爱 的变奏
这个词我们用来填补
漏洞。很适合作为演说里
温暖的串联,可填写在卡片上
红色心形的空位,虽然看起来
一点也不像真的心。加上丝带
你还可以出售它。
我们还可以将它插入
打印好的表格空白处。
即便没有填表说明。好多
杂志没什么内容
除了爱这个词。你可以
用它来搓身,也可以
用来炒菜。我们怎知
潮湿的纸板下鼻涕虫们的欢乐纵欲
不是爱? 至于草苗,
它们喊着爱,坚韧的叶尖小心地
从一堆生菜堆之间拱出。
爱! 爱! 战士高唱,举起
他们闪亮的刺刀致敬。
然后说说我们
两个人。这个词
实在太短了,它只有
四个字母,太稀疏
我们头上的群星无法听见
它们之间深邃的真空
爱也不能填满。
不是我们不愿意
坠入爱河,而是害怕。
这个词是不够的,但也
只能接受。它是
金属的沉默里
一个单音字,在惊奇和痛苦中
不断发出啊的嘴巴,
是一口气,是紧紧抓住
悬崖边的手指。你可以
紧抓不放,也可以松手。
作者: 玛格利特.阿特伍德
翻译: Phil
Variations On the Word Love
This is a word we use to plug
holes with. It's the right size for those warm
blanks in speech, for those red
heart- shaped vacancies on the page
that look nothing
like real hearts. Add lace
and you can sell it.
We insert it also in the one empty
space on the printed form
that comes with no
instructions. There are whole
magazines with not much in them
but the word love, you can
rub it all over your body and
you can cook with it too. How do
we know it isn't what goes on at the cool
debaucheries of slugs under damp
pieces of cardboard? As for the weed-
seedlings nosing their tough
snouts up
among the lettuces, they shout it.
Love! Love! sing the soldiers,
raising
their glittering knives in salute.
Then there's the two of us.
This word is far too short for us,
it has only four letters, too sparse
to fill those deep bare
vacuums between the stars
that press on us with their deafness.
It's not love we don't wish
to fall into, but that fear.
this word is not enough but it will
have to do. It's a single
vowel in this metallic
silence, a mouth that says
O again and again in wonder
and pain, a breath, a finger
grip on a cliffside. You can
hold on or let go.
by Margaret Atwood
作者 / 玛格丽特阿特伍德翻译 / Phil朗读 / 天水 Veronica 张铎翰制作 / 无语僧出品 / 读首诗再睡觉(dushoushizaishujiao)