1.
1.
This is what summer nightfall is like:
如常降临的夏夜便是如此
the adulteress comes onto the balcony
通姦的妇人走出露台
in a silk nightgown that lets through
身上丝质的睡袍让众星的颤抖
the trembling of the stars,
顺利通过，
a twig drops from the beak of a bird
一根树枝从鸟喙中坠落
that falls asleep before it has built its home,
鸟儿在它建巢之前就睡著了，
a soldier lowers the flag of the state
一个士兵把国旗降下
with a letter from his mother in his pocket
他口袋裡有一封母亲来信
and atomic tests in the womb of the earth
在地球子宫裡进行的核爆实验
secretly revive the dead. At that moment someone
悄悄地让死者复活。在那一刻有人
quietly interprets Byzantine neumes,＊
静静地解读拜占庭古乐的纽姆谱，＊
someone else falsifies the exoduses
有人以普世真理之名
of the Balkan and the civil wars
伪造关于巴尔干和内战的出逃记。
in the name of universal truths.
在工厂后院裡
In the factory yards
被宣告无效的革命中的参与者的
the statues of participants
塑像睡去，
in annulled revolutions sleep,
在线条对称的坟墓上
on the symmetrical graves
塑料花失去颜色
plastic flowers lose their colour
鲜花失去形状，
and ordinary ones their shape,
但我们与之告别的
but this peace of the dead
这死者的安宁
we have parted from
不是我们的。
is not ours.
2.
2.
在村庄裡有三个窗户亮着灯
In the village with three lit windows
算命的人只预见到
a fortune-teller foresees only
康复，而不是疾病。
recoveries, and not illnesses.
浪花把瓶子抛得很高
The waves throw up bottles enough
来装下整个海洋，
to hold the whole sea,
单程路标志牌上的箭头
the arrow on the one-way road sign
指向 神，
points to God,
一个鱼夫撕下一小片天空
a fisherman rips off a bit of the sky
当他把饵丝抛进河里，
as he casts his baited line into the river,
有个穷孩子寻找小熊星座
some poor child searches for the Little Bear
也寻找他希望来自的星球，
and the planet he’d like to come from,
在有不在场证据的凶手门阶前面
in front of the doorstep of the killer with an alibi
一根羽毛试图飞翔。
a feather attempts to fly.
这就是平常夏夜的样子。
This is what usual summer nightfall is like.
城镇在月亮的红光裡燃烧
The town combusts in the redness of the moon
那些消防梯似乎
and the fire brigade ladders seem
通往天堂，即使那时候
to lead to heaven, even then when
每个人
everyone
都在那裡
is climbing
往下
down
爬。
them.
＊纽姆谱是东方音乐一种早期的记谱法，出现于五线谱发明之前。
＊Basic elements of Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff notation