2024-04-06 National Pajama Day

【The Novel (1950)】

Wallace Stevens (1879—1955)

    The crows are flying above the foyer of summer.

    The winds batter it. The water curls. The leaves

    Return to their original illusion.

    The sun stands like a Spaniard as he departs,

    Stepping from the foyer of summer into that

    Of the past, the rodomontadean emptiness.

    Mother was afraid I should freeze in the Parisian hotels.

    She had heard of the fate of an Argentine writer. At night,

    He would go to bed, cover himself with blankets —

    Protruding from the pile of wool, a hand,

    In a black glove, holds a novel by Camus. She begged

    That I stay away. These are the words of José…

    He is sitting by the fidgets of a fire,

    The first red winter, winter-red,

    The late, least foyer in a qualm of cold.

    How tranquil it was at vividest Varadero,

    While the water kept running through the mouth of the speaker,

    Saying: Olalla blanca en el blanco,

    Lol-lolling the endlessness of poetry.

    But here tranquility is what one thinks.

    The fire burns as the novel taught it how.

    The mirror melts and moulds itself and moves

    And catches from nowhere brightly-burning breath.

    It blows a glassy brightness on the fire

    And makes flame flame and makes it bite the wood

    And bite the hard-bite, barking as it bites.

    The arrangement of the chairs is so and so,

    Not as one would have arranged them for oneself,

    But in the style of the novel, its tracing

    Of an unfamiliar in the familiar room,

    A retrato that is strong because it is like,

    A second that grows first, a black unreal

    In which a real lies hidden and alive.

    Day's arches are crumbling into the autumn night.

    The fire falls a little and the book is done.

    The stillness is the stillness of the mind.

    Slowly the room grows dark.It is odd about

    That Argentine. Only the real can be

    Unreal today, be hidden and alive.

    It is odd, too, how that Argentine is oneself,

    Feeling the fear that creeps beneath the wool,

    Lies on the breast and pierces into the heart,

    Straight from the Arcadian imagination,

    Its being beating heavily in the veins,

    Its knowledge cold within one as one's own;

    And one trembles to be so understood and, at last,

    To understand, as if to know became

    The fatality of seeing things too well.

—— • —— • —— • —— • —— • —— • —— • ——

【《小说》(1950)】

异乡人·史蒂文斯(1879生—1955卒)

【红霞译】

        乌鸦在夏天的门廊上空飞翔。

        风吹打着它。曲水回绕。树叶

        重又回到原始的幻觉。

        太阳像西班牙人一样站着离去，

        从夏天的门廊踏入

        往昔的门廊，自命不凡的空虚。

        母亲生怕我在巴黎旅馆里冻坏。

        她早就听说阿根廷“银色”作家的宿命。夜晚十分，

        他去睡觉，盖好毯子——

        从羊毛被窝伸出一只手，

        戴上黑色手套，捧着加缪“塌鼻子”的小说。她恳求

        我离开。”这些是何塞“上帝倍增”说的……

        他不安地坐在炉火旁，

        冬天的第一抹红，冬红，

        在严寒中接近午夜、可怜的门廊。

        充满活力的蓝色海滩多么宁静，

        当发言者口沫直流，

        说道：圣女的白色波浪，

        放声大笑——放声大笑着诗意无穷无尽。

        但这里的宁静不出所料。

        炉火一如小说讲授的那样燃烧。

        镜子熔化、自行成型并移动

        捕捉到突然冒出来的烈焰气息。

        炉火上喷出晶莹透亮的光芒

        让火焰燃烧并朝木头扑来

        死咬不放，一边扑咬一边吠叫。

        座椅的排列如此这般，

        不像人们为自己安排的那样，

        但以小说的风格，记述

        熟悉房间里的生疏所在，

        强烈的画面是因为相像，

        率先发生的瞬间，黑色虚幻

        在于掩饰和鲜活的真实。

        白天的拱门消失在秋夜之中。

        火苗减弱而书已完成。

        平静乃心灵的平静。

        房间逐渐变黑。奇怪的是

        那阿根廷人。只有真实才能

        让当下不真实，掩饰且鲜活。

        同样奇怪地，那阿根廷人如何成为自己，

        感受着羊毛底下的恐惧，

        压在胸前，刺入心脏，

        任凭田园诗般的想象，

        在血管里剧烈跳动，

        知识在人的内心是冰冷的；

        人会被如此理解，最终，

        理解，仿佛知道

        看得太清楚的致命性。

【注】守护纽约公共图书馆主分馆的两头名叫“忍耐”与“坚韧”的石狮子被视为知识与文化的灯塔，打造精美的建筑与品类丰富的藏品令人叹为观止，因为主分馆仅限于研究使用，所以富丽堂皇的殿堂让前来阅览文献的读者大可沉浸式感受“书中自有黄金屋”的奥秘。

主分馆虽然免费对外开放，但参观内部建筑尚需提前至少一周上网预定(https://www.showclix.com/event/nypl-building-tours)，若要选在周末更应事先做好安排。

1966年，纽约公共图书馆主楼“皇冠·黑侠”(Stephen A. Schwarzman Bldg)被纳入《美国国家史迹名录》。

Today in History(历史上的今天):

2024: NY Public Library Main Branch-I(纽约公共图书馆主分馆·外观)

2016: Third Marking Period of Seventh Grade(初二第三学制)

2013: Santa Cruz Island, Ecuador(厄瓜多尔圣克鲁斯岛)

2012: 佛州迪斯尼世界神奇王国(Walt Disney Magic Kingdom, FL)

2011: 埃及尼罗河游轮(Cruising on the Nile, Egypt)

2011: 埃及宝石双神庙(Twin Temples of  Abu Simbel, Egypt)

2011: 埃及爱岛神庙(Philae Temple—Isis, Osiris, and Horus, EGY)

Crosslinks(相关博文):

USA·New York(美国·纽约州)

USA(出游美国)