James Longenbach： 行李箱

叶如钢

行李箱

原作： James Longenbach （美国, 当代）
叶如钢译


你将会长期居住的那个房间
----无人能预知其尺寸，形状， 即便位置
但每次把行装放进箱子
你都会思考那个房间

你想象窗幔的颜色
你心想书桌夏天要对着窗户
那时太阳在头顶上
而冬天要对着墙
那时光线低得投射进你眼睛

冬天没什么分散注意力， 你研究墙
而夏天有轨电车停在公共教学部前面

通常它停在那里， 没人走动， 但有时
它正在过河
小房子， 新公寓，
身体--早晨散发新鲜气味，晚上排列

行装装箱时，我铺开每只袜子，
每只短裤， 平整无褶皱
如果衬衫太大不能铺平
就把袖子折到背面来正好适合箱子
一扇窗户， 那张书桌，一盏灯，一把椅子

生活中最大乐趣之一
如果允许我使用这个说法
就是把行装放进一个箱子

这不同于建构火焰
如果你想给空气留下空间





SUITCASE
James Longenbach

No one can predict the size, the shape, or even the location
Of the room where you will live a long time,
But every time you pack
You’re thinking about that room.


You’re imagining the color of the draperies,
You’re deciding the desk should face the window in summer,
When the sun is overhead,
But face the wall in winter,
When the light’s so low it hits you in the eyes.


In winter there are no distractions, you study the wall.
But in summer the trolley stops in front of the Ministry of Public Instruction.

Usually it sits there, nobody moves, but sometimes
It’s crossing the river.
Little houses, new apartments,
Bodies smelling fresh in the morning, rank at night—


When I pack, I lay out every sock, each pair
Of shorts without a fold.
If my shirts are too large to lie down flat,
I tuck their arms beneath their sides to fill the suitcase perfectly.
A window, the desk, a lamp and a chair.


One of life’s greatest pleasures,
If I’m allowed the phrase,
Is packing a suitcase.


It’s not like building a fire,
When you want to leave space for air.


Wikipedia:  James Longenbach is an American critic and poet. His early critical work focused on modernist poetry, namely that of Ezra Pound, W.B. Yeats, and Wallace Stevens, but has come to include contemporary poetry as well. Longenbach has published four books of poems: Threshold, Fleet River, Draft of a Letter, and The Iron Key. One recent book of criticism, The Resistance to Poetry, has been described as a "compact and exponentially provocative book."

Longenbach is Joseph Henry Gilmore Professor of English at the University of Rochester and has taught at the University since 1985. His poems have appeared in many magazines and journals, including The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Nation, and The Yale Review, as well as The Best American Poetry 1995 anthology. He frequently reviews books for Boston Review, the Nation, and the Los Angeles Times Book Reivew.

He received his bachelor's degree in 1981 from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and his PhD. from Princeton University. His wife, novelist Joanna Scott and fellow Trinity graduate, also teaches at the English Department of the University of Rochester. They have two children.

忍淹留

第一小节最后一句的thinking about意思可以再变通一下吧？

叶如钢

忍淹留 发表于 2015-8-9 20:11
第一小节最后一句的thinking about意思可以再变通一下吧？

诗人对这个房间确实思考了不少。 是否有比“思考”更适合的词？ 也许。 再想。