露易丝·格丽克：紫色泳衣

紫色泳衣 /露易丝·格丽克

 

我喜欢看你在花园劳作

穿紫色泳衣，背对我：

我最喜欢你的背部，

离你的嘴最远。

 

你应该考虑一下那张嘴。

还有你除草的方式，把草

从地面割断

而不是连根拔起。

 

我得告诉你多少次

草是如何蔓延的，尽管如此

你那一小堆黑块团，通过平整表面，

终于被你完全遮掩。看着你

 

凝视空旷地，在整齐的

菜园行间，表面上

努力工作实际上

做着最糟糕的事，我想

 

你是个令人恼火的紫色小东西

我希望你离开地球表面

因为你造成我生活中的所有错误

而我需要你，并且我认领你。

 

（林木译）

 

Purple Bathing Suit

Louise Glück 

 

I like watching you garden

with your back to me in your purple bathing suit:

your back is my favorite part of you,

the part furthest away from your mouth.

 

You might give some thought to that mouth.

Also to the way you weed, breaking

the grass off at ground level

when you should pull it by the roots.

 

How many times do I have to tell you

how the grass spreads, your little

pile notwithstanding, in a dark mass which

by smoothing over the surface you have finally

fully obscured. Watching you

 

stare into space in the tidy

rows of the vegetable garden, ostensibly

working hard while actually

doing the worst job possible, I think

 

you are a small irritating purple thing

and I would like to see you walk off the face of the earth

because you are all that's wrong with my life

and I need you and I claim you.