默溫詩兩首：最初的時光

Merwin, W. S, The shadow of Sirius (Tarset: Bloodaxe, 2009)， 76-77.

最初的時光

默溫

當我自大陸而來
見它在身后合攏
像那失落的本原
多久之后，我才相信
我離它遠去。

從我回憶悠長的微光中
正浮現這彼岸世界
晨曦用熟悉的幻象
籠罩了陌生的土地
所有夢境瞬間消逝
遁入陰影，此地空余
那親切的，曾經親切的風景。

道路向南敞開，
屋頂從各自的疆域里
依次浮現，確定如
季節更替
翠綠鵝黃的田野之外
更有如年歲遞進的群山
棕紅的牛在坡上
羊群云一般漂移。

還有日暮時的家門
一把古老的動詞在鎖里轉動
還有冷石的芬芳，一如既往
門退入黑暗的靜默
不回答，也不遺忘
還有不變的驚訝
永未被馴服或命名
或置于掌握
更不曾完全得見
但它依然如是
抵御新聞的景象夢中
得以飛翔的恩賜
在夢澄澈的深度我窺見
遙不可及處閃亮的日子
那里造就了現在的我。

The First Days

W. S. Merwin

As I come from a continent
that I saw closing behind me
like a lost element
day after day before
I believed I was leaving it

here surfacing through the long
backlight of my recollection
is this other world veiled
in its illusion of being known
at the moment of daybreak
when the dreams all at once are gone
into shadow leaving only
in their place the familiar
once-familiar landscape

with its road open to the south
the roofs emerging on the way
from their own orbits according
to an order as certain
as the seasons
the fields emerald and mustard
and beyond them the precession
of hills with red cows on the slopes
and then the edging clouds of sheep

and the house door at evening
one old verb in the lock turning
and the fragrance of cold stone as once more
the door cedes in a dark hush
that neither answers nor forgets
and an unchanged astonishment
that has never been tamed nor named
nor held in the hand
nor ever fully seen
but it is still the same
a vision before news a gift
of flight in a dream
of clear depths where I glimpse
far out of reach the lucent days
from which now I am made

無獨有偶，此前譯過一首土耳其詩人學者Hulki Aktunç的《最初的時光》。原標題Evail，土耳其語里一般用的詞是evvel，根據兩同文堂主的解答，從詞根來講是阿拉伯語awwal的復數。اول Awwal是“第一、最初”，اوايل。我的土語不好，請不吝指正。

Hulki Aktunç, Twelfth Song (Dublin: Poetry Ireland Ltd/Éigse Éireann, 1998), 20-21

Evail

Yürüme arası durma arası bakma arası.
Burda boyun şurda adım orda karanlık.

Merdivenin en eskı öncüleri tedirgin
Gözlüyor taşlığı. Aksıyor bebe arabası.

Çıkrık ağlıyor. Gülüyor kapı kolları.
Sarnıç mı üleştiren eve karaltıları?

Arabı ay rumi hicran hicri çarkıfelek.
Temelleri inliyor eskiden gidenlerin.

Menteşe düştü, köreldi yalın kapı. Gelenler
Hurçlarını denklerini açtıkça kapandı kapı.

最初的時光

行走間停留間注視間。
脖頸在這步履在那黑暗更遠。

樓梯上最初的開拓者不安地
盯著庭院。嬰兒車在后蹣跚。

絞盤嗚咽，門把手低笑。
是水窖在屋里散布黑暗嗎？

阿拉伯、希臘或圣歷，分離是
我們的命運。先離去者的根基在悲吟。

鉸鏈銹蝕了，門板依然沉重，更多人到來
卸下重擔，打開包裹，關上門。