2022-10-16 World Food Day

【The Auroras of Autumn·V (1948)】

Wallace Stevens (1879—1955)

        The mother invites humanity to her house

        And table. The father fetches tellers of tales

        And musicians who mute much, muse much, on the tales.

        The father fetches negresses to dance,

        Among the children, like curious ripenesses

        Of pattern in the dance's ripening.

        For these the musicians make insidious tones,

        Clawing the sing-song of their instruments.

        The children laugh and jangle a tinny time.

        The father fetches pageants out of air,

        Scenes of the theatre, vistas and blocks of woods

        And curtains like a naive pretence of sleep.

        Among these the musicians strike the instinctive poem.

        The father fetches his unherded herds,

        Of barbarous tongue, slavered and panting halves

        Of breath, obedient to his trumpet's touch.

        This then is Chatillon or as you please.

        We stand in the tumult of a festival.

        What festival? This loud, disordered mooch?

        These hospitaliers? These brute-like guests?

        These musicians dubbing at a tragedy,

        A-dub, a-dub, which is made up of this:

        That there are no lines to speak? There is no play.

        Or, the persons act one merely by being here.

—— • —— • —— • —— • —— • —— • —— • ——

【《秋天的极光·之五》(1948年)】

外来人·史蒂文斯(1879生—1955卒)

【红霞译】

            母亲请人到家

            做客。父亲去找段子手

            和静于沉思的音乐家，叙述故事。

            父亲去找黑人女子跳舞，

            在孩子们当中，以舞姿的催熟模式

            异乎寻常地老练。

            为此音乐家创作蛊惑心魂的曲调，

            紧扣琴弦的高低起伏。

            孩子们乐得咯咯大笑。

            父亲上气不接下气去找选美比赛，

            剧院、景色和林区的情境

            还有类似单纯装睡的帷幕。

            其间音乐家抒发本能的诗意。

            父亲去找无人放牧的牛群，

            粗鲁的舌头，垂涎与渴望

            参半，顺从他对小号的触感。

            这就是从法国到约翰国王的大使或任意施为。

            我们身处节日的喧嚣之中。

            什么节日？这么吵闹混乱的闲荡？

            这些医院？这帮野蛮的客人？

            这群为悲剧配器的音乐家，

            嗵，嗵，如此看来：

            没有台词可说？没有剧本。

            或者，人们纯粹为了演戏。

【注】在大费城地区方圆近百里地，游恒其人早已遐迩闻名，但我认识她应追溯到2008年儿子进入光华中文学校学前班，那时她刚从坚持了数年之久的义工教学岗位接任校长不久，一年后我加入了她领导的管理团队并一起共事12个年头，直到2021年她荣退移居外州生活，学校规模从百十来号发展壮大到近2,000人。今天，她重返宾州作短暂逗留，我得以有缘再度与她共度美好时光。

Today in History(历史上的今天):

2010: 宾州世界尽头州立公园踏秋(Foliage in Worlds End SP, PA)

Crosslink(相关博文):

万花筒(Kaleidoscope)