譯作：金舟

你是如此美麗而我是個傻瓜
去與你相愛
這是歌和詩中
保持發生的題材。
似乎沒有變動的餘地。
我從未聽過任何人唱
我是如此美麗
而你是個傻瓜與我相愛，
雖然這個想法確曾
同樣地穿越過女人和男人的腦際。
你是如此美麗，太糟了你是個傻瓜
是另一首你沒聽到。
或，你是個傻瓜去考慮我美麗。
那一首你總也不會聽到，肯定無疑。

這個下午 沒有特別的原因
我正傾聽約翰尼哈特曼
他憂鬱的嗓音繚繞在
愛，美，和傻的概念周圍
象是沒有他人可及。
它感覺似一縷煙從支香煙繚繞而起
有人約在凌晨三點把這香煙
丟在一架寶貝平台大鋼琴上燃着；
煙霧翻騰上升進入明亮的燈光
而在那以外的黑暗裡
一些美麗的傻瓜已經聚集
在小桌周圍去傾聽，
有人閉上了眼睛，
其他人則傾斜向音樂
好象它扶持着他們而立，
或快速旋轉着玻璃杯中鬆散的冰塊，
逐漸滑入一個有節奏的夢裡。
是，有許多傻美麗，
熬過了午夜，
不想回家，
尤其現在當屋裡的每個人
正觀賞那大男人戴着次中音薩克斯管
象條金魚懸掛在他的脖子上。
他移到舞台的邊緣
向下遞給我這樂器
並點頭示意該我演奏。
所以我將吹口放到我唇上
吹進我平生的氣力。
我們都特別傻，
我長長的比波普獨奏曲由俗語開始，
多麼該死的傻
我們全然不覺已經變得美麗。

Nightclub

You are so beautiful and I am a fool
to be in love with you
is a theme that keeps coming up
in songs and poems.
There seems to be no room for variation.
I have never heard anyone sing
I am so beautiful
and you are a fool to be in love with me,
even though this notion has surely
crossed the minds of women and men alike.
You are so beautiful, too bad you are a fool
is another one you don't hear.
Or, you are a fool to consider me beautiful.
That one you will never hear, guaranteed.

For no particular reason this afternoon
I am listening to Johnny Hartman
whose dark voice can curl around
the concepts on love, beauty, and foolishness
like no one else's can.
It feels like smoke curling up from a cigarette
someone left burning on a baby grand piano
around three o'clock in the morning;
smoke that billows up into the bright lights
while out there in the darkness
some of the beautiful fools have gathered
around little tables to listen,
some with their eyes closed,
others leaning forward into the music
as if it were holding them up,
or twirling the loose ice in a glass,
slipping by degrees into a rhythmic dream.

Yes, there is all this foolish beauty,
borne beyond midnight,
that has no desire to go home,
especially now when everyone in the room
is watching the large man with the tenor sax
that hangs from his neck like a golden fish.
He moves forward to the edge of the stage
and hands the instrument down to me
and nods that I should play.
So I put the mouthpiece to my lips
and blow into it with all my living breath.
We are all so foolish,
my long bebop solo begins by saying,
so xxxx foolish
we have become beautiful without even knowing it.

--Billy Collins