只是，这些信件总在回避手。

The letters always just evade the hand

有一封如石子划出光束，像鸟坠下。

One skates like a stone into a beam, falls like a bird.

无疑，信件从之发出的过去

Surely the past from which the letters rise

在未来等待，经过坟墓？

Is waiting in the future, past the graves?

士兵们全被他们的生命所盘萦。

The soldiers are all haunted by their lives.

Their claims upon their kind are paid in paper

他们对同类的诉求在纸上满足，

That established a presence, like a smell.

这建立一种存在，像一种气味。

In letters and in dreams they see the world.

在信中，在梦里，他们看到世界。

They are waiting: and the years contract

他们等待着：而岁月皱缩为

To an empty hand, to one unuttered sound—

一只空手，一个未发出的声音——

The soldier simply wishes for his name.

士兵只盼望他的名字被叫出。