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.

—— • —— • —— • —— • —— • —— • —— • ——

【《小說》(1950)】

異鄉人·史蒂文斯(1879生—1955卒)

【紅霞譯】

        烏鴉在夏天的門廊上空飛翔。

        風吹打着它。曲水迴繞。樹葉

        重又回到原始的幻覺。

        太陽像西班牙人一樣站着離去，

        從夏天的門廊踏入

        往昔的門廊，自命不凡的空虛。

        母親生怕我在巴黎旅館裡凍壞。

        她早就聽說阿根廷“銀色”作家的宿命。夜晚十分，

        他去睡覺，蓋好毯子——

        從羊毛被窩伸出一隻手，

        戴上黑色手套，捧着加繆“塌鼻子”的小說。她懇求

        我離開。”這些是何塞“上帝倍增”說的……

        他不安地坐在爐火旁，

        冬天的第一抹紅，冬紅，

        在嚴寒中接近午夜、可憐的門廊。

        充滿活力的藍色海灘多麼寧靜，

        當發言者口沫直流，

        說道：聖女的白色波浪，

        放聲大笑——放聲大笑着詩意無窮無盡。

        但這裡的寧靜不出所料。

        爐火一如小說講授的那樣燃燒。

        鏡子熔化、自行成型並移動

        捕捉到突然冒出來的烈焰氣息。

        爐火上噴出晶瑩透亮的光芒

        讓火焰燃燒並朝木頭撲來

        死咬不放，一邊撲咬一邊吠叫。

        座椅的排列如此這般，

        不像人們為自己安排的那樣，

        但以小說的風格，記述

        熟悉房間裡的生疏所在，

        強烈的畫面是因為相像，

        率先發生的瞬間，黑色虛幻

        在於掩飾和鮮活的真實。

        白天的拱門消失在秋夜之中。

        火苗減弱而書已完成。

        平靜乃心靈的平靜。

        房間逐漸變黑。奇怪的是

        那阿根廷人。只有真實才能

        讓當下不真實，掩飾且鮮活。

        同樣奇怪地，那阿根廷人如何成為自己，

        感受着羊毛底下的恐懼，

        壓在胸前，刺入心臟，

        任憑田園詩般的想象，

        在血管里劇烈跳動，

        知識在人的內心是冰冷的；

        人會被如此理解，最終，

        理解，仿佛知道

        看得太清楚的致命性。

【注】守護紐約公共圖書館主分館的兩頭名叫“忍耐”與“堅韌”的石獅子被視為知識與文化的燈塔，打造精美的建築與品類豐富的藏品令人嘆為觀止，因為主分館僅限於研究使用，所以富麗堂皇的殿堂讓前來閱覽文獻的讀者大可沉浸式感受“書中自有黃金屋”的奧秘。

主分館雖然免費對外開放，但參觀內部建築尚需提前至少一周上網預定(https://www.showclix.com/event/nypl-building-tours)，若要選在周末更應事先做好安排。

1966年，紐約公共圖書館主樓“皇冠·黑俠”(Stephen A. Schwarzman Bldg)被納入《美國國家史跡名錄》。

Today in History(歷史上的今天):

2024: NY Public Library Main Branch-I(紐約公共圖書館主分館·外觀)

2016: Third Marking Period of Seventh Grade(初二第三學制)

2013: Santa Cruz Island, Ecuador(厄瓜多爾聖克魯斯島)

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

2011: 埃及尼羅河遊輪(Cruising on the Nile, Egypt)

2011: 埃及寶石雙神廟(Twin Temples of  Abu Simbel, Egypt)

2011: 埃及愛島神廟(Philae Temple—Isis, Osiris, and Horus, EGY)

Crosslinks(相關博文):

USA·New York(美國·紐約州)

USA(出遊美國)