艾伦·巴斯（Ellen Bass） 林木译
当你终于在重病之后躺下，整具身体
压在我身上，这难道不像是
地层的沉积，岁月
对沙粒、淤泥、贝壳碎片的压迫，
所有这些年，无数次醒来、入睡、
无眠的夜晚，争吵，寻常的清晨
谈些无关紧要的话题，还有短促
而炽热的坠落，以及
动物啃草时不自知的
寂静，流水、风、承载时间流逝的冰，却留下
将沉积物粘结为岩石的矿物质。
怎样承受这重量，每一片
骨屑都嵌压其中。又如何承受
当那重量消失，就像一个
女人的脖子曾缠绕多年铜环，
如今再也无法独自支撑。噢爱情，
它是药膏，也是一道封印。它缠紧我们，
如同兔毛紧贴兔的肌肤。
当你剥下它，抓住
切开的皮毛边缘，拉开闪亮的膜层，
身体温暖而无力。如果你能，
你会钻进湿润、光滑的皮肤中
将它背在身上。这不是
像婚礼那般整洁、白色、镶着蕾丝，
不是香槟从瓶颈溢出的
明亮泡沫。这发自肺腑的
血淋淋的结合是爱，但
也超越爱。超越魅力与欢欣
如你在你自己眼中早已超越魅力与欢欣。
这是剥了皮的爱情之肉，爱情幽径
满地碎玻璃，爱的枝头被扯落的花瓣，
眩晕嘶哑的呼喊，那倔强的饥饿。
Marriage
By Ellen Bass
When you finally, after deep illness, lay
the length of your body on mine, isn’t it
like the strata of the earth, the pressure
of time on sand, mud, bits of shell, all
the years, uncountable wakings, sleepings,
sleepless nights, fights, ordinary mornings
talking about nothing, and the brief
fiery plummets, and the unselfconscious
silences of animals grazing, the moving
water, wind, ice that carries the minutes, leaves
behind minerals that bind the sediment into rock.
How to bear the weight, with every
flake of bone pressed in. Then, how to bear when
the weight is gone, the way a woman
whose neck has been coiled with brass
can no longer hold it up alone. Oh love,
it is balm, but also a seal. It binds us tight
as the fur of a rabbit to the rabbit.
When you strip it, grasping the edge
of the sliced skin, pulling the glossy membranes
apart, the body is warm and limp. If you could,
you’d climb inside that wet, slick skin
and carry it on your back. This is not
neat and white and lacy like a wedding,
not the bright effervescence of champagne
spilling over the throat of the bottle. This visceral
bloody union that is love, but
beyond love. Beyond charm and delight
the way you to yourself are past charm and delight.
This is the shucked meat of love, the alleys and broken
glass of love, the petals torn off the branches of love,
the dizzy hoarse cry, the stubborn hunger.
