加拿大當代詩 選譯(Translation of Selected Canadian Poetry)

[顏雪花Catherine Yen]

(Al Purdy在多倫多的雕像 : Edwin and Veronica Dam夫妻檔雕塑家的作品)

 (Milton Acorn)

(Margaret Atwood, 2006)

 

鎮日讀書, 偶拾翻譯之筆, 最主要是震撼於Milton Acorn的壯闊生命情境與詩的美學呈現, 繼續展讀的結果就是又翻譯了Margaret Atwood, Al Purdy, Leonard Cohen, George Bowering的作品,在1960年代這幾位詩人已然是加拿大當代詩學的代表, 而較為年長的 Al Purdy 及Milton Acorn無疑是架起兩個世代最重要的橋樑.

 

(1) Alfred Wellington Purdy(1918-2000) 是二十世紀加拿大最重要的詩人之一，他同時也是作家、評論者及編輯。他的寫作生崖長達五十年，作品包括三十本詩集，一部小說，兩冊回憶錄及四本書信集，他被稱為國家非正式的桂冠詩人，曾獲總督獎。作品包括 The Enchanted Echo(1944), Pressed on Sand(1955), Emu Remember!(1957), Poems for All the Annettes(1962); North of Summer(1967), Wild Grape Wine(1968), Love in a Burning Building(1970) 等。

 

★愛的驗屍 (Catherine Yen翻譯)

 

如果你死了
它可能被說成我愛你：
愛絕對和死亡一樣，
並且不能忍受向他人作偽證——
可是你仍舊活著‧

 

不！我不愛你
恨這個字，
公眾聲音裡的私人暴政，
你的自由是你的而不是我的：
但像一把劍掌握我獨自的狂熱，
徹夜將它投入你的身體裡‧

 

如果死亡除了將剝去我們所有骨頭之外還是骨頭，
那麼這些肉身及陶醉甜美的肉身
一如偽裝在薄光裡的酒杯；
伸出你的手將月光捻熄，
或者它從未在那裡
所以不要對我許下任何承諾：
但將你的手伸至黑暗的對面
伸至今晚的距離外
再次撫觸感動的片刻
在你沉睡之前 ——

Necropsy of Love (Al Purdy)

 

If it came about you died
it might be said I love you:
love is an absolute as death is,
and neither bears false witness to the other--
But you remain alive

 

No, I do not love you
hate the word,
that private tyranny inside a public sound,
your freedom’s yours and not my own;
but hold my separate madness like a sword,
and plunge it in your body all night long.

 

If death shall strip our bones of all but bones,
then here’s the flesh and flesh that’s drunken-sweet
as wine cups in deceptive lunar light;
reach up your hand and turn the moonlight off,
and may be it was never there at all,
so never promise anything to me:
but reach across the darkness with your hand,
reach across the distance of tonight,
and touch the moving moment once again
before you fall asleep—

 

★以鼠為師 (Catherine Yen翻譯)

 

我正一點一點地縮小

在一場不安的睡眠後我發現

這群鼠輩

躡手躡腳

在我身上咬了一個洞直到

我能將穿在身上的外套扣上

 

有時候我很奇怪

我身體的某些部分，究竟這些齧齒動物

對它們做了什麼：在洞穴裡

構築一個人，用軟毛

填塞不確定的部位，那樣就

不能分辨出我了嗎？

 

這些老鼠——我的夢顯示

它們，棕色溪流

來回奔跑檢視

我的大小，或者比較

牠們留給我的這片

上面有我血液的

靈魂碎片。

 

在整體推論裡 我贊成

我自己——當我歸咎

給老鼠，終究不能證明

它們真幹了什麼或確實存在過

除了每日早晨我看見

我自己變輕， 變小…

我瘋狂地接近

心臟組織，緊守

我腦海不可解的事物，

思想從那裡湧現、

攻擊、改變以及死亡

真奇怪，一個人不會思索

信仰的習慣，思考的習慣、

演繹、可能消失的我的典型

某些部分的我

取代另一個愚蠢如侏儒的我

再次扮演我整個個人的苦痛、

歡樂獨特的性格：

但我期待很快地

坐在酒館裡沈思地喝著

啤酒，然後其他的獸，一個一個

渴望地進來

1958

 

 

After The Rats (by Al Purdy)

 

Little by little I am diminishing…
After uneasy sleep I find
the rats have taken
a toe or finger, gnawed
a hole in me until I can
button my overcoat in flesh.

 

Sometimes I wonder
about my parts, what rodents do
with them: construct
a man in burrows, fill in
uncertain areas with fur that is
indistinguishable from me?

 

These rats-my dreams reveal
them, brown streams running
back and forth to check
my measurements, or compare
the fragment of soul that’s left
me with the one they have
which has my blood on it.

 

In all this reasoning I favor
myself—when I impute
rats, and cannot prove
at all they really did and do exist.
Except each morning I see
myself lessen, diminish…
Frantically I cling
to heart tissue, tightly hold
the intangibility located
in my head where thoughts rush
out and charge and change and die.

It’s curious. One would not think
habit of belief, custom of thinking,
syllogism, paradigm of me could
disappear and some other me
replace me some other silly manikin
enact again my whole personal painful
joyful unique personality:
but I expect soon
to be sitting in a tavern drinking
beer contemplatively, and one by one
thirstily the other beasts enter.
1958

 

★貝爾維爾北方之地 (Catherine Yen翻譯)

 

那未開墾的灌木林地—
卡希爾鎮和華勒斯頓
艾爾維芝‧馬克庫魯爾與丹格儂
威仕蘭昆湖的綠色大地
或許有人對此地的美有些意見
然而幾英哩內無人否定他—

 

但這是一個敗壞之地
薛弗西斯在那裡滾動一顆巨石
年復一年走上古老的山丘
在冰河野餐遺留下
幾世紀散落的碎石

 
在陽光下的日子
當理解慢慢滲入心靈
沒有堂皇或在高貴的掙扎裡
自我欺騙
成為一個愚者—

 
一塊沈默的土地，一塊距離外
貧瘠的土地
不肥沃
覆以黑色的寸土在大地圓滾滾的腹部—
而那些田地就好像一個人為了妻子
以雙拇指插入
多石的土地
並將之拉開
在兩樹之間讓出足夠的空間
也或許為了一些牛隻
及為了某些容易保留的幻想
留下空間—

 
當田地回到樹林
那只是柔和的輪廓及
朦朧的差異—
老圍籬不知何時在樹林中飄走
一排覆滿青苔的石頭
堆在一起不知為了什麼鬼目的
它們在無意義的天空下失去意義
像沉在水底的城市和
放在它們上面
震盪著綠波的光陰—

 

這是一塊挫敗我們的地方
然而
一個人在秋時耕田
他也許停下來，站在滿是犁溝的棕色山谷
遮蔽雙眼觀望那同樣是紅色混著金色的作物
它們出現在山丘同一個地點
年復一年
人變老了
一再耕種十畝田直到
他自己腦袋的腦回體變成平行線—

 

這是一個年輕人
快速離開的地方
不願知道他們父親所知道的事
或想他們的母親不說的話—

The Country North of Belleville (by Al Purdy)

 

Bush land scrub land-
Cashel Township and Wollaston
Elvezur McClure and Dungannon
green lands of Weslemkoon Lake
where a man might have some
opinion of what beauty
is and none deny him
for miles..

Yet this is the country of defeat
where Sisphus rolls a big stone
year after year up the ancient hills
picnicking glaciers have left strewn
with centuries’ rubble
days in the sun
when realization seeps slow in the mind
without grandeur or self deception in
noble struggle
of being a fool—
A country of quiescence and still distance
a lean land
not fat
with inches of black soil on
earth’s round belly—
And where the farms are it’s
as if a man stuck
both thumbs in the stony earth and pulled
it apart to make room
enough between the trees
for a wife
and maybe some cows and
room for some
of the more easily kept illusions-
And where the farms have gone back
to forest
are only soft outlines and
shadowy differences—
Old fences drift vaguely among the trees
a pile of moss-covered stones
gathered for some ghost purpose
has lost meaning under the meaningless sky
-they are like cities under water and
the undulating green waves of time are
laid on them-

This is the country of our defeat and
yet
during the fall plowing a man
might stop and stand in a brown valley of the furrows
and shade his eyes to watch for the same
red patch mixed with gold
that appears on the same
spot in the hills
year after year
and grow old
plowing and plowing a ten acre field until
the convolutions run parallel with his own brain-

And this is a country where the young
leave quickly
unwilling to know what their fathers know
or think the words their mothers do not say-

 

(2) 米爾頓‧艾孔(Milton Acorn 1923-1986)，被同儕暱稱為「人民的詩人」，他是加
拿大的詩人、作家和劇作家。他出生於夏洛特鎮的愛德華王子島。
艾孔是二戰時期的老兵，在橫越大西洋時，被深水炸彈炸傷，因傷口嚴重，終身領退伍軍人的殘疾撫卹金。他後來回到愛德華王子島，並在1956年移居到蒙特利爾，有數年的時間，他都住在多倫多的韋弗利酒店。
居住在蒙特利爾期間，他曾在政治刊物發表一些早期的詩，他的第一本詩集為《In Love and Anger, 1956》，後來陸續出版的詩集有《Against a League of Liars, 1960》、《The Brain’s the Target 1960》、《Jawbreaker,1963》及《I’ve Tasted My Blood》，另一位加拿大詩人Al Purdy 曾為他編了一本《1956-1968年詩選》。他與詩人Gwendolyn MacEwen有一段短暫的婚姻；1970年，艾孔被授予 ”加拿大詩人獎”，1976年得到 ”總督獎”。
1986年, 艾孔死於心臟病發，但他的至友認為他是因為失去了最親密的妹妹而喪失了生存的意志。

★我已嚐到自己的血 (Catherine Yen譯)

 

如果這個腦袋被激怒
認為火焰是慾望
鐵槌是拳頭
我已嚐到自己太多的血
以致無法去愛原來出生的樣子

 

但是，我母親的容顏
是一片棕色的燕麥田, 柔和的短髭
她的聲音像充滿紫丁花香的雨與空氣
我太愛她以致無法喜歡
她拖磨的歲月如在礫石中推曳著雪車

 

玩伴? 我記得他們的頭顱在何處滾動
一位死於飢餓，咀嚼灰色的木頭
一位倒下，重重跌在地上又飛濺起來
好多好多
一直前來的原子彈
掉在歐洲的蟲糞堆裡

 

我深沈的禱告是詛咒
我深沈的禱告,它不會是承諾
我深沈的禱告是我的詭計
我的愛, 我的憤怒
甚至經常我的原諒
這些永遠都不會是
我已嚐到自己太多的血
以致無法停留在自己原來出生的樣子

 

I Have Tasted My Blood (Milton Acorn)

If this brain’s over-tempered
consider that the fire was want
and the hammers were fists
I’ve tasted my blood too much
to love what I was born to.

 

But my mother’s look
was a field of brown oats, soft-beared;
her voice rain and air rich with lilacs
and I loved her too much to like
how she dragged her days like a sled over gravel.

 

Playmates? I remember where their skulls roll!
One died hungry, gnawing grey perch-planks;
one fell, and landed so hard he splashed,
and many and many
come up atom by atom
in the worm-casts of Europe

 

My deep prayer a curse,
My deep prayer the promise that this won’t be
My deep prayer my cunning,
My love, my anger,
and often even my forgiveness
that this won’t be and be.
I’ve tasted my blood too much
to abide what I was born to.

 

★給太空人的詩 (Catherine Yen譯)

 

像一隻被朝陽彩繪的野鴨
以速度模糊了他的翅膀
滑向他心靈震顫所知道唯一的土地
所以人類最真實的家是風
為他的呼吸而創造
他在深深的神秘中呼吸

 

新的星辰，蒼穹裡的姿容
聲音如此飽滿
如容器, 眼睛
尋找著空虛！

 

加拿大是松的香氣
我離開我的土地再回來
瞭解這些並成為加拿大人
要當個地球人我必須離開地球
什麼是地球?
草的低語？

 

狂爆的種子
懷著怖懼的喜悅
航行…

 

一個印地安人跑過沙漠
放一顆石頭在他的舌下
啜飲著唾液
他的皮膚記憶著他的所愛被千光
摸觸的手指

 

Poem for The Astronaut (by Milton Acorn)

 

As a wild duck painted sunrise colors
blurs his wings with speed
to a land known only to his heart’s thrill
so man’s truest home is the wind
created of his breath
and he breathes deepest in mystery

 

New stars, Figures in the heavens
Voices, How full
must be the vessel, the eye
that searches emptiness!

 

Canada is the scent of pines
I left my land and returned
to know this and become Canadian.
To be an earthman I must leave Earth;
And what is Earth?
The whisper of grass?

 

Seeds turbulent
with fearful exultance
voyaging…

 

An Indian running the desert
kept a stone under his tongue
to drink the saliva, and
his skin remembered a thousand light touches
-fingers of his beloved

 

★非禱詞 (Catherine Yen譯)

 

親愛的老上帝，我無意與你吵架
我已得到更強壯的朋友
及更邪惡的敵人

 

如果沒有上帝也就沒有無神論者的神
沒有事驅使我去犯惡行
沒有事命令我去恨不存在的東西
但是否有一個準則反對去愛祂？

Non-Prayer(Milton Acorn)

Dear old God, I’m not at odds with Thee
I’ve got strong friends
And more ferocious enemies

 

If there’s no God there’s no atheist god either
Nothing commands me to acts of villainy
Nothing commands me to hate what doesn’t exhist
And is there a rule against loving It?

 

★墜入(Catherine Yen譯)

 

肌肉之下血液充滿 曲折前進
我的骨頭振動
忽然知道自己被你所愛
強烈 來自一個女人

 

愛這個字只輕輕觸動了
我傻笑的唇
直到你歌唱
我的名字 呼喚我高高站起
……..那是件震撼的事

 

我感覺一隻快樂裝飾美麗的公蜂
即將在愛的顫慄中爆炸
像搭乘高速的升降機上升
沒有樓層…….只有扶手

 

但放下你的秀髮，吾愛，讓它放下
低垂如我的肚臍
我將守住愛，守住
直到我們跳躍在纏綿的歡愉裡
在全身的地獄裡

The Plunge (Milton Acorn)

Underneath muscles bloodrich and woven
my bones shake
to suddenly know myself beloved
by you, strong and all of a woman.

 

The word love only tickles
my lips between giggles
until you sing
my name calling me to stand tall
….. and that’s a swaying thing.

 

I feel a jolly decorated male bee
about to explode in love’s shudder
like going up in a highspeed elevator
with no floor- only handholds

 

But let down your hair, love; let it down
so it hangs low as my navel;
and I’ll hold on love, hold on
till we hop all tangled in joy
the whole length of Hell.

 

★詩(Catherine Yen譯)

 
昨日一個上半身的呼吸
詩從我牙齒白色的水壩沖擊而下
我歌唱真理，我就是我的語言
用每一個纏捲我舌頭的呼喊
心與拳頭撞擊在一起

 

但今天我寫的詩露齒而笑
當我剁碎它如一個平庸的男孩
它削刻我的脊椎
諂媚朋友或陌生人
這是真的，我不是像文字所說的

Poem Poem (Milton Acorn)

Yesterday a bust of breath
Poem broke from the white dam of my teeth
I sang truth, the word I was
And with each shout curling my tongue
Heart and fist thumped together

 

But the poem I write today grins
While I chop it like a mean boy
And whittles my spine.
Insinuating friend or stranger
It is truth, the word I am not.

 

(3) Margaret Atood(1939-) 加拿大詩人、小說家、文學評論者、散文家及環保運動者，其第一本詩集為The Circle Game(1966)，她曾獲總督獎, 亞瑟‧克拉克(Arthur C. Clarke)獎，及 Prince Austria 獎，曾出版十五本詩集，其詩作大多來自神秘與神話的啟發，並曾出版四本故事集及三本散文集；曾任教於Sir George Williams University, University of British Columbia, University of Alberta at Edmonton 和York University.

 

★ 我們，大水之後 (Catherine Yen 譯)

 

我們應該是唯一的倖存者
在到處升起的霧中
如同
在樹林裡
我越過橋
走向高地安全的地方
（樹林的頂端像島嶼）

集中溺死的母親們
沉到水底的骨骸
（圓而堅硬地在我手裡）
當白色的霧像水一般
洗滌我的雙足；

 

魚群必須在我們之下的
樹林下方游水，
像鳥，飛過一棵棵的樹
在一里之外
這個城市，廣大而寂靜，
靜靜躺著，遺失在遙遠的海底下

 

你散步在我身旁，
說著美麗的清晨
甚至不曉得
這裡曾經發生過洪水

 

將小石子
隨意踢過你的肩頭
落入深濃的空氣中

 

未聞那幾乎誕生
慢慢走在我們後方
第一個蹣跚的腳步聲，
沒有看到
那人模人樣
殘忍的臉
慢慢由石頭形成。

 

After The Flood, We (by Margaret Atwood)

 

We must be the only ones
left, in the mist that has risen
everywhere as well
as in these woods

 

I walk across the bridge
towards the safety of high ground
(the tops of the trees are like islands)

 

gathering the sunken
bones of the drowned mothers
(hard and round in my hands)
while the white mist washes
around my legs like water;

 

fish must be swimming
down in the forest beneath us,
like birds, from tree to tree
and a mile away
the city, wide and silent,
is lying lost, far undersea.

 

You saunter beside me, talking
of the beauty of the morning,
not even knowing
that there has been a flood,

 

tossing small pebbles
at random over your shoulder
into the deep thick air,

 

not hearing the first stumbling
footsteps of the almost-born
coming(slowly) behind us,
not seeing
the almost-human
brutal faces forming
(slowly)
out of stone.

 

(4) Leonard Cohen (1934-) 加拿大詩人、小說家、歌者，曾出版五本詩集、兩本小說、個人歌曲專輯、三張專輯唱片，詩選 (1956-1968)曾獲總督獎。他的詩集包括Let Us Compare Mythologies(1956), Flower for Hitler(1964), Parasites of Heaven(1966) , Book of Longing etc.他是巡迴演唱的歌者，以隨性的穿著與面貌出現在個人演唱會中。

 

★走出天堂之境 （獻給馬克‧夏卡爾）(翻譯Catherine Yen)

 

走出天堂之境
安息日溫暖的陽光照進
大地的香料盒
女王將每一位猶太人變成她的情人
穿著白絲綢的外套
我們的“拉比”在街頭跳舞
穿著我們草地像綠色祈禱者的風衣
舞動的房屋像銀色的旗子
學生在他的後方跳舞
舞得不高
一面唱著安息日的祈禱詞
但是聽起來不悅耳
在路尾端的寶座上
等待他
但是，安息日的女王
走過他的手邊
進入大地的香料盒裡
他在那裡發現充滿香氣的太陽
他的指頭穿過
結婚戒指
現在他們回到這條路上
跳舞跳得比銀色的旗子還高
他的學生也在某處各自尋得他們的妻子
所有的人都吟詠著“拉比”的歌
在充滿香氣的空氣中興高采烈地舞著
誰稱呼他“拉比”？
駕駛車的馬和狗叫他“拉比”
他對他們說：
女王將每一位猶太人變成她的情人
集合在他們綠色的草地上
人們都稱呼他”拉比“
並在他們的嘴裡塞滿好吃的麵包
以及他快樂的歌

馬克‧夏卡爾(1887-1985)；俄裔法國畫家，是現代畫派及象徵畫派的先驅。
Leonard Cohen, 李歐納‧柯恩，1934年生於加拿大，詩人、小說家、歌手、詞曲創作者
Rabbi, 拉比：猶太教師

Out of the Land of Heaven - for Marc Chagall (Leonard Cohen)

 

Out of the land of heaven
Down comes the warm Sabbath sun
Into the spice-box of earth
The Queen will make every Jew her lover,
In a white silk coat
Our Rabbi dances up the street
Wearing our lawns like a green prayer-shawl
Brandishing houses like silver flags
Behind him dance his pupils
Dancing not so high
And chanting the rabbi’s prayer,
But not so sweet,
And who wait for him
On a throne at the end of the street
But the Sabbath Queen
Down go his hands
Into the spice-box of earth.
And there he finds the fragrant sun
For a wedding ring,
And draws her wedding finger through
Now back down the street they go,
Dancing higher than the silver flags,
His pupils somewhere have found wives too,
And all are chanting the rabbi’s song
And leaping high in the perfumed air,
Who calls him Rabbi?
Cart-horse and dogs call him Rabbi,
And he tells them:
The Queen makes every Jew her lover,
And gathering on their green lawns
The people call him Rabbi,
And fill their mouths with good bread
And his happy song.

 

(5) George Bowering(1935-)加拿大詩人、小說家、歷史學家及傳記作家，他有超過九十本的著作，在1950年代即與出身UBC的青年作家們創辦一本雜誌TISH。1969年以兩本詩集～Rocky Mountain Foot及The Gangs of Kosmos獲總督獎。他任教於 Simon Fraser University及Sir George Williams University. 出版詩集有Sticks and Stones(1963), The Silver Wire(1966), Two Police Poems(1968)等

 

★瞬間所見 (Catherine Yen翻譯)

 

一陣雪
轉眼
一片草原

 

那些黑壓壓的
屋子
在雪簷下

 

高聳入雲的山丘
被註記在
小鎮覆雪的小溪

 

步道是
一條赤裸的線
穿越白色的原野

 

這位女子
在飄積的雪中出現

一件紅色的外衣

 

The Sudden Measure (by George Bowering)

 

The sudden snow:
immediately
the prairie is!

 

Those houses are:
dark
under roofs of snow-

 

That hill up to the clous is:
marked
by snow creeks down to the town-

 

This footpath is:
a bare line
across white field-

 

This woman appears
thru the drift of snow

a red coat.

 

★在鬱金香內 (Catherine Yen翻譯)

 

鬱金香內
我們在親密的凝視裡
做愛
看見嶄新模糊的綠色線條

 

讓我與你分享
這朵花，親吻你
頂著上唇
我的舌緊貼花粉

 

看我久一點
我會是一朵花
或是黑莓果
在下墜的灌木叢擺盪

 

讓我與你分享
這朵花，
並且深長地凝視每一件東西
它是水

 

在葉脈上,在花瓣裡
我們躺著，一起赤裸著雙腿

 

Inside the Tulip ( by George Bowering)

 

Inside the tulip
we make love
on closer look
seeing faint green line, new

 

Let me share this flower
with you, kiss you
press my tongue on pollen
against the roof of my mouth

 

Look at me long enough
and I will be a flower
or wet blackberries dangling
from a dripping bush

 

Let me share you
with this flower, look，
at anything long enough
and it is water

 

on a leaf, a petal
where we lie, bare legs together

 

[顏雪花Catherine Yen]

Yes, Jeff, everybody knows Margaret Atwood and Leonard Cohen, but seldom talk about Miton Acorn, Milton's depth is far far beyond theirs... I know why it spurs a riot in your heart, it utters a big heart beat too while I read it! GiGi's passion is moderate and gentle, yet, a beautiful one and a female one.