一切新的思绪都是关于失去的。

All the new thinking is about loss.

这一点，类似于一切旧的思绪。

In this it resembles all the old thinking.

这构想，举例来说，具体事物将抹去

The idea, for example, that each particular erases

整体概念那光照的明晰。丑角

the luminous clarity of a general idea. That the clown-

脸庞的啄木鸟探查那亡去白桦

faced woodpecker probing the dead sculpted trunk

雕刻的枝桠，因其存在，悲剧

of that black birch is, by his presence,

从初始世界那未被分割的光中坠落。

some tragic falling off from a first world

抑或另一种理念，由于这世上

of undivided light. Or the other notion that,

没有一件事物能与黑莓的棘刺相对应，

because there is in this world no one thing

一个词即它表达之物的哀歌。

to which the bramble of blackberry corresponds,

昨晚，我们聊至深夜，我朋友的声音里，

a word is elegy to what it signifies.

有一缕纤细的悲戚，近乎埋冤

We talked about it late last night and in the voice

的声调。过了一会儿我才明白，

of my friend, there was a thin wire of grief, a tone

这样谈话，一切都消散了：正义，

almost querulous. After a while I understood that,

松树，头发，女人，你和我。曾有一位女子

talking this way, everything dissolves: justice,

我和她做爱，仍记得，有时

pine, hair, woman, you and I. There was a woman

我把她小小的肩膀握在手中，

I made love to and I remembered how, holding

我是怎样为在她的存在感到猛烈的讶异，

her small shoulders in my hands sometimes,

如同对盐的渴欲，思念我童年的河流

I felt a violent wonder at her presence

连同那岛屿垂柳，游船上无聊的音乐，

like a thirst for salt, for my childhood river

我们在浑浊的地方捕捉那叫做南瓜籽的

with its island willows, silly music from the pleasure boat,

银橘色小鱼。这几乎与她无关。

muddy places where we caught the little orange-silver fish

渴望，我们说，因为欲望载满了

called pumpkinseed. It hardly had to do with her.

无尽的距离。我对她来说也必定如此。

Longing, we say, because desire is full

但我深深的记得，她双手掰开面包的样子，

of endless distances. I must have been the same to her.

她父亲说过伤害她的话，她梦见的

But I remember so much, the way her hands dismantled bread,

东西。总有一些时刻当躯体神圣

the thing her father said that hurt her, what

如同词语，日子是美好的肉体永续着。

she dreamed. There are moments when the body is as numinous

多么地柔软，那些午后与傍晚，

as words, days that are the good flesh continuing.

絮语着：黑莓，黑莓，黑莓。

Such tenderness, those afternoons and evenings,

saying blackberry, blackberry, blackberry.