英诗汉译:作为文学的圣经
武夷山
“作为文学的圣经”
(选自诗集“Is This My Final Form?”,美国企鹅图书公司,2025年4月出版)
作者:Amy Gerstler(美国女诗人,1956年生)
译者:武夷山©
年轻时她把新任丈夫揍成稀泥
用的是一只灭火器。
这种事常有发生。多年后我遇到她
是在“作为文学的圣经”课堂上。
我们了解到,羊皮卷上的图书
只朝一个方向展开,奔涌向前
如浪卷。而分页码的图书,
允许我们在叙事中反复
返回,跳进,如同我们很多人
热望在生活中亦能如此任性。
我说不清楚,我是否早就应该知道
我努力记住的她的脸扭曲成立体主义碎片的样子
其实预示着她一会儿就要把书页砸向我,
还是说,尽管她老是缺课,
但我仍在缓慢滴落的圣经时间里爱着她
震裂天宇的巨雷毁坏着时间
但丰沛的蜂蜜抚慰着时间的饥渴
或是说,她在我的人生中闪进闪出如闪电。
她就需要不停地折腾。如果你能
透过这一高低杠(本诗的诗行)构成的牢狱
描绘出她这个人的行状
那么你就比我棒。
原诗如下:
请将以下诗歌意味中文
“The Bible as Literature”
From the Collection “Is This My Final Form?”
By Amy Gerstler
April 4, 2025
She clubbed her new husband to a pulp
with a fire extinguisher when she was young.
These things happen. Years later I met her
in a class called “The Bible as Literature.”
We learned that books on scrolls unfurl
in just one direction, surging forward
like waves breaking. Paged books, however,
allow us to jump around in a narrative,
go back, leap ahead, as many of us ache
to do at times in our lives. Whether I
should have known that the way her face broke
into Cubist fragments as I tried to memorize it
was a sign she would soon turn the page on me,
whether despite her absence continued
to love her in slow-dripping biblical
time, wracked by sky-cracking thunder
and slaked by puddled honey, or whether she
flashed in and out of my life like lightning, I will
not say. She needed to keep moving. If you can
make out the shape of her person from behind
this prison of horizontal bars (the lines of
this poem) you’re a better man than I.
博主:
此诗不太好理解。我的译文包含对原文理解的猜测成分,可能有错,我都不改了。下面是DS的译文,对翻译有兴趣者可以对照着看看。
《作为文学的圣经》
——艾米·格斯特勒《此即终相》诗选
她曾用灭火器将新婚丈夫
锤成一滩血泥,在年轻气盛的时节
世事无常。多年后我们在
"作为文学的圣经"课堂重逢
羊皮卷轴教会我们叙事
如浪涛奔涌不可逆,而现代书册
容许我们在字句间跳踉回溯
正如我们总渴望在生命长河里
截取某些切片。当我试图铭刻
她碎裂成立体派的面容时,是否
该预见这将是翻页的前兆?是否
在缺席的岁月里,我仍以圣经式的
时光蜜露缓渗地爱她,任雷霆撕天
又让蜜潭止渴?抑或她本就是
穿行我生命的闪电?我缄口
她必须继续流浪。若你能穿透
这横栏囚牢(此诗的行距)
窥见她背影轮廓,那你定是
胜我千倍的解谜之人
(注:译诗中"蜜露缓渗"对应原文"slow-dripping","横栏囚牢"暗喻诗行如同监狱栅栏,末句"解谜之人"呼应原诗对阅读行为的元诗性思考)
转载本文请联系原作者获取授权,同时请注明本文来自武夷山科学网博客。
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these things happen
It is common for unfortunate things to happen or for people to make mistakes, so there's no use worrying about it.
A: "I'm so sorry to hear that you and Amy broke up." B: "It's okay. It hurts, but these things happen."


”her new husband “,是否意味着还有"an old husband";倘若如此,就不能简单译为”新婚丈夫“。
"These things happen",不知是否意味着有多次婚姻?
These things happen.隐含着见怪不怪的意思。我在美工作期间,一次去朋友家赴宴,不小心把橙汁洒在主人家的高级地摊上了,很囧。女主人一边拿纸巾来吸。一边安慰我说“Such things happened.”意思是,这种小事故很难免,不要在意。