好詩獻給你 第69期:為聯邦軍陣亡將士而作 For the Union Dead

For the Union Dead

為聯邦軍陣亡將士而作

Relinquunt Ommia Servare Rem Publicam.

為共和國效力，他們奉獻了一切

The old South Boston Aquarium stands

此刻，古老的南波士頓水族館站立在

in a Sahara of snow now. Its broken windows areboarded.

雪的撒哈拉沙漠之中。它破敗的窗子被木板封住。

The bronze weathervane cod has lost half its scales.

青銅風標上鱈魚的鱗片已經剝落一半。

The airy tanks are dry.

空洞的魚箱那么干燥。

Once my nose crawled like a snail on the glass;

我的鼻子曾經像蝸牛在玻璃上爬行;

my hand tingled to burst the bubbles

手顫抖著刺破泡沫，

drifting from the noses of the crowded, compliant fish.

那些泡沫在擁擠而順從的魚鼻子上漂浮。

My hand draws back. I often sign still

我縮回手。我依然常常為魚和爬行動物的

for the dark downward and vegetating kingdom

漆黑、沒落而單調的王國

of the fish and reptile. One morning last March,

嘆息。去年三月的一個清晨，

I pressed against the new barbed and galvanized

我靠著波士頓公園帶刺、

fence on the Boston Common. Behind their cage,

鍍鋅的新柵欄。在圍欄后面，

yellow dinosaur steamshovels were grunting

黃色恐龍般的蒸汽鏟咕嚕作響

as they cropped up tons of mush and grass

同時拋出成噸的爛泥和青草

to gouge their underworld garage.

開鑿它們的地下車庫。

Parking spaces luxuriate like civic

在波士頓市中心，停車場像民用

sandpiles in the heart of Boston.

沙堆一般滋長。

a girdle of orange, Puritan-pumpkin colored girders

一條橙色的、清教徒南瓜色的桁梁

braces the tingling Statehouse,

支撐著顫動的議會大廈，

shaking over the excavations, as it faces Colonel Shaw

議會大廈因開鑿而搖擺，它面對著

and his bell-cheeked Negro infantry

圣·戈登斯搖晃的內戰(zhàn)浮雕上

on St. Gaudens' shaking Civil War relief,

肖上校和他的銅鐘臉頰的黑人團，

propped by a plank splint against the garage's earthquake.

浮雕被一塊木夾板撐著以頂住來自車庫的地震。

Two months after marching through Boston,

通過波士頓后兩個月，

half of the regiment was dead;

黑人團員陣亡一半;

at the dedication,

在致詞儀式上，

William James could almost hear the bronze Negroes breathe.

威廉·詹姆斯幾乎能聽見青銅黑人在呼吸。

Their monument sticks like a fishbone

紀念碑如一根魚刺

in the city's throat.

扎在城市的喉嚨。

Its Colonel is a lean

上校那么瘦削

as a compass-needle.

猶如一枚指南針。

He has an angry wrenlike vigilance,

他具有發(fā)怒鷦鷯般的警覺，

a greyhound's gentle tautness;

以及灰狗般溫順的緊張;

he seems to wince at pleasure,

他似乎要隨時退縮，

and suffocate for privacy.

因自私而窒息。

He is out of bounds now. He rejoices in man's lovely,

如今他已越出邊界。他欣喜于人在選擇生死時

peculiar power to choose life and die—

美好而奇特的力量——

when he leads his black soldiers to death,

當他把黑人士兵領向死亡，

he cannot bend his back.

他不能彎曲背脊。

On a thousand small town New England greens

在新英格蘭一千座小鎮(zhèn)的綠地上

the old white churches hold their air

古老的白色教堂保存著

of sparse, sincere rebellion; frayed flags

微薄而真誠的叛亂氣氛;破損的旗幟

quilt the graveyards of the Grand Army of the Republic

猶如被子蓋住共和國陸海軍軍人會墓地。

The stone statutes of the abstract Union Soldier

抽象的聯邦軍戰(zhàn)士石雕

grow slimmer and younger each year—

逐年變得瘦削而年輕——

wasp-waisted, they doze over muskets

他們細腰如蜂，倚著步槍瞌睡，

and muse through their sideburns...

透過落腮胡子沉思。

Shaw's father wanted no monument

肖的父親需要的不是什么紀念碑

except the ditch,

而是那條戰(zhàn)壕，

where his son's body was thrown

他兒子的尸體被扔在那里

and lost with his "niggers."

消失在“黑鬼們”中間。

The ditch is nearer.

戰(zhàn)壕在靠近。

There are no statutes for the last war here;

此處沒有上次大戰(zhàn)的紀念碑;

on Boylston Street, a commercial photograph

在波爾斯頓大街上，一副商業(yè)照片

shows Hiroshima boiling

展示著廣島的煙云

over a Mosler Safe, the "Rock of Ages"

下面是一只莫斯勒保險柜，“時代之磐石”

that survived the blast. Space is nearer.

于爆炸中幸存。

when I crouch to my television set,

當我俯身打開電視，

the drained faces of Negro school-children rise like balloons.

黑人學生干枯的臉如氣球飛升。

Colonel Shaw

肖上校

is riding on his bubble,

正騎著他的泡沫，

he waits

等待著

for the blessed break.

幸福的休息。

The Aquarium is gone. Everywhere,

水族館已經逝去。無論何處，

giant finned cars nose forward like fish;

巨大的帶鰭的車輛像魚一樣鼻子前伸;

a savage servility

一種野蠻的奴性

slides by on grease.

在油脂上滑過。