

残酷惊人的真相

当我们面对这个真相

面对缔结和平的日子

当我们将充满敌意的拳头

伸展为五指

让纯洁的空气冷却我们的手掌

当我们面对这个真相 当吟游诗人的仇恨表演落幕

被轻蔑弄脏的脸收拾得干干净净

当战场和竞技场

不再折磨我们独特的儿女们

他们带着伤痕累累、血迹斑斑的青草

躺进外国土地上的一模一样的地块

当人们贪婪地涌入教堂

寺庙里的恼人喧哗止歇下去

当三角旗欢快地飘动

当世界的大纛

在怡人的清风中壮实地颤动

当我们面对这个真相

当我们将步枪从肩上卸下

孩子们给娃娃裹上停战大旗

当致命的地雷被排除掉

老人们能够走进宁静的夜晚

当宗教仪式上的香火

不再掺杂着人肉烧焦的糊味

童年美梦不再被遭遇虐待的噩梦搅扰  

当我们面对这个真相

我们就会承认

在我们的集体记忆中

并非只有砌筑得神秘完美的金字塔

并非只有作为为永恒之美的

巴比伦空中花园

并非只有大峡谷

在夕阳残照中熠熠生辉

并非只有多瑙河，带着蓝色的灵魂流入欧洲

并非只有富士山的圣峰

延绵奔入了旭日

并非只有亚马逊父亲河和密西西比母亲河，毫无偏袒地

哺育了河水中和沿岸的所有生物

世界奇观可不止这些

当我们面对这个真相

生活在这个小得可怜、无亲无故的星球上的我们，人类族群

他们每日都去努力抓取炸弹、小刀和匕首

可是却在暗地里祈求和平的信物

生活在这一小块物质上的我们，人类族群

他们嘴里充满了恶毒的话语

这些恶毒威胁着人类的生存

可是仍是从这些嘴里

也能唱出曼妙甜美的歌声

以致他们的心在劳作中衰弱

他们的身体肃然起敬

生活在这个微小的漂浮星球上的我们，人类族群

他们的手可以如此决绝地进行打击

以致眨眼之间，生命就会枯萎

可是这些手也能以无法抗拒的温柔进行治愈式抚摸

以致高傲的头颅也乐意低头鞠躬

高傲的后背也高兴弯曲

从这些混沌中，从这些矛盾中

我们了解到我们既非恶魔，也非圣人

当我们面对这个真相

生活在这个任性的漂浮物上的我们，人类族群

他们被造就在地球上，属于这个地球

他们有能力为地球营造出这样的气氛

让每个男人和女人都可自由地生活

无需道貌岸然的虔敬，也没有严重的恐惧感。

当我们面对这个真相

我们必须承认，我们是蕴含着可能性的

我们是能创造奇迹的，是真正的世界奇观

那就是当我们且仅当我们

面对真相的时候

原诗如下：

A BRAVE AND STARTLING TRUTH by Maya Angelou

We, this people, on a small and lonely planet Traveling through casual space Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns To a destination where all signs tell us It is possible and imperative that we learn A brave and startling truth

And when we come to it To the day of peacemaking When we release our fingers From fists of hostility And allow the pure air to cool our palms

When we come to it When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean When battlefields and coliseum No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters Up with the bruised and bloody grass To lie in identical plots in foreign soil

When the rapacious storming of the churches The screaming racket in the temples have ceased When the pennants are waving gaily When the banners of the world tremble Stoutly in the good, clean breeze

When we come to it When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders And children dress their dolls in flags of truce When land mines of death have been removed And the aged can walk into evenings of peace When religious ritual is not perfumed By the incense of burning flesh And childhood dreams are not kicked awake By nightmares of abuse

When we come to it Then we will confess that not the Pyramids With their stones set in mysterious perfection Nor the Gardens of Babylon Hanging as eternal beauty In our collective memory Not the Grand Canyon Kindled into delicious color By Western sunsets

Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji Stretching to the Rising Sun Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor, Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores These are not the only wonders of the world

When we come to it We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace We, this people on this mote of matter In whose mouths abide cankerous words Which challenge our very existence Yet out of those same mouths Come songs of such exquisite sweetness That the heart falters in its labor And the body is quieted into awe

We, this people, on this small and drifting planet Whose hands can strike with such abandon That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness That the haughty neck is happy to bow And the proud back is glad to bend Out of such chaos, of such contradiction We learn that we are neither devils nor divines

When we come to it We, this people, on this wayward, floating body Created on this earth, of this earth Have the power to fashion for this earth A climate where every man and every woman Can live freely without sanctimonious piety Without crippling fear

When we come to it We must confess that we are the possible We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world That is when, and only when We come to it.

相关阅读

玛雅.  安杰罗的传奇生涯 http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-1557-28590.html

美国黑人女诗人玛雅. 安吉罗 (1928-  ) 诗一首 https://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-1557-28349.html