Unique, I think, is the Scottish tartle, that hesitation

苏格兰语里的 tartle，我觉得，真是绝无仅有，形容

when introducing someone whose name you’ve forgotten.

你介绍某人时因为忘了他的名字而迟疑无措。

又有哪个字能替代 cafuné，说葡萄牙语的巴西人用它来

And what could capture cafuné, the Brazilian Portuguese way to say

描写你的手指，温柔地，从某人的头发里捋过？

running your fingers, tenderly, through someone’s hair?

所有的语言里，有没有一个词，意为选择做一个幸福的人？

而我们包在自己锯末屑一样的内心里的冰块，描写它的语言又在哪里？

Is there a term in any tongue for choosing to be happy?

什么样的说法，可以唤起初夏熬果酱时

弥漫在空气中的杏子的味道？

And where is speech for the block of ice we pack in the sawdust of our hearts?

什么词语可以接近昨晚我对你的抚摸——

仿佛我从来没有见识过女人——像一个勘探者，

What appellation approaches the smell of apricots thickening the air

兴致勃勃地去发现每一个特殊的

when you boil jam in early summer?

褶皱和洼地，不需要任何向导，

甚至不需要我自己的身体这面镜子。

What words reach the way I touched you last night—

as though I had never known a woman—an explorer,

昨晚你说你喜欢我的眉毛。

wholly curious to discover each particular

你说从前并没有真正留意到它们。

fold and hollow, without guide,

什么样的词可以把这种新鲜感

not even the mirror of my own body.

和此前错过的遗憾揉合在一起。

Last night you told me you liked my eyebrows.

又怎么解释，连抚摸对我们俩的意义都不一样，

You said you never really noticed them before.

即使是在这个由我们的床所构成的小小国度里，

What is the word that fuses this freshness

即使是使用只有我们两人将其作为母语的语言。

with the pity of having missed it?

And how even touch itself cannot mean the same to both of us,

even in this small country of our bed,

even in this language with only two native speakers.