Possibilities
Wislawa Szymborska
I prefer movies.
I prefer cats.
I prefer the oaks along the Warta.
I prefer Dickens to Dostoyevsky.
I prefer myself liking people
to myself loving mankind.
I prefer keeping a needle and thread on hand, just in case.
I prefer the color green.
I prefer not to maintain
that reason is to blame for everything.
I prefer exceptions.
I prefer to leave early.
I prefer talking to doctors about something else.
I prefer the old fine-lined illustrations.
I prefer the absurdity of writing poems
to the absurdity of not writing poems.
I prefer, where love's concerned, nonspecific anniversaries
that can be celebrated every day.
I prefer moralists
who promise me nothing.
I prefer cunning kindness to the over-trustful kind.
I prefer the earth in civvies.
I prefer conquered to conquering countries.
I prefer having some reservations.
I prefer the hell of chaos to the hell of order.
I prefer Grimms' fairy tales to the newspapers' front pages.
I prefer leaves without flowers to flowers without leaves.
I prefer dogs with uncropped tails.
I prefer light eyes, since mine are dark.
I prefer desk drawers.
I prefer many things that I haven't mentioned here
to many things I've also left unsaid.
I prefer zeroes on the loose
to those lined up behind a cipher.
I prefer the time of insects to the time of stars.
I prefer to knock on wood.
I prefer not to ask how much longer and when.
I prefer keeping in mind even the possibility
that existence has its own reason for being.
附:
陳黎、張芬齡所譯中文版本
種種可能
辛波絲卡
我偏愛電影。
我偏愛貓。
我偏愛華爾塔河沿岸的橡樹。
我偏愛狄更斯勝過杜斯妥也夫斯基。
我偏愛我對人群的喜歡
勝過我對人類的愛。
我偏愛在手邊擺放針線,以備不時之需。
我偏愛綠色。
我偏愛不抱持把一切
都歸咎於理性的想法。
我偏愛例外。
我偏愛及早離去。
我偏愛和醫生聊些別的話題。
我偏愛線條細緻的老式插畫。
我偏愛寫詩的荒謬
勝過不寫詩的荒謬。
我偏愛,就愛情而言,可以天天慶祝的
不特定紀念日。
我偏愛不向我做任何
承諾的道德家。
我偏愛狡猾的仁慈勝過過度可信的那種。
我偏愛穿便服的地球。
我偏愛被征服的國家勝過征服者。
我偏愛有些保留。
我偏愛混亂的地獄勝過秩序井然的地獄。
我偏愛格林童話勝過報紙頭版。
我偏愛不開花的葉子勝過不長葉子的花。
我偏愛尾巴沒被截短的狗。
我偏愛淡色的眼睛,因為我是黑眼珠。
我偏愛書桌的抽屜。
我偏愛許多此處未提及的事物
勝過許多我也沒有說到的事物。
我偏愛自由無拘的零
勝過排列在阿拉伯數字後面的零。
我偏愛昆蟲的時間勝過星星的時間。
我偏愛敲擊木頭。
我偏愛不去問還要多久或什麼時候。
我偏愛牢記此一可能——
存在的理由不假外求。
BGM= 多瑙河之波 / 俄羅斯手風琴金曲