Hegemony by Paul Hostovsky

我的三位表亲是聋子。
但我有许多表亲，
所以聋的那些人
在家庭聚会中总是
少数派
他们在聚会上会强占
一条沙发，或厨房餐桌，
耍着他们的手势。那是
其余的我们不懂的一种语言
因为我们从来没花时间学它。
他们的谈话和我们的谈话
不停地一起飘出来
像夜里经过的轮船
或者像缓和期间
越过一艘没有声音的潜艇的
英国护卫舰
他们一个接一个
和三个聋配偶结婚了。
所以这样就有了六个聋子。
他们中的一对以生了俩聋孩子而告终。
那么就有了八个聋子。
最后，他们都离婚了
和其他的聋人再婚
有了聋继子，和聋前任
聋姻亲和聋表亲。不知不觉间
我们在家庭聚会上
数量上完全被超过
沦到这个团体的
一角落，低声交谈
躲闪措不及防的手，
感觉相当小众
和盲目，像在猛禽阴影下
发抖的鼹鼠或田鼠
Three of my cousins are deaf.
But I have lots of cousins,
so the deaf ones
were always in the minority
at family gatherings
where they’d commandeer a couch
or the kitchen table and juggle
their hands. It was a language
the rest of us didn’t understand
because we never bothered to learn it.
Their conversations and our conversations
sailed along contiguously
like ships passing in the night
or like an English frigate passing
over a Deaf submarine during
detente. One by one they got married
to three deaf spouses. So then there were six.
And one of them ended up having
two deaf children. So then there were eight.
Eventually they all divorced
and remarried other deaf people
with deaf stepchildren and deaf exes
and deaf in-laws and deaf
cousins. And before we knew it
we were totally outnumbered
at the family gatherings
and consigned to a corner
of the sectional, whispering
and ducking the flying hands,
feeling rather small
and blind, like moles or voles
trembling in the shadows
of the raptors.
“Hegemony” by Paul Hostovsky from Hurt Into Beauty. © Future Cycle Press, 2012. Reprinted with permission.