22岁
我走去面包店
一路想着面包。
还在拐角的店
卖黄油。有四种不同的黄油噢!
我根据咸度
把它们排成串。我偷偷地
学习当地土语。但是很少说话。
我的学生们
都那么漂亮
我能教的不多
于是就让他们唱歌。
二十出头。没啥事由。
纽约被我抛弃,
康州也随风而去。
我的学生们一直唱歌,
他们的头发短了又长,
长了又短。
我要躺在床上撸一管
然后问问自己为啥要干这个
一而再,再而三
之后起来买面包再跑几圈。
这个村庄会永世长存吗?它一定行。
就在此时,有的人咕哝着“没家的男人”
曼哈顿奥尔良还是贝莱尔——
这个害羞的老师是哪来的呀?
而她在梳自己一直在变长的头发。
作者 / [美国] 阿比加尔·德驰
翻译 / 光诸
Twenty-Two
I walked to the baker’s
and thought about the bread.
And at the corner store
the butter. Four kinds of butter!
I bought them in order
of saltiness. I studied slang
in secret. I said little.
And my students were
so beautiful
I couldn’t teach a thing.
Instead I made them sing.
Twenty-two. Nothing to do.
New York had vanished,
Connecticut, too.
My students grew hair
and got haircuts, grew hair
and got haircuts, and sang.
I’d lie in bed and masturbate
and wonder why I’d come,
and come and come again
and then rise for some bread and a run.
Does the village persist? It must.
Right now, someone hums “Nowhere Man”
and thinks of that shy teacher from—
Manhattan? New Orleans? Bel Air?
And she brushes her lengthening hair.
ABIGAIL DEUTSCH