俚优

Failing and Flying
BY JACK GILBERT

Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.
It's the same when love comes to an end,
or the marriage fails and people say
they knew it was a mistake, that everybody
said it would never work. That she was
old enough to know better. But anything
worth doing is worth doing badly.
Like being there by that summer ocean
on the other side of the island while
love was fading out of her, the stars
burning so extravagantly those nights that
anyone could tell you they would never last.
Every morning she was asleep in my bed
like a visitation, the gentleness in her
like antelope standing in the dawn mist.
Each afternoon I watched her coming back
through the hot stony field after swimming,
the sea light behind her and the huge sky
on the other side of that. Listened to her
while we ate lunch. How can they say
the marriage failed? Like the people who
came back from Provence (when it was Provence)
and said it was pretty but the food was greasy.
I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell,
but just coming to the end of his triumph.

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堕落与飞翔

杰克·基尔伯特

人们都忘了：伊卡洛斯也曾飞翔。
爱情到了终点亦是同样，
或者当婚姻失败，人们说
他们早就知道这是个错误，毕竟所有人
都说这对不可成。而她本是
该更深思熟虑的年龄。然而任何
值得做的事，都值得乱来一场。
就像在夏日的海旁
在岛的另一端，当
爱情慢慢从她心头淡忘，群星
在那些夜何等放纵地燃烧，以至于
任何人都能告诉你他们永不分离。
每个早上，她曾在我床上酣睡
像一场拜访，她蕴含的温柔
如羚羊伫立在黎明的雾中。
每个午后我看着她游泳归来
走过那炙热的、铺满石头的田野，
海上波光在她身后，辽阔穹苍则
在彼一方。当我们吃午饭时，
我听她侃侃而谈。他们怎么能说
这婚姻已失败？就像那些从
普罗旺斯回来的人（当那里还是普罗旺斯）
说：那儿不错，但是食物油腻。
我相信伊卡洛斯在坠落时并未失败，
只是去向他凯旋的结局。

注释：伊卡洛斯与父亲代达罗斯使用蠟造的翼逃離克里特島時，因飞得太高，雙翼遭太陽溶化跌落水中丧生，被埋葬在一个海岛上。

译：俚优