【英诗汉译】Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins
2016-05-18 05:24阅读：
Collins at PEN Gala, May 5, 2015 (
网图）
Introduction to Poetry
Billy Collins
诗歌入门
比利·柯林斯
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
我请他们选一首诗
举起来对着光
就像是一张彩色幻灯片
or press an ear against its hive.
或将耳朵紧贴诗的蜂巢。
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
我说，把小老鼠丢进一首诗里
看他如何探寻出去的路
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
或者，在诗的房间里踱步
摸索墙上的电灯开关。
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
我希望他们去玩滑水
在诗的水面上飞驰
向着岸上诗人的名字招手。
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
可他们只想
用绳索把诗绑到椅子上
施加酷刑逼它招供。
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
他们开始用皮管猛击诗歌
企图发现诗的真意。
from The Apple that Astonished Paris, 1996
University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville, Ark.
摘自《震撼巴黎的苹果》，1996年
阿肯色大学出版社，费耶特维尔，阿肯色
译：溪山尘
【溪注】
这位Billy Collins 是当今美国诗界泰斗。 这首诗的意象很有趣。读诗重在品味与感受。
