C.D.Wright’s Poems

(Translation of C.D.Wright’s three poems (Published in PoetrySky.com in 2005 and “North American Maple” in 2006)

 until words turn to moss.

This was all roses, here, where an overblown house crowns
the hill, the whole field, roses, all the way to the end;
when the rosarian died, the partition of roses
began. We’ve come out of nowhere, literally,
nowhere, autumnal towns marked for destruction
by a phantom hand; houses held underwater, every bed
a sunken tub, tools drowned between rows, every keyhole
caulked; clouds hallucinating girls asleep on a wedge
of wedding cake; the white rose, among the greatest of liars
beginning to show the debilitating effects of fame,
the ever-popular blaze placates a vase; the bad sons
of thunder beating back a strand of light; someone
who knows nothing apart from the rain
standing on a chair in muddy legs; the roses
blown into their cumulonimbuses,
and someone whose glove is recovered, a face
that doesn’t come clear, a face drawn under an umbrella,
beautiful, charcoal, beautiful, like words
that never get old, the sons of thunder beating

这里曾经玫瑰遍地,整个田野和山岗
都是。从山顶上一所鲜花茂密的房子
开始,一路铺展开来。
当花匠死去,花儿开始分离。
我们来自无处,纯粹意义上,无处置身,
秋天的小镇已被一只无形的幻影之手
作上毁灭的记号,
房屋们都淹在水下,每一张床成了淹水浴盆,
工具没在水滩里,每个洞眼充塞着。。
云层屯集着象女孩们昏睡于层叠的蛋糕边缘。
白玫瑰,在巨大的谎言中,显露渐渐虚弱的光彩。
和曾经 眩目光芒抚 慰着的花瓶。
雷电的儿子们回击着一线光亮,
有人不知情地站在泥泞的高椅子上,
玫瑰被吹向积雨云,有人找到了她的手套,看不清楚的脸,从伞下
移出,美丽的,黑炭似的,美丽的,象语言从来不会变老,
雷电的儿子们回击着,直到文字变成苔藓

****************************************

in our only time.

“Follow me,” the voice, the long, longed-for voice stops
the writing hand. “I have your shoes.” Except
for a rotating fan, movement at a minimum. The plan,
if one can call it a plan, is to begin in what is known
to some as the perennial present; beginning
with a few sentences written in a kitchen while others
cling to their own images in twisted sheets of heat.
A napkin floats from a counter in lieu of a letter. Portals
of the back life part in silence: O verge
of song, O big eyelets of daylight. Leaving milk and bowl
on the table, leaving the house discalced. All this
mystery, mildly erotic. Even if one is terrified
of both death and the color red. Even if a message is sent
each of us in secrecy, no one can make it stay.
Notwithstanding scale—everything has its meaning,
every thing matters; no one a means every one an end

在我们独自的期限里。

” 随我来” ,声音传来,
悠长而热切;
让书写的手停了下来。
” 我带上了你的鞋。”
除了旋转的风扇,
没有任何移动物体。
这样的计划,如果能唤作计划的话,
是一些在别人看来习以为常的事务,
从厨房写下的几行话开始,而别人还留连
在他们自己床单余热的想象。
一片餐巾纸飘离台面,取代了一封信。
过往生活的入口无声地分离:
哦,那些歌的尽头,阳光空洞的眼。
桌上还留着牛奶和碗,就这样赤着脚离开房子。
这一切的神秘,弥漫着一丝暧昧。
即使一个人惧怕死和红色 ,
即使消息秘密地发送于我们,没有人能让它留下来。
尽管衡量,任何事都有它的意义,
事事都有关联;
没有人只是一个过客,每个人都是一个结局

John.B.Lee’s Poem with Anna Yin’s Translation

jblee-2John B. Lee, Poet Laureate of the city of Brantford in perpetuity and Poet Laureate of Norfolk County for Life is the author of over one hundred books. His work has appeared internationally in over five hundred publications and he is the recipient of over one hundred prestigious international awards for his writing. His most recent books include The Full Measure, (Black Moss Press, 2015); Adoration of the Unnecessary, (Beret Days Books, 2016); The Secret Second Language of the Heart, (Sanbun Publishing, 2016) and The Widow’s Land: superstition and farming–a madness of Daughters (Black Moss press, 2016). He lives in a lake house overlooking Long Point Bay in Port Dover where he works as a full-time author.

Being Human

I am reading Rumi
reading Tu Fu
and thinking of being human

last summer
Marty and I
slept in the farmhouse loft
under French heaven near Vitteaux
and we lay in our separate cots
like boys at camp
laughing, talking silly
making fun of everyone
we were mostly ourselves, middle aged men
with the window open
to starlight
and the evening breath of the fields

look up at the slant of ceiling
the slant of beams
this room was built
for dreaming
and we were giddy as lads
with happy lives, not
old Tu Fu, his sadness settled
like shadows, like rivers
like cold stones of winter
and the bitter darkness of long nights
and the lonesome insomnia
of small hours
like the mystical beauty of death and dying
and the inescapable anger of the soul

our hearts refusing the silence
with a lovely slowing exhalation
as we each become
more pensive in
the loosening limbs of slumber
relaxing our hands like unfurled leaves
and pressing our faces to linen
meanwhile great rivers of the earth
the Tigres and Euphrates
the Yangtse
the Amazon of my father’s last days
flow on
and what would I buy
from the famous floating markets of Bangkok

I would purchase the rains of remember
I would purchase the stars of recall
and what to preserve in a poem
but the drenching of darkness with light. .

John.B.Lee ‘s Poem

做人

译者: 星子(Anna Yin)

读着鲁米,
读着杜甫, 思想起伏。

去年夏天,
马田和我
睡在农家阁楼,
在离法国维多不远的天堂下,
我们象野营的男孩一样,
躺在各自的行军床上,
傻笑,瞎说,
拿每个人逗乐。
活得更像我们自己,中年男人,
窗户敞开着,
星光和田野的清新空气弥漫。

仰望斜斜的天花顶,
斜斜的木梁,
这个房间象为梦境而设,
而我们是那不谙世的少年,
乐颠颠的。
不象老杜,
他的悲伤潜伏着挥洒不去
如阴影, 如河流,
如寒冬冰冷的岩石,
如漫长而苦涩的黑夜,
失眠孤寂;
以及那些神秘莫测的死亡
灵肉里不可解脱的愤怒。

我们的心
拒绝沉默,
而呼吸趋缓,
当我们更熟思于
平稳的睡眠中,
手象叶子舒展,脸紧贴着床单。。。

与此同时,
尘世上的河流,
底格里斯河、幼发拉底河
扬子江,
亚马逊河随着我们祖先们最后的日子
流逝着。。。
在曼谷的水上市场
我能买到什么

我愿购买如雨的记忆,
我愿购买如星的回想,
而诗歌能保留什么,
那些湿透的黑暗中的光亮。

(Published in “North American Maple” in 2006)