《忘却》
人土土改于 比利·柯林斯的Forgetfulness
记不得的首先是作者是谁
紧接着书名、情节、令人心碎的结局、整本书
突然全部都变陌生
仿佛你从未听过读过
只是你觉得窗外的月亮似曾相识
不知是从以前背诵过的哪首情诗中飘出来的呢
你学到了新的事物
便忘了不再重要的过去
小学同桌的面孔、姥姥的生日、 美国第三十二任总统
你记不得的事
并不在嘴边
翻到内脏深处也找不到了
停泊在脑海中的记忆
一点接着一点
沿着神话中的暗河已飘走
你印象中河岸边的花朵很美
在这忘却之路上加入你的
甚至有不再记得自己的人
难怪你临睡前会突然以为自己在坠落
难怪梦中你会哭泣
你啊
在不断离去
----
后记
本来是发在翻译板块的，但这样修改原文担心会被说是‘译者不尊重原著’，于是在8090也发一下。
原文想表达的可能是忘记的随机性。所以作者举例文学作品、上学学过的数学程式、州花、游泳。
但作者提到了一条‘L’字开头的河，希腊神话中的忘川Lethe，再配上作者最后一个段落的美词，我就突然觉得应该用一些更美好更让人觉得遗憾的例子。
不过有的美好会让人觉得俗套，因为写烂了，这点写完之后才考虑到，嗯。
最重要的是因为作者一开始写道记忆在‘脑海’、‘渔村’里，却没有用此呼应后文的‘忘川’，让我感到可惜，便忍不住擅做修改。
附上英文原文
Forgetfulness
By Billy Collins
The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,
as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.
Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,
something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.
Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.
It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.
No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.
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发表于 2018-7-4 16:19
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