二十一首情詩之三
【美】艾德里安娜·裏奇 陳子弘 譯
再說我們不年輕了，不得不用數週完善幾年來
對彼此的思念。只有這怪異的時間錯覺
甚至告訴我我們已不年輕了。
我是否在二十歲時走在清晨的街上，
四肢洋溢着純粹的快樂？
我是否從任一扇窗戶俯瞰城市
聆聽未來
一如我在這兒神經緊張聽你的鈴聲？
你喃，你以同樣的速度朝我走來。
你的眼睛永恆，那初夏
藍眼庭菖蒲閃着的綠光，
春光沖刷過的青藍色野獨行菜。
二十歲時，是啊：我們覺得會永遠活着。
四十五歲，我甚至想知道我們生命的極限。
我撫摸你，認識到我們不是明天出生的。
我們每個人好像都會幫助另一方活着，
我們每個人大約都必須幫助另一方死去。
(Twenty-One Love Poems， 1973-1974)
III
Since we're not young, weeks have to do time
for years of missing each other. Yet only this odd warp
in time tells me we're not young.
Did I ever walk the morning streets at twenty,
my limbs streaming with a purer joy?
did I lean from any window over the city
listening for the future
as I listen here with nerves tuned for your ring?
And you, you move toward me with the same tempo.
Your eyes are everlasting, the green spark
of the blue-eyed grass of early summer,
the green-blue wild cress washed by the spring.
At twenty, yes: we thought we’d live forever.
At forty-five, I want to know even our limits.
I touch you knowing we weren’t born tomorrow,
and somehow, each of us will help the other live,
and somewhere, each of us must help the other die.