树轮
——致我三十岁的女儿
古德查尔德牧师把它们砍倒前，
你总是喜欢躲在那些树后
那些总是长得飞快的莱兰柏树。
松木围墙上有两个节孔
落山的太阳会在某个时刻在此
形成魔鬼的注视。这地方适合
虚掷光阴。还有些其它的，
有些我们只能猜测，
学校空地，河流渡口，或者
远远的在一片冰雪迷宫，或奇幻莫测的沙里，
在那些地方同样的树野蛮生长，
同样的无情的眼睛穿透你。
*
远处是红杉，近一点七叶树亭亭如烛；
再近一点是梣树，玫瑰缠缚其间。
对孩子来说是不错的景致。那时你常听到
鸽子（偶尔还有老鼠）抓挠屋顶平台的声响。
还有些别的声响，说不清的。
在你的窗下，那个老女人的井。
*
在花园尽头，一株血皮槭在舒展枝叶，
又一阵风刮过，那株黑杨的残余仍岿然不动，
就是那株我引以为豪的黑杨，千辛万苦才找来种上，不是那棵杂交的
来自曼彻斯特的街树，而是我们的本地桦叶黑杨 ，
现在仅剩不到一万株——反正我是这么认为
在它长成你最喜欢的乐园的时候。我捣鼓的那个秋千
就用了它三个庞大树干中的一个，在那一年夏天成了
一个快乐神圣的摇篮，摇着你和你的书，直到
一天夜里，一场千年大风将它整个掀翻
它吱嘎几声后，坍塌了，远远地摔到篱笆另一边，几乎
摔到我们邻居的温室那儿去了。秋千碎了。直到今天我
都还在生气，又欣慰，又惊讶，就那么一截树枝，竟曾经托起过你。
作者：约翰·格林宁（英国）
翻译：唐晓丽
Tree Rings
for my daughter at 30
JOHN GREENING
Before the Reverend Goodchild cut them down,
you used to like to hide behind those trees
that outgrew themselves: leylandii.
There were two knot-holes in the larch-lap
where a setting sun would make at a certain point
a kind of devil’s gaze. It was a place
to play away the years. And there were others,
some of which we only guessed about,
school clearings, river crossings, or away
in an ice maze or a scheherazade of sand,
where the same tree grew uncontrollably
and the same grim eyes stared through.
*
Sequoia in the distance; horse chestnut candles between;
and close by, the ash, with rose tangled in it.
No bad prospect for a child. You used to hear
doves (and occasionally mice) scratching the flat roof.
There were other noises too, inexplicable ones.
And there below your window, the old woman’s well.
*
At the bottom of the garden where now a paper-bark maple uncurls,
discarding another draft, there are the remains of that black poplar,
the one I proudly tracked down and planted, not the hybrid
street tree from Manchester, but our native betulifolia,
of which there are fewer than ten thousand left, or so I believed
when it grew into your favourite hanging-out place. The swing I had rigged
from one of its three massive stems became for a single summer
a glad, a sacred grove to cradle you and your book, until
one night in a millennial wind the whole thing torquing
to itself, groaned, then collapsed across the fence, almost as far as
our neighbour’s greenhouse. The swing was crushed. I am to this day
angry, and thankful, and astonished that such a bough could ever have held you.
朗读 / 喜多卉、张铎瀚
制作 / 张铎瀚
配乐 / The Jesus and Mary Chain - Darklands
Pink Floyd - Eclipse
