美國意象派女詩人H.D.作品選譯

[kama]

[熱]
--H. D. (Hilda Doolittle, 1886–1961)

風啊，把熱撕開，
把熱切成兩半，
撕它個粉碎。

果實掉不下來
穿不透濃稠的空氣—
果實掉不進熱裡
熱烘托並磨鈍
西洋梨尖
又搓圓了葡萄

把熱切開—
從它上面犁過去，
讓熱翻捲到路的兩旁
別擋著你。


[Heat]

O Wind, rend open the heat,
Cut apart the heat,
Rend it to tatters.

Fruit cannot drop
Through this thick air—
Fruit cannot fall into heat
That presses up and blunts
The points of pears
And rounds the grapes.

Cut the heat—
Plough through it,
Turning it on either side
Of your path.

[kama]

[梨樹]
--H. D. (Hilda Doolittle, 1886–1961)

銀葉菊
從地上長得好高，
高過了我的腰際，
妳已經向上提升
噢！銀葉，
高過了我的腰際
妳以數量龐大來面對我們；

從未開過花
白白一葉如此堅強，
自此罕見的銀白之中
未曾有花離間其銀白；

噢！白梨花，
妳的簇簇花束
厚積於枝
迎來了夏天與成熟的果實
於群花心紫之後。


[Pear Tree]

Silver dust
lifted from the earth,
higher than my arms reach,
you have mounted,
O silver,
higher than my arms reach
you front us with great mass;

no flower ever opened
so staunch a white leaf,
no flower ever parted silver
from such rare silver;

O white pear,
your flower-tufts
thick on the branch
bring summer and ripe fruits
in their purple hearts.

圖說:銀葉菊(silver dust)

[kama]

[海倫]
--H. D. (Hilda Doolittle, 1886–1961)

希臘人全都討厭
那白皙面孔上沉靜的雙眼，
那叢叢橄欖煥發之色
她佇立於彼，
連雙手也白皙。

希臘人全都辱罵
她微笑時蒼白的容顏，
當那張臉顯得更蒼涼潔白時
恨得尤其厲害，
這令人想起古代的狐魅
與古代的災異。

希臘人呆呆地望著，
神之女，天生惹人憐愛，
冷而艷的雙足
與最纖細的膝蓋，
無庸置疑會愛上這位少女，
只要她玉體橫陳，
柏木棺槨縫隙間的白膏泥。


[Helen]

All Greece hates
the still eyes in the white face,
the lustre of olives
where she stands,
and the white hands.

All Greece reviles
the wan face when she smiles,
hating it deeper still
when it grows wan and white,
remembering past enchantments
and past ills.

Greece sees unmoved,
God's daughter, born of love,
the beauty of cool feet
and slenderest knees,
could love indeed the maid,
only if she were laid,
white ash amid funereal cypresses.



[海倫在埃及．第二章．第二節]
--H. D. (Hilda Doolittle, 1886–1961)

她再次回想起希臘的那一幕。正因為她也是希臘人所以她能夠理解。她曾經接受過她所無法理解的事情，「這歷史悠久的孩子，埃及」但她會逐漸理解，而或許這會使埃及與希臘彼此融合。不忠的阿加曼儂，背叛了克萊天奈絲特拉，陷害了伊芙芝奈雅。凡此種種，從另一個世界，似乎仍使她感到虧欠。為什麼？很明顯地，因為阿奇利斯也多少受到牽連。


你不會了解
我經歷了這麼多年
或幾個世紀所體驗的事情；

你或許有一千段戀情
卻沒有一位愛人；
你或許贏得一千件物品

但不曾贏得勝利；
所以我眺望更遠的過去，
與更遠的未來；

阿奇利斯當了假新郎，
阿奇利斯曾充當那位英雄
承諾要聘我姊姊的女兒為妻，

向她承諾，
向我承諾，
向伊芙芝奈雅承諾；

阿奇利斯當時就站在禮堂前面
卻沒有出面阻止
那陰謀詭計

這計謀，據說，為奧迪修斯所設；
是阿加曼儂下的命令
讓母親送她去奧利斯港，

但卻是阿奇利斯，阿奇利斯
是他允許了這樣的血祭，
把他的新娘當成死神的禮物。

譯註：

希臘神話中，宙斯(Zeus)神化為天鵝，強暴女神麗妲(Leda)，懷孕後生下兩顆蛋，兩顆蛋中各誕生岀一男一女，兩個男孩(Pollux與Castor)後來成為雙子星座，兩個女孩就是克萊天奈絲特拉(Clytaemnestra)與海倫(Helen)。這兩姊妹後來嫁給阿加曼儂(Agamemnon)兄弟為妻，但海倫卻被特洛伊王子巴黎斯(Paris)誘拐。於是阿加曼儂號召全希臘的城邦攻打特洛伊(Troy)，但當希臘聯軍齊集奧利斯港(Aulis)，卻因阿加曼儂曾得罪月神阿緹密斯(Artemis)，故月神吹起逆風，讓艦隊無法離港。月神要求阿加曼儂以自己的幼女伊芙芝奈雅獻祭，在整裝待發的大軍的要求下，阿加曼儂迫於無奈，只好設計欺騙妻子克萊天奈絲特拉，說要將伊芙芝奈雅(Iphigenia)許配給希臘第一勇士阿奇利斯(Achilles)，但實際上卻將自己的女兒血祭。


[Helen in Egypt Book 2:2]

She again recalls the Greek scene. For it is through her Greek identity that she understands. She has accepted what she does not understand, “this ancient Child, Egypt” But she would gradually, it would seem bring Egypt and Greece together. There is the treachery of Agamemnon, the betrayal of Clytaemnestra, of Iphigenia. These, from another world, still seem to claim her. Why? Obviously, because Achilles was involved somehow.


You will not understand
what I have taken years
or centuries to experience;

you may have a thousand loves
and not one Lover;
you may win a thousand wares

and not one Victory;
so I see further into the past,
into the future;

Achilles was the false bridegroom,
Achilles was the hero promised
to my sister’s child,

promised to her,
promised to me,
promised to Iphigenia;

it was Achilles who stood by the altar
and did not interfere
with the treacherous plan,

the plot, the said, of Odysseus;
it was Agamemnon who commanded
her mother to bring her to Aulis,

but it was Achilles, Achilles
who sanctioned the sacrifice,
the gift of his bride to Death.

[kama]

[海倫在埃及：第三章．第四節]
--H. D. (Hilda Doolittle, 1886–1961)

海倫她自己幾乎準備好要做這項犧牲——至少，要在阿奇利斯的摯愛面前獻出自身，成為他奉獻給「獨屬於他的船」的貢品，還得要奉獻給船艏的雕像，那「一尊神像或海妖...一尾人魚，聳立於船頭的海仙子席蒂絲。」

她是否斜瞟著雙眼一如往常？
她到底是希臘還是埃及？
緋尼基的水手們曾調教過她嗎？

她是橡木還是杉木做的？
是不是從造船廠裡一截古怪的
造船木材上砍下來的，

然後被鉚釘在這兒，
或是將船艏本身直接雕塑成
她的人魚身軀，

勾勒出人魚的長髮？
曾有一抹飛濺的顏料
在一開始的時候，落在衣紋上嗎？

那藍色的漆日久之後斑駁殆盡了嗎？
他們有修描過她的手臂與肩膀嗎？
到底有沒有人曾染指於她？

她是另一種狂熱份子與戀人嗎，
還是他曾一個人獨自膜拜她？
她當時是否圍著一襲水草

或戴著彩繪的后冠？到底有多少回，
她高聳的胸部迎向激射的浪花，
又有多少回她深深地潛下海去？

[Helen in Egypt: Eidolon, Book 3: 4]

Helen herself seems almost ready for this sacrifice--at least, for the immolation of herself before this greatest love of Achilles, his dedication to "his own ship" and the figurehead, "an idol or eidolon . . . a mermaid, Thetis upon the prow."

Did her eyes slant in the old way?
was she Greek or Egyptian?
had some Phoenician sailor wrought her?

was she oak-wood or cedar?
had she been cut from an awkward block
of ship-wood at the ship-builders,

and afterwards riveted there,
or had the prow itself been shaped
to her mermaid body,

curved to her mermaid hair?
was there a dash of paint
in the beginning, in the garment-fold,

did the blue afterwards wear away?
did they re-touch her arms, her shoulders?
did anyone touch her ever?

Had she other zealot and lover,
or did he alone worship her?
did she wear a girdle of sea-weed

or a painted crown? how often
did her high breasts meet the spray,
how often dive down?