2023-11-18 National Vichyssoise Day

【The Plain Sense of Things (1952)】

Wallace Stevens (1879—1955)

        After the leaves have fallen, we return

        To a plain sense of things. It is as if

        We had come to an end of the imagination,

        Inanimate in an inert savoir.

        It is difficult even to choose the adjective

        For this blank cold, this sadness without cause.

        The great structure has become a minor house.

        No turban walks across the lessened floors.

        The greenhouse never so badly needed paint.

        The chimney is fifty years old and slants to one side.

        A fantastic effort has failed, a repetition

        In a repetitiousness of men and flies.

        Yet the absence of the imagination had

        Itself to be imagined. The great pond,

        The plain sense of it, without reflections, leaves,

        Mud, water like dirty glass, expressing silence

        Of a sort, silence of a rat come out to see,

        The great pond and its waste of the lilies, all this

        Had to be imagined as an inevitable knowledge,

        Required, as a necessity requires.

—— • —— • —— • —— • —— • —— • —— • ——

【《樸實物感》(1952)】

異鄉人·史蒂文斯(1879生—1955卒)

【紅霞譯】

            樹葉落盡後，我們回歸

            樸實物感。仿佛

            我們已經走到了想象的盡頭，

            靜態的意識毫無活力。

            甚至很難選擇形容詞來描述

            這般空洞的淒冷，這種莫名的悲傷。

            大建築變成了小房子。

            頭戴包巾帽者沒法穿行那些低矮的樓板。

            花房從未如此亟待粉刷。

            煙囪足有五十年歷史並已向旁邊傾斜。

            奇妙的努力付之東流，再度來過

            人類與蒼蠅的重複。

            然而缺乏想象力 

            本身就必須被想象。大池塘、

            樸實物感、失去倒影、樹葉、

            淤泥、像髒玻璃杯一樣的水，表達沉寂的

            程度，老鼠悄無聲息，

            大池塘及其百合花碎屑，所有這些

            都被想象成必然的認知，

            所求的，根據需要。

【注】美山公園可謂費城最大的市政公園，縱穿整個城市的暗河(Schuylkill River)將公園分成東西兩半，西美山公園正是1876年美國首次舉辦世界博覽會的所在地，而那個時候又恰值1776年《獨立宣言》於費城通過100周年的紀念日，因此很多地標性建築都具有劃時代歷史意義。

今天藉助去費城觀賞宇宙靈魂馬戲團的表演，我得以順訪西美山公園。

Today in History(歷史上的今天):

2023: Immersive UniverSoul Circus, Philly(費城·沉浸式宇宙靈魂馬戲團)

2012年光華四年級B班壁報《我的暑假》(2012 G4B Poster)

Crosslinks(相關博文):

USA·Pennsylvania(美國·山林州)

USA(出遊美國)

萬花筒(Kaleidoscope)