缺席
我去了我们最后一次见面的地方。
什么也没改变，花园照管得很好，
喷泉喷射着它们惯常的稳定的水流；
没有迹象表明某事已经结束，
也没有什么教我学会忘记。
一些愚笨的鸟儿从树里面窜出来，
唱着我无法分享的欢喜，
在我的思想里玩弄诡计。当然这些
欢乐里不可能有要忍受的痛苦，
也没有任何不和谐颤动这平静的风。
只因这个地方还和从前一样，
使得你的缺席像是一股残忍的力量，
因为在这所有的温柔之下
一场地震的战栗来临：喷泉，鸟儿和青草
因我想起你的名字而颤抖。
作者 / [英国] 伊丽莎白·詹宁斯
翻译 / 舒丹丹
选自 /《现代诗110首·蓝卷》三联书店
Absence
I visited the place where we last met.
Nothing was changed, the gardens were well-tended,
The fountains sprayed their usual steady jet;
There was no sign that anything had ended
And nothing to instruct me to forget.
The thoughtless birds that shook out of the trees,
Singing an ecstasy I could not share,
Played cunning in my thoughts. Surely in these
Pleasures there could not be a pain to bear
Or any discord shake the level breeze.
It was because the place was just the same
That made your absence seem a savage force,
For under all the gentleness there came
An earthquake tremor: Fountain, birds and grass
Were shaken by my thinking of your name.
Elizabeth Jennings
