Death of a Naturalist / 一个自然主义者之死

Death of a Naturalist

by Seamus Heaney, 1966

All year the flax-dam festered in the heart

Of the townland; green and heavy headed

Flax had rotted there, weighted down by huge sods.

Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun.

Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles

Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell.

There were dragonflies, spotted butterflies,

But best of all was the warm thick slobber

Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water

In the shade of the banks. Here, every spring

I would fill jampotfulsof the jellied

Specks to range on window sills at home,

On shelves at school, and wait and watch until

The fattening dots burst, into nimble

Swimming tadpoles. Miss Walls would tell us how

The daddy frog was called a bullfrog

And how he croaked and how the mammy frog

Laid hundreds of little eggs and this was

Frogspawn. You could tell the weather by frogs too

For they were yellow in the sun and brown

In rain.

Then one hot day when fields were rank

With cowdungin the grass the angry frogs

Invaded the flax-dam; I ducked through hedges

To a coarse croaking that I had not heard

Before. The air was thick with a bass chorus.

Right down the damgross belliedfrogs were cocked

On sods; their loose necks pulsed like sails. Some hopped:

The slap and plop were obscene threats. Some sat

Poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting.

I sickened, turned, and ran. The great slime kings

Were gathered there for vengeance and I knew

That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it.

一个自然主义者之死

黄灿然译

整年亚麻池在小镇的中心

溃脓；碧绿而昏倦的

亚麻已腐烂，被厚厚的草泥层压着。

每天它在惩罚的阳光下热得喘不过气来。

泡沫发出微弱的咕噜声，绿头蝇

在臭味的周围纺起响亮的声纱。

蜻蜓出没，斑蝶飞舞，

但最瞩目的是池岸阴影里

如堵塞的水般繁殖的蛙卵

那温暖而浓稠的黏液。这里，每逢春

我就会给一个个果酱罐装满凝胶似的

斑卵，把它们排列在家里窗台上，

在学校架子上，然后等待和观察

直到发胖的斑卵爆破，成了灵活

游动的蝌蚪。沃尔丝老师会给我们讲

爹地蛙为什么称作牛蛙，

它怎样呱呱叫，妈咪蛙怎样

生下数百个小蛋，而这就是

蛙卵。你还可以用蛙来判断天气，

因为有阳光它们就变成黄色，一下雨

它们就变成褐色。

接着在一个炎烈的日子，当田野散发

草丛中牛粪的恶臭，愤怒的蛙群

突然入侵亚麻池。我躲进树篱，

害怕那一大片我从未听过的粗嘎

蛙叫。空气中回荡着密集的低音合唱。

就在那池里，肚子巨大的蛙群在草泥层上

扳起扳机；它们松弛的脖子鼓胀如帆。有的跳跃：

吧嗒声和扑通声发出猥亵的威胁。有的蹲着

摆出泥巴手榴弹的姿势，愚钝的头在放屁。

我感到恶心，转身就跑。这些黏液大王

集合在那里准备复仇，而我知道

如果我把手伸入蛙卵，蛙卵就会一把抓住它。