走回那里，路途真是

What a long walk back

遥远，有谁

to it and who

知道那方言？

knows the dialect?

动物们在那里聚集。

The animals pool there.

我们上方一条冰线

A line of ice above us

向下增加一英寸，

adds an inch down

房间的光渐绿，

and the room’s light grows

微粒收紧。

greener, atoms tighter.

俯身察看那部《大密码》

Lean over The Great Code

躺在桌子上腐朽，

where it lies in the rot on the desk,

仿佛在那座山西边的鸦雀和忽明忽暗中

as if hatcheting in crows and flickers

挥动短柄小斧，所有浣熊丶

on the west side of the mountain, all raccoons,

鹿都在它

deer were welling

──这本书──上面涌出，

above it, the very book,

块状丶尖状的表情仿佛在瞄准丶锁定，看着

lumpy, spiking look cross-hairing, lodged, over

这本书里的文字。确实需要

the writing in the book. Truly have

清理这张桌子了。

to clean this desk.

重现──但在爱欲的秘传的

Ricorso – but in one late, late,

一个最新丶最新歌剧场面中，聪明丶

scene in eros’s mystagogia, opera, clever,

悲伤丶脚步小心，它们

sad, foot-careful, they muster

在这种孤独性的气味面前，

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

在其实是房间外套的房间面前，

coat, the smell of theatre screen lightly

在被各种形象──主要是我们

cooked by images,

样子好看的小意志在它们手里运动──

mostly of our small, shapely wills moving their hands.

稍微煮过的戏剧场面的气味面前

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

鼓起勇气。

brush of pear branch on this mossed roof.

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。