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.

—— • —— • —— • —— • —— • —— • —— • ——

【《秋天的極光·之五》(1948年)】

外來人·史蒂文斯(1879生—1955卒)

【紅霞譯】

            母親請人到家

            做客。父親去找段子手

            和靜於沉思的音樂家，敘述故事。

            父親去找黑人女子跳舞，

            在孩子們當中，以舞姿的催熟模式

            異乎尋常地老練。

            為此音樂家創作蠱惑心魂的曲調，

            緊扣琴弦的高低起伏。

            孩子們樂得咯咯大笑。

            父親上氣不接下氣去找選美比賽，

            劇院、景色和林區的情境

            還有類似單純裝睡的帷幕。

            其間音樂家抒發本能的詩意。

            父親去找無人放牧的牛群，

            粗魯的舌頭，垂涎與渴望

            參半，順從他對小號的觸感。

            這就是從法國到約翰國王的大使或任意施為。

            我們身處節日的喧囂之中。

            什麼節日？這麼吵鬧混亂的閒蕩？

            這些醫院？這幫野蠻的客人？

            這群為悲劇配器的音樂家，

            嗵，嗵，如此看來：

            沒有台詞可說？沒有劇本。

            或者，人們純粹為了演戲。

【注】在大費城地區方圓近百里地，游恆其人早已遐邇聞名，但我認識她應追溯到2008年兒子進入光華中文學校學前班，那時她剛從堅持了數年之久的義工教學崗位接任校長不久，一年後我加入了她領導的管理團隊並一起共事12個年頭，直到2021年她榮退移居外州生活，學校規模從百十來號發展壯大到近2,000人。今天，她重返賓州作短暫逗留，我得以有緣再度與她共度美好時光。

Today in History(歷史上的今天):

2010: 賓州世界盡頭州立公園踏秋(Foliage in Worlds End SP, PA)

Crosslink(相關博文):

萬花筒(Kaleidoscope)