默温：关于诗歌

关于诗歌
我不理解世界，父啊。
在花园尽头水磨池塘边
有一个男人闲倚着倾听
轮子在溪中旋转，只是
那里并没有轮子旋转。
他坐在三月的尽头，可他也坐在
花园的尽头；他的双手
在他的口袋里。并不是期望
让他专注，也不是昨日
他在倾听。是一只转动的轮子。
当我说，父啊，是世界
我必须提到。他没有挪动
他的双脚抬头时也没怎么动
怕会惊扰了他听着的音
像没有喊叫的疼痛，他在那儿倾听。
我不觉得我喜欢，父啊，
在他倾听前他总是在其中
通过倾听准备自己的方式。那是
不一样的，父啊，就像轮子
去转动的理由，尽管那儿没有轮子。
我说起他，父啊，因为他在那儿
双手在他的口袋里，在花园的
尽头倾听不在那儿的
轮子转动，可是是世界，
父啊，我不理解。
On the Subject of Poetry
I do not understand the world, Father.
By the millpond at the end of the garden
There is a man who slouches listening
To the wheel revolving in the stream, only
There is no wheel there to revolve.
He sits in the end of March, but he sits also
In the end of the garden; his hands are in
His pockets. It is not expectation
On which he is intent, nor yesterday
To which he listens. It is a wheel turning.
When I speak, Father, it is the world
That I must mention. He does not move
His feet nor so much as raise his head
For fear he should disturb the sound he hears
Like a pain without a cry, where he listens.
I do not think I am fond, Father
Of the way in which always before he listens
He prepares himself by listening. It is
Unequal, Father, like the reason
For which the wheel turns, though there is no wheel.
I speak of him, Father, because he is
There with his hands in his pockets, in the end
Of the garden listening to the turning
Wheel that is not there, but it is the world,
Father, that I do not understand.
from The Dancing Bears 1954, for Dido Page 25-26,
http://book.douban.com/subject/1970934/