米沃什“一次演讲”

一次演讲
巴黎某个学生
来自无名小国
曾得到一张票
去聆听法兰西学院
一位著名诗人的演讲。
公爵夫人和伯爵夫人们
身穿高贵礼服
梳着优雅发型
向诗人表达尊崇。
人人皆知，她们
为他举办晚会，
体面人都来参加。
瓦莱里①看起来
与他的照片无异：
胡须修剪齐整，
眼睛清澈，专注，
虽已灰发，
敏锐却一如往常。
他把讲稿在桌上摆好。
他的双手精细。
他逻辑有序地朗读
主句和从句，
讨论美学经验的
永久特性
确保艺术的
永恒魅力。
他的听众，那个学生，
却在别处忙着：
他的头发直竖，
耳朵捕捉到一场搜捕的尖叫，
他逃过冰封的荒原，
而他朋友及敌人的悲惨魂灵
留在了结霜的铁丝网后。
但他聪明得
赞美起这位诗人来，
因他礼貌地接受了
令人不快的境况：
这些好意的夫人们，
附庸风雅者及其恭维，
他所属世纪的
屠戮与战争。
因这位演讲者只是佯装
置身于他们之中与他们在一起。
实际上，他坐在他的工作间
计算诗节，
侍奉技艺，
培植水晶，
避开不合理的
人间凡务。
哎，哎，那些逝去的———
欢笑与哀哭，
信仰与绝望，
堕落与恐怖。
风雪掩埋了标识，
大地吞没了尖叫，
再不会有人记得
那些是何时、怎样发生的。
而唯有这华美的、金色的
十音节诗行存留，
藉其自足和谐的理性而永续，
而我，晚些时，将
带着一丝痛楚，
回到他的海滨墓园，
在那永远重新开始的正午②。
注：
①瓦莱里（Paul Valery 1871一1945），法国后期象征派大师，法兰西学院院士。他的诗耽于哲理，倾向于内心真实，追求形式的完美。
②源自瓦莱里《海滨墓园》中的诗句“公正的‘中午’在那里用火焰织成大海，大海啊永远在重新开始！”（卞之琳译）
英译文：
A Lecture
A certain student in the city of Paris
Coming from countries called Nowhere
Once got a ticket to a lecture
By a famous poet, of the Académie
   FranÇaise.
Duchess and countesses
In gowns of high fashion
In exquisite coiffures
Were honoring the poet.
They, as everyone knew,
Organized for him those evenings
Attended by every person of
　　　　distinctions.
Paul Valléry looked exactly
Like his photographs:
A close-trimmed mustache,
A clear-eyed, attentive
Boy who had gone gray
And was, as always, quick.
He arranged pages on the table.
His hands were precise.
He read logical sequences
Of main and subordinate clauses,
Discussing permanent features
Of aesthetic experience
That confirm the eternal
Attraction of art.
His listener, that student,
Was busy elsewhere:
His hair stood on end,
His ear caught the scream of a hunt,
He was fleeing across frozen fields
Where behind rimed barbed wire
The miserable souls of his friends
And enemies would remain.
Yet he was clever enough
To admire the poet
For his polite acceptance
Of unpleasant circumstances:
These ladies of good will,
The snobs and their approbation,
The cannibalism and wars
Of his century.
For the speaker only pretended
To be among them, with them.
In truth, sitting in his workshop
He was counting verse syllables.
A servant of architecture,
A grower of crystals,
He shunned the unreasonable
Affair of mortals.
And alas, alas, it passed—
The rejoicing and weeping，
Believing and despairing，
Debasement and terror。
Wind covered the signs with snow,
the earth took in the screams,
No one anymore remembers
How and when it occurred.
And only the sumptuous, golden
Decasyllabic verse
Lasts and will last for its own
Harmonious reason.
And I, late, am returning
With a shred of bitterness
To his cemetery by the sea,
In the always commencing noon.