What a long walk back

走回那里，路途真是

to it and who

遥远，有谁

knows the dialect?

知道那方言？

The animals pool there.

动物们在那里聚集。

A line of ice above us

我们上方一条冰线

adds an inch down

向下增加一英寸，

and the room’s light grows

房间的光渐绿，

greener, atoms tighter.

微粒收紧。

Lean over The Great Code

俯身察看那部《大密码》

where it lies in the rot on the desk,

躺在桌子上腐朽，

as if hatcheting in crows and flickers

仿佛在那座山西边的鸦雀和忽明忽暗中

on the west side of the mountain, all raccoons,

挥动短柄小斧，所有浣熊丶

deer were welling

鹿都在它

above it, the very book,

──这本书──上面涌出，

lumpy, spiking look cross-hairing, lodged, over

块状丶尖状的表情仿佛在瞄准丶锁定，看着

the writing in the book. Truly have

这本书里的文字。确实需要

to clean this desk.

清理这张桌子了。

Ricorso – but in one late, late,

重现──但在爱欲的秘传的

scene in eros’s mystagogia, opera, clever,

一个最新丶最新歌剧场面中，聪明丶

sad, foot-careful, they muster

悲伤丶脚步小心，它们

before the odor of this alone-ity, the room which is a room-

在这种孤独性的气味面前，

coat, the smell of theatre screen lightly

在其实是房间外套的房间面前，

cooked by images,

在被各种形象──主要是我们

mostly of our small, shapely wills moving their hands.

样子好看的小意志在它们手里运动──

A line of ice, ascesis and fate, forms above us

稍微煮过的戏剧场面的气味面前

brush of pear branch on this mossed roof.

鼓起勇气。

一条冰线丶苦行和命运丶形状在我们上面，

梨树枝条在这长满苔藓屋顶上拂拭。

题解：此诗描写祈祷和阅读，这也是作者在其位于维多利亚的房子背后的小屋常做的事。《大密码》是加拿大批评家诺思拉普·弗莱一部与《圣经》有关的文学批评名著。