The last two sherpas were the strongest,

鱼骨随波远离哈特拉斯，

faithful companions, their faces wind-peeled,

这里有其他死亡追求我们的迹象，在水上，

streaked with soot and glacier-light on the snowfield

在陆地上追求我们：在松林中，

below the summit where we stopped to rest.

在被污染的空气中，

The first was my body, snug in its cap of lynx-

一条蜷曲的水蝮蛇在苔藓上打滚。

fur, smelling of yak butter and fine mineral dirt,

诞生，而非死亡，是重大的损失。

agile, impetuous, broad-shouldered,

我知道。

alive to the frozen bite of oxygen in the larynx.

我也在那里留下一张皮。

The second was my intellect, dour and thirsty,

furrowing its fox-like brow, my calculating brain

searching for some cairn or chasm to explain

my decision to send them back without me.

Looking down from the next, ax-cleft serac

I saw them turn and dwindle and felt unafraid.

Blind as a diamond, sun-pure and rarefied,

whatever I was then, there was no turning back.