2022-09-10 Mid-Autumn Festival

【Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction—It Must Give Pleasure·IV (1942)】

Wallace Stevens (1879—1955)

        We reason of these things with later reason

        And we make of what we see, what we see clearly

        And have seen, a place dependent on ourselves.

        There was a mystic marriage in Catawba,

        At noon it was on the mid-day of the year

        Between a great captain and the maiden Bawda.

        This was their ceremonial hymn: Anon

        We loved but would no marriage make. Anon

        The one refused the other one to take,

        Foreswore the sipping of the marriage wine.

        Each must the other take not for his high,

        His puissant front nor for her subtle sound,

        The shoo-shoo-shoo of secret cymbals round.

        Each must the other take as sign, short sign

        To stop the whirlwind, balk the elements.

        The great captain loved the ever-hill Catawba

        And therefore married Bawda, whom he found there,

        And Bawda loved the captain as she loved the sun.

        They married well because the marriage-place

        Was what they loved. It was neither heaven nor hell.

        They were love's characters come face to face.

—— • —— • —— • —— • —— • —— • —— • ——

【《最高虚构笔记——它必须快乐·之四》(1942年)】

威尔士人·史蒂文斯(1879生—1955卒)

【红霞译】

            我们找适宜的理由诠释这些事情

            并审视所看到的，所理解的

            还有所掌握的，完全取决于自身的角度。

            河边人有个神秘的婚姻，

            中午恰值一年的日中

            了不起的船长和名叫宁静的少女之间。

            这是他俩的庆典赞歌：不久

            彼此陷入爱河却没有谈婚论嫁。很快

            一方不让另一方做出选择，

            舍弃喜酒的浅斟低酌。

            双方都不对恋人抱有过高的期待，

            无论他伟岸的雄姿还是她纤柔的声音，

            奥妙的铙钹声咝咝咝响起。

            彼此都把对方当成认定的标志，即时的标志

            无外乎防止闪恋，回避失败。

            了不起的船长喜欢山上的河边人

            于是娶了宁静，选在他邂逅的地方，

            而宁静爱船长如同爱太阳一样。

            他们喜结连理因为婚姻的所在

            是琴瑟合鸣。既不是天堂也不是地狱。

            相爱的情侣面对着面。

Today in History(历史上的今天):

2022: Jersey City, America's Golden Door(新草州草城·美国金门之城)

2012: 打乒乓(Pingpong)

Crosslinks(相关博文):

Sophomore(大学二年级'2022-23)

万花筒(Kaleidoscope)