One quarter inch iron stove

四分之一英寸的铁炉

In a wide grey room facing the opposite

在一个宽敞灰色的房间，朝向山谷

Plunge of the valley, frost on the inner walls, the early nineties –

对面的骤降，内墙结霜，九十年代初──

Where else to sleep but in front of the cherry blackness,

去哪里睡呢除了在这樱桃的漆黑前，

One sleigh, drifts and a moon pressed into the metal,

一张雪橇，堆积物，还有一个压入金属里的月亮，

In a winter bag, on a moose hide rug, waking every few hours

在一个冬天睡袋里，在一张麋皮小地毯上，隔两三个小时就醒来

To lay in poplar chunks broken

添加从厨房后结霜的柴堆上

From the iced pile behind the kitchen.

抽出来的杨树柴块。

I’d light a propane lamp later,

后来我又点亮一盏丙烷灯，

Put a kettle on the hottest part of the stove’s plate

把一个水壶在火炉板最热的部分

For instant and watch white trees come out of dark.

煮速溶咖啡和看白树从黑暗中显露。

A beautiful woman had left me.

一个美丽的女人离开了我。

Unskinned stars every night,

每夜都是狂野不驯的星星，

The river was frozen a half mile below

下面的河冻结了半英里，

Under animal scratches through snow.

在动物穿过积雪遗留的刮痕下。

The house was still and stepped back even in late morning,

屋子寂静，甚至在临近响午时也缩回去，

Horsehair couch, some sort of tip-toedness even in the biblical quotations

马毛沙发，就连墙上椭圆形玻璃里的圣经引语

In glass ovals on the wall; the old logs in the loaned house

也有一种踮着脚尖的感觉；这座租来的屋子里的旧圆木

Cracked as if they made a boat

断裂，仿佛它们造了一艘船

Moving across a sea of buoyant cold.

驶过冷得有浮力的大海。

题解：如标题所示，作者在兔子湖木屋首次读《道德经》。那是位于河边山上的一座古老木屋，作者很多年前常在冬天去那里小住。那条河（北萨斯喀彻温河）在作者去那里时总是已经冻结了，他常常会透过三英尺以上厚度的冰层凝视深处。