乔治华莱士

美国飞人（组诗）

American Flyer

[美国]乔治·华莱士

曹谁译

作者简介

乔治·华莱士（George Wallace），是美国纽约诗派的代表诗人之一。他居住在沃尔特·惠特曼（Walt Whitman）出生地，是纽约萨福克县第一位桂冠诗人，著有38本诗集，在美国、英国、意大利、马其顿和印度出版。作为纽约诗歌表演界的杰出人物，他周游世界各地朗诵，主持写作研讨会，并就文学主题进行演讲。他曾师从斯诺德格拉斯（W.D.Snodgrass）获得锡拉丘兹大学文学学士，师从马文·贝尔获得太平洋大学文学硕士，在佩斯大学（纽约）和韦斯特切斯特社区学院教授写作，并曾在华盛顿特区哈佛希腊语研究中心做过研究。他曾担任过和平队志愿者、卫生保健管理员、社区组织者、社区记者、现役医疗军官和当地历史学家。他的作品被收藏在霍夫斯特拉大学李研究所的特别版块中。

他是《诗歌港》（Poetry Bay.com）的主编，《媒体的好天气》的联合主编，以及《长岛季刊》和《沃尔特角》的编辑，他还是《长岛人》的主编，这是惠特曼于1838年创办的社区报纸。他是2022年蓝光出版社选集《从内部：通过居住在这里的诗人的眼睛看纽约》的编辑，他曾获得惠特曼“萨福克县驻地诗人”，从2011年至今；“新一代垮掉的诗人桂冠诗人”，2021年到终身，国家垮掉的一代诗歌基金会；2022年第五届博鳌国际诗歌奖；2019年科罗纳·多罗文学奖；2018年俄耳甫斯奖；2018年亚历山大大帝金质奖章（联合国教科文组织）；2018年中央研究院西方档案奖；2017年密苏里州奈米特节奈姆·弗雷谢里奖和节日桂冠诗人；2017年蓝光图书奖；2015-2016年全国节拍诗歌节桂冠得主；2005年纽约州萨福克县第一位桂冠诗人；2004年诗集最佳图书奖；1999年CW邮政诗歌奖等。

George Wallace is Writer in Residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace, first poet laureate of Suffolk County, LI NY and author of 38 books and chapbooks of poetry, published in the US, UK, Italy, Macedonia and India. A prominent figure on the NYC poetry performance scene, he travels internationally to perform, lead writing workshops, and lecture on literary topics. A former student of W.D. Snodgrass (BA, Syracuse U) and Marvin Bell (MFA, Pacific U), he teaches writing at Pace University (NYC) and Westchester Community College, and has done research residencies at Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington DC.

He has worked as a Peace Corps Volunteer, health care administrator, community organizer, community journalist, active duty medical military officer and local historian. His work is collected at the Special Sections Collection, LI Studies Institute, Hofstra University. George is editor of Poetrybay.com, co-editor of Great Weather for Media, and editor of Long Island Quarterly and Walt's Corner, a weekly poetry column in The Long Islander, a community newspaper founded by Walt Whitman in 1838. He is editor of the 2022 Blue Light Press Anthology 'FROM THE INSIDE: NYC through the eyes of the poets who live here.' He has won Writer in Residence, Walt Whitman Birthplace 2011-Present; New Generation Beat Poet Laureate, 2021-Lifetime, National Beat Poetry Foundation, inc; Corona d'oro (Korca Literary Festival AB) 2019. Orpheus Prize (Orpheus Festival, BG) 2018. Alexander the Great Gold Medal (UNESCO-Salamis, GR) 2018. Centro Studii Archivio d'Occidente Award (CSAO, It) 2018. Naim Frasheri Prize and Festival Laureate (Ditet e Naimit Festival, MK) 2017; Blue Light Book Award 2017; ŸLaureate, National Beat Poetry Festival 2015-16; First Poet Laureate, Suffolk County LI NY 2005-05; Poetry Kit Best Book Award, 2004. CW Post Poetry Prize 1999.

守望的女人

守望男人归来的女人

失落，哭泣，无法解脱

从自己的梦想。她戴着锁链

无论她去哪里。死寂的清晨

她会充满爱地舒展筋骨

跟他的记忆背道相驰，

她闪电般激动

为他最后离开遗留的气息

其他男人的美酒和热情

都不能治愈他。守望的女人

让她的男人来惩罚这个夜晚

在想象中疯狂地爱抚。

醒来后依然渴望睡眠

还有它充满魔力的吻。

在睡眠中她总是梦到雨。

她在折叠自己，

一片又一片白色叶子，

翻滚成一本空白的书。

每个页码都在呼叫他的名字。

THE WOMAN WHO WAITS

The woman who waits for her man to come

is lost, also weeps, cannot deliver

herself of dreams. She will have chains

wherever she goes. In the still birth

of morning she will stretch herself lovingly

against his memory, thrill herself

with the careless breath of his last

departure. Neither wine nor the warm advances

of other men can cure her. The woman who waits

for her man to come punishes the night

with imagined caresses. Awake, she longs for sleep

and its miraculous kisses. Asleep,

she dreams always of rain. She is folding herself,

leaf upon white leaf, into a book of empty pages.

Each one sounds his name.

一棵山茱萸树苗清楚地照亮真相

扭曲的阳光战争

在灌木丛的边缘

只需一个季节就能恢复正常。

注意，最初不是

但在你的普通园丁面前

时间开始念念有词诅咒，

崭新的绿色叶芽将弹出，

向前面的方向许诺财富

以前被金银花和银边花占据，

想象一下突然的场景

一扇新窗户向太阳敞开！

你不会倾向于那窗户？

数月之后趋向已经成长为意图；

你年幼脆嫩的茎秆向天空攀爬

反对现存的一切谷物

只有在幼树的记忆中。

碰巧我知道这一切都是真的

因为在这片土地上

我是唯一释放山茱萸树苗的人。

也许瘦弱不堪，但它不会倒下。

通过这个我看到了真相

至少以山茱萸树的形式，

在逆境中我们只能寻求生存

但考虑到我们的自由，

你会为其它东西奋斗

更高的总结：平衡。

现在在我看来这就是哲学，

有时需要外部势力的调解。

尤其在这种平庸的土地上，

非常需要看不见的手清理。

A DOGWOOD SAPLING MADE CLEAR

of the twisted battle for sunlight

on the edge of the thicket

will right itself in as little as one season.

Not at first, mind you –

but before your average gardener

has time to start cursing,

the green tips of new leaf will pop out,

promising riches in a direction

formerly occupied by honeysuckle vine,

silverlace, and the like. Imagine for yourself

a new window opened to the sun! Wouldn't you

tend towards it? In a few months, tendency

has grown into intention; your young,

tenderleafed stems are climbing skyward

against a grain that now exists

only in sapling memory.

As it happens, I know all this to be true –

because on this land, I have been the one

to set a dogwood sapling free. Skinny, perhaps,

but no longer overcome. And by this I have learned

that nature, in the form of a dogwood tree at least,

in adversity may seek only survival –

but given its freedom it will strive for something

higher: balance. Which is to say that philosophy,

it now appears to me, sometimes requires

the intercession of an outside hand. Especially

in modest grounds such as these,

so badly in need of clearing.

黑眼睛的苏姗

我看到了这个年轻有为的国家的光鲜面孔

停车场的杂草比引以为傲的公共花园中多

仿佛未经驯服的北美野生动物，

比我们聪慧百倍，充满生命的气息

整个大陆充满意料之外的活力。

在低垂的蒲公英中，在灵动的三叶草上，

在两条高速公路交汇处尘土飞扬的鼠尾草中，

大草原参差不齐的记忆向我大声呼喊

赞歌仍在北方森林的阳光荡漾中前进

我把旖旎和优雅留给了欧洲

园艺的精致，修剪的意图，

厌倦了天真的想象，更不愿弯腰崇拜她，

即使在这片摇摇欲坠的土地上，

你的声音描述美国——固执，朴素，神奇，

胜利。只要是一朵没有计划的花

抬起头迎接希望的太阳，

我也要热烈庆祝这一承诺

你那参差不齐的美好世界，

这就是我们为什么来这里的理由

是！你美得像一位黑眼睛的苏珊。

BLACK EYED SUSANS

I see the bright face of this our still young and hopeful nation

more in a parking lot weed than in the display

of its proud public gardens, untamed as the original

North American wild, outwitting us to the last

& filled with the breath, a continent wide,

of unplanned vitality.

In the lowest dandelion, in the fairy clover,

in the dusty sway of goldenrod where two highways merge,

the ragged memory of prairie grasslands calls out to me

& praises still sung to the sun-rippled expanse

of northern forest.

I leave to Europe the curve and grace

of horticultural refinement, manicured intention,

& tired topiary imagination & rather, stoop to worship her,

even at this crumbling bit of earth,

your voice, America – stubborn, plain, strangely

triumphant. So long as a single unplanned flower

raises up its head to greet the expectant sun,

I too shall greet, in celebration, the promise

of your ragged, wonderful world, which is the reason

why we came here in the first place

& yes, pretty as a patch of Black Eyed Susans.

我将从冬天的寒气中穿过

我喜欢看老人收集干树枝

三月早春公路沿线的柴火：

顽强的小树枝疯狂地喷射，

奇迹般绑在他们的背上，风在牵引和捕捉

阳光穿过他们凌乱的头发。

这些教训是在反抗的欢乐气氛中

我紧盯着他们轻快的动作

穿过布满樱桃树桩的林地，

穿过古老的枫树。这是另一个故事。

我喜欢树木在冬天时的样子

它们在葡萄藤的作用下反弹。

它在用一种粗体的字体书写，

柔软的患者演绎着生存的诡计，

帮助树木度过植物攀援的夏天。

我知道这个世界上存在

否则理智的人谁会选择，

根据他们的偏好自由选择，

二月份已填满疯长的阳光和树叶。

当然那种行为非常适合夏天和青年。

但冬天是我们学会珍惜生存的时机

克服重重危机。我将穿越寒冷的冬天。

I’LL TAKE MY WINTERS COLD

I like to see the old men gathering dry sticks

In early March for firewood along the highway:

The stubborn spray of small branches, miraculously

Strapped to their backs, the pull and catch of wind

And sunlight streaking through their hair. There

Are lessons for me in the gay air of defiance

Which I detect, watching their jaunty movements

Through woodlands thick with cherry stumps,

With ancient maples. And that’s another thing. I like

The trees – how they show in winter the way

They have bounced back against the action of vines.

It is written in a kind of bold script, the supple,

Patient survival machinations, which helped trees

Get through summers of clinging vegetation.

I understand that in this world there are those

Otherwise reasonable people who would choose,

Given their preference, Februaries that are filled

With sun and leafy growth. For sure, that sort

Of action’s well-suited to summer and youth. But

Winter’s when we learn to appreciate the survival

Of the old against the odds. I’ll take my winters cold.