纽约基岩暇步活在信息海洋
【美】加里·斯奈德 陈子弘 译
红枫、橡树、白杨、银杏树
新叶,岩脊陡峭而微微隆起
“新绿”隐约在树丛中
阳光炽烈而斑驳——
我醒来
翻身滑下岩壁
从林中走出,走向
一只松鼠,走向
难得的人群!从安全距离看去,
临近的车马声低语,
警笛的嚎叫回荡
穿过隔离网的结构,
直升机的震颤,
高空喷气机的
低音声调。
跃过公园石墙
简衣迅行,
融入流动大军
纽约就像朵海葵
在经济海洋中舒展摇曳,
衣着时尚的精英青年们
下班后,迈入夜生活,美食在
微妙生命力律动腔室中功成
心跳建筑 在底部深处,
在地面之下被点燃。
由老商船水手点燃
前司炉工 不干了离开海洋
去陆地尽头矗立的船只,
前海员们站立值守固定锅炉
给监控热量与电力的
地下管网、 空中之网、
活在信息海洋的计算机让路。
热切目光看向人行道,
急切的肉体。美貌龙钟趾高气衰
我们绕过七扭八歪的街角
卡车里扬起块块纸板
楚楚颤动,乳头一点红,
下眼皮上的眼影。
时代与生命渐进——六万人——
风吹动旗帜。
强劲的颤栗摇动
树木新生绿意的枝条,
玻璃、铝、集料砾石、
铁。不锈钢。
空心蜂巢般脑室建筑属于
哥伦比亚大学,海葵
群落的
房东
在信息海洋中,活着
“野人克劳斯”
大多与印第安人同住,
1701年见证了老太婆
“卡拉卡帕科蒙特”
卖掉华盛顿岗最后一块地
在排水口深处听见水流,
永不停歇的河流
在路基之下,基岩之上啭鸣
一只鸟从褐石峡谷
飞走,这里看似一条路线,
回应空洞的黑暗。
基岩上散落,交错光线沿小巷
闪烁着光辉吸吮着尖叫
一道低吼阴影
在明亮灯光包围中,
舌尖上一丝黢黑。
警笛回声沿墙壁的夹缝传来
脚步踏上路沿,灯光变换——
抬头仰望众神
公平之神,塞拉尼斯之神,高贵顺位,
古老联合碳化物之神,
各自捕捉方块阴影的份额
各自在日晷弧线中摇摆
超越它们各部分的总和。
古根海姆、洛克菲勒、弗里克家族,
汇集世界艺术,平板玻璃
窗让光洒在“睡莲”上
犹如鱼或行星,人们,
移动,停顿,穿过房间,
白桦叶微风中颤抖
守卫们注视着世界,
直升机漫长的嗡鸣飞行
在经济 海洋
的空中
交易
花粉与花蜜,
下到钢铁世界
停止与启动时的钢铁长啸
风吹过黑色隧道
蛛网、真菌、苍苔。
冈瓦纳古陆的银杏树。象形文,
史前岩画,覆盖地铁——
刚建成建筑的空洞眼窝
无魂,它们仍在等待仪式
使它们也成为
新、大的
城市之神,
配备管道、电缆和管线,
它们将点亮,呼吸凉爽空气,
呼吸在那儿劳作者的思想——
当他们翱翔天空,在空中时,
信息
海洋里
他们的
知识云,
穿过小巷,从卡车下钻过。
“此处正拆除”
停下凝视写在纸上
述说经济的大写罗马字,
电锯的啸声从窗户溜进来
空房间——无墙——地下室空气如此清新
干砖,熟土,锈迹斑斑的房屋
硬质合金刀片电锯切割砖块。狂风
从通往地铁的台阶刮来。
车道上,有个蓝胸衣女跑者,
红灯阻挡交通,但她却像
电锯啸声中的街灯光束,
径直穿过。
一条横街通向河流
往北边可回到森林
朝南又领你去钓鱼
游隼在三十五楼筑巢
流浪汉推着装满家当的推车
或裹在浅蓝毯子里睡觉
在春晚,黄昏,在门前,
凝视上方凸起的山脊线与扶壁,
共有的家,领地,
家,
共有的,公寓大楼
高塔, 上方
穿着干净整洁白衣白肤的
男女
占据更阳光的位置,
在层叠岩层峭壁更高处,获取
更多光合作用,流经更多介形虫,
吃更多寿司,
聚集更多肉体,发出愉悦
瀑布般的笑声,
——游隼掠过窗前
飞离文字链边缘
收获概念,神学,
吃下由
银行
业务与疯狂投机滋生的碎片
在新的信息上——
晃眼间捕获一只鸽子,
街头拾荒者推着购物车
缓缓探查空中还有没有更多落物,
更多的,额外的碎片,
从天上更高处人们那里掉落
当细腻的黄昏光芒
照亮四十多层楼
一整面玻璃幕墙
柔软的水银,
我们漂浮其中,进食其中的美丽建筑,
泡沫、钢铁、灰色。
活在信息海洋中。
译注:
1.华盛顿岗(Washington Heights)指的是今天纽约市曼哈顿北部的地区。斯奈德通过“Claus the Wild man”和“Karacapacomont”这两个人物,叙述了一段与土地转让相关的历史,隐含对殖民扩张的批判。
2.公平之神、塞拉尼斯之神、古老联合碳化物之神指位于曼哈顿的Equitable Companies Incorporated(公平公司,1992年被法国安盛集团兼并,后易名安盛金融)、Celanese Corporation(塞拉尼斯公司)及Union Carbide Corporation(联合碳化物公司)三家公司的大楼。
3.“睡莲”指莫奈的画作,现存纽约现代艺术博物馆。
4.冈瓦纳古陆(Gondwanaland,也称冈瓦纳大陆)指的是大约2亿年前存在的一块巨大的陆地,后来分裂形成了南极洲、澳大利亚、非洲、南美洲和印度。
5.共有的家,此处三行原文为拉丁语。
6.《1988最佳美国诗歌》收入的本诗,斯奈德在2013年收入诗集《Mountains and Rivers Without End 》时有少量改动。
诗人简介:加里·斯奈德,1930年5月8日出生于旧金山,是一位美国诗人、散文家和环保活动家,被誉为“垮掉的一代”和生态诗歌的领军人物。斯奈德在美国太平洋西北地区长大,在里德学院学习人类学和文学(文学学士,1951年),后来在日本(1956-1968年)研习禅宗。他获得普利策奖的作品集《龟岛》(1974年)体现了他对生态、本土智慧和正念的深切关怀。其他重要作品包括《乱石》(1959年)、《无尽的山河》(1996年)和《险峰》(2004年)。受东亚哲学和美洲原住民传统的影响,斯奈德的诗歌将生动的自然意象与精神和政治洞见融为一体。作为中日文本的翻译者,他还在加州大学戴维斯分校任教,并共同创办了骨环禅堂。他的散文,例如《野性的实践》(1990年),倡导可持续的生活方式。斯奈德获得的奖项包括博林根奖(1997年)和露丝·莉莉诗歌奖(2008年)。
GARY SNYDER
Walking the New York Bedrock
Alive in the Sea of Information
Maple, oak, poplar, gingko
New leaves, “new green” on a rock ledge
Of steep little uplift, tucked among trees
Hot sun dapple—
wake up
Roll over and slide down the rockface
Walk away in the woods toward
A squirrel, toward
Rare people! Seen from a safe distance,
A murmur of traffic approaching,
Siren howls echoing
Through the gridlock of structures,
Vibrating with helicopters,
the bass tone
Of a high jet.
Leap over the park stone wall
Dressed fast and light,
Slip into the migrating flow
New York like a sea anemone
Wide and waving in the Sea of Economy,
Cadres of educated youth in chic costume
Step out to the night life, good food, after work
In the chambers of prana-subtle power-pumping
Heartbeat buildings fired
Deep at the bottom, under the basement.
Fired by old merchant marine
Ex-fire tenders gone now from sea
To the ships stood on end on the land,
Ex-seamen stand watch at the stationary boilers
give way to computers,
That monitor heat and the power
Webs underground; in the air;
In the Sea of Information.
Keen eyes on the sidewalks,
Brisk flesh. Beauty and age strut and shuffle
We curve round the sweep of great corners
Cardboard chunks tossed up in truckbed
Delicate jiggle, rouge on the nipple,
Kohl under the eye.
Time and Life buildings—sixty thousand people—
Wind ripples the banners.
Stiff shudder shakes limbs on the
Planted trees growing new green,
Glass, aluminum, aggregate gravel,
Iron. Stainless steel.
Hollow honeycomb brain-buildings owned by
Columbia University, the landlord of
Anemone
Colony
Alive, in the Sea of Information
“Claus the Wild man”
Lived mostly with Indians,
Was there as a witness when the old lady
“Karacapacomont”
Sold the last bit of Washington Heights, 1701
Down deep grates hear the watercourse,
Rivers that never give up
Trill under the roadbed, over the bedrock
A bird angles way off a brownstone
Couloir that looks like a route,
Echo the hollowing darkness.
Scatter on bedrock, crisscrossing light threads
Gleam sucking squeals up the side streets
One growl shadow
in an egg of bright lights,
Lick of black on the tongue.
Echoes of sirens come down the walled canyons
Foot lifts to the curb and the lights change—
And look up at the Gods
Equitable god, Celanese god, noble line,
Old Union Carbide god,
Each catching shares of the squared blocked shadow
Each swinging in sun-dial arc of the day
More than the sum of its parts.
The Guggenheims, the Rockefellers, and the Fricks,
Assembling the art of the world, the plate glass
Window lets light in on “the water lilies”
Like fish or planets, people,
Move, pause, move through the rooms,
White birch leaves shiver in breezes
While guards watch the world,
Helicopters making their long humming trips
Trading pollen and nectar
In the air
Of the
Sea of Economy,
Drop under the streetworld
Steel squeal of stopping and starting
Wind blows through black tunnels
Spiderwebs, fungus, lichen.
Gingko trees of Gondwanaland. Pictographs,
Petroglyphs, cover the subways—
Empty eye sockets of buildings just built
Soul-less, they still wait the ceremony
That will make them too,
New, Big
City Gods,
Provided with conduit, cable and pipe,
They will light up, breathe cool air,
Breathe the minds of the workers who work there—
The cloud of their knowing
As they soar in the sky, in the air,
Of the Sea
Of Information,
Cut across alleys and duck beneath trucks.
“Under Destruction”
Stop to gaze on the large roman letters
Of writing on papers that tell of Economy,
Skilsaw whine slips through the windows
Empty room—no walls—such clear air in the cellar
Dry brick, cooked clay, rusty house bodies
Carbide blade skilsaw cuts bricks. Squalls
From the steps leading down to the subway.
Blue-chested runner, a female, on car streets,
Red lights block traffic but she like the
Beam of a streetlight in the whine of the skilsaw,
She runs right through.
A cross street leads toward a river
North returns to the woods
South takes you fishing
Peregrines nest at the thirty-fifth floor
Streetpeople rolling their carts
of whole households
Or asleep wrapped in light blue blanket
spring evening, at dusk, in a doorway,
Eyeballing arêtes and buttresses rising above them,
con domus, dominion,
domus,
condominate, condominium
Towers, up there the
Clean crisp white dress white skin
women and men
Who occupy sunnier niches,
Higher up on the layered stratigraphy cliffs, get
More photosynthesis, flow by more ostracods,
get more sushi,
Gather more flesh, have delightful
Cascading laughs,
—Peregrine sails past the window
Off the edge of the word-chain
Harvesting concepts, theologies,
Snapping up bites of the bits bred by
Banking
ideas and wild speculations
On new information—
and stoops in a blur on a pigeon,
As the street-bottom feeders with shopping carts
Slowly check out the air for the falling of excess,
Of too much, flecks of extra,
From the higher-up folks in the sky
As the fine dusk gleam
Lights a whole glass side of
Forty some stories
Soft liquid silver,
Beautiful buildings we float in, we feed in,
Foam, steel, gray.
Alive in the Sea of Information.
from Sulfur