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.

—— • —— • —— • —— • —— • —— • —— • ——

【《朴实物感》(1952)】

异乡人·史蒂文斯(1879生—1955卒)

【红霞译】

            树叶落尽后，我们回归

            朴实物感。仿佛

            我们已经走到了想象的尽头，

            静态的意识毫无活力。

            甚至很难选择形容词来描述

            这般空洞的凄冷，这种莫名的悲伤。

            大建筑变成了小房子。

            头戴包巾帽者没法穿行那些低矮的楼板。

            花房从未如此亟待粉刷。

            烟囱足有五十年历史并已向旁边倾斜。

            奇妙的努力付之东流，再度来过

            人类与苍蝇的重复。

            然而缺乏想象力 

            本身就必须被想象。大池塘、

            朴实物感、失去倒影、树叶、

            淤泥、像脏玻璃杯一样的水，表达沉寂的

            程度，老鼠悄无声息，

            大池塘及其百合花碎屑，所有这些

            都被想象成必然的认知，

            所求的，根据需要。

【注】美山公园可谓费城最大的市政公园，纵穿整个城市的暗河(Schuylkill River)将公园分成东西两半，西美山公园正是1876年美国首次举办世界博览会的所在地，而那个时候又恰值1776年《独立宣言》于费城通过100周年的纪念日，因此很多地标性建筑都具有划时代历史意义。

今天借助去费城观赏宇宙灵魂马戏团的表演，我得以顺访西美山公园。

Today in History(历史上的今天):

2023: Immersive UniverSoul Circus, Philly(费城·沉浸式宇宙灵魂马戏团)

2012年光华四年级B班壁报《我的暑假》(2012 G4B Poster)

Crosslinks(相关博文):

USA·Pennsylvania(美国·山林州)

USA(出游美国)

万花筒(Kaleidoscope)