海伦娜·伯翰·卡特 | 朗读诗歌《致纽约》

Letter to N.Y.

《致纽约》

In your next letter I wish you'd say

Where you are going and what you are doing;

How are the plays, and after the plays

What other pleasures you're pursuing:

下一封来信里，我希望你说说

你要去往何方，正在做什么；

戏怎么样，看完戏以后

你还要寻找什么别的乐子？

Taking cabs in the middle of the night,

Driving as if to save your soul

Where the road goes round and round the park

And the meter glares like a moral owl,

深更半夜搭上计程车

一路飞驰，像要拯救你的灵魂那儿，

道路绕着公园盘旋又盘旋

计程表闪耀如德高望重的猫头鹰；

And the trees look so queer and green

Standing alone in big black caves

And suddenly you're in a different place

Where everything seems to happen in waves,

树木看起来那么诡异，那么绿

孤零零地站在巨大的黑色岩洞中

突然之间，你抵达别处

那儿，万物都像发生在波浪中。

And most of the jokes you just can't catch,

Like dirty words rubbed off a slate,

And the songs are loud but somehow dim

And it gets so terribly late,

大部分玩笑你就是听不懂，

如同从石板上擦去的污言秽语，

歌声响亮，却又黯淡莫名

而时间已经晚得不像话。

And coming out of the brownstone house

To the gray sidewalk, the watered street,

One side of the buildings rises with the sun

Like a glistening field of wheat.

当你走出褐砂石住宅

来到灰色人行道上，来到洒了水的街，

楼群的一侧与太阳并排升起

宛如一片微光灼烁的小麦原野；

—Wheat, not oats, dear. I'm afraid

If it's wheat it's none of your sowing,

Nevertheless I'd like to know

What you are doing and where you are going.

——小麦，而不是燕麦，亲爱的。

若是小麦，恐怕就不是你播种的，

不管怎么说，我还是想知道

你正在做什么，要去往何方。