那是一个缅因龙虾[1]小镇——

It was a Maine lobster town—

每天早晨整船整船的人手

each morning boatloads of hands

启程去往岛屿上的

pushed off for granite

花岗岩采石场，

quarries on the islands,

留下数十栋凄凉的

and left dozens of bleak

白色框架房

white frame houses stuck

像牡蛎壳一样

like oyster shells

卡在一座岩石山上，

on a hill of rock,

而在我们下方，海洋轻舔着

and below us, the sea lapped

那些粗制的小火柴棒

the raw little match-stick

一个拦鱼栅的重重迷宫，

mazes of a weir,

寻饵的鱼遭擒的所在。

where the fish for bait were trapped.

记得吗？我们坐在一板岩石上。

Remember? We sat on a slab of rock.

因为这场时间里的舞蹈，

>From this distance in time

它的颜色仿佛是

it seems the color

虹膜，在腐烂并越来越发紫，

of iris, rotting and turning purpler,

但那不过是

but it was only

寻常的灰岩石

the usual gray rock

正在变成寻常的绿色

turning the usual green

在被海浸透的时候。

when drenched by the sea.

被海浸透的岩石

The sea drenched the rock

整天在我们脚下，

at our feet all day,

不停地崩散

and kept tearing away

一片接一片。

flake after flake.

有一夜你梦见

One night you dreamed

你是一条美人鱼紧贴着一根码头桩子，

you were a mermaid clinging to a wharf-pile,

试图用你的手

and trying to pull

扯下藤壶[2]。

off the barnacles with your hands.

我们曾希望我们的两个灵魂

We wished our two souls

可以像鸥鸟一样返回

might return like gulls

到岩石上。毕竟，

to the rock. In the end,

水对我们来说太冷了。

the water was too cold for us.

译注

[1] Maine lobster，即美洲螯龙虾。

[2] Barnacles，海洋甲壳类动物，成年期形成硬壳固着在水中的岩石或船底等表面上。