by Yehuda Amichai
Close scrutiny of the past.
How my soul yearns within me like those souls
in the nineteenth century before the great wars,
like curtains that want to pull free
of the open window and fly.
We console ourselves with short breaths,
as, after running, we always recover.
We want to reach death hale and hearty,
like a murderer sentenced to death,
wounded when he was caught,
whose judges want him to heal before
he’s brought to the gallows.
I think, how many still waters
can yield a single night of stillness
and how many green pastures, wide as deserts,
can yield the quiet of a single hour
and how many valleys of the shadow of death do we need
to be a compassionate shade in the unrelenting sun.
I look out the window: a hundred and fifty
psalms pass through the twilight,
a hundred and fifty psalms, great and small.
What a grand and glorious and transient fleet!
I say: the window is God
And the door is his prophet.
(Translated, from the Hebrew, by Robert Alter.)
译文:
夏夜窗边偶得【纽约客】
作者：Yehuda Amichai
仔细地审视过去
我的灵魂满怀渴望在我体内呼喊
就如同大战前十九世纪的人们所想
又似那想要脱离窗框的禁锢
自由翱翔于天际的窗帘
片刻的喘息总能让我们平静
就像我们在奔跑过后，精力总能再度充沛
我们总希望到死都能健康无恙
就好比一个被判死刑的谋杀者
在被捕时受了伤
就连法官都希望他能
在走上绞刑台之前痊愈
我在想，要多少安静的水面
才能带来一晚的寂静
得要多少如沙漠般广大的牧场
才能换来一个小时的安宁
我们又究竟需要多大一片死亡之影
才能让无情的烈日给我们一小片荫凉
望窗外：
黄昏中，流淌着一百五十首诗
它们既精妙又简短
就如同一支伟大却易逝的光荣舰队！
我说：此窗即如上帝
而此门，则为他的先知
（译自希伯来语，译者Robert Alter）
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