失踪孩子的快乐结局
[美]查尔斯.马丁，一树译
他们的一本图画书无疑会证实
那两个失踪的孩子迷失于神人同形的
树杈迷宫：温顺的乌鸦
循着他们离开谷物的痕迹猛扑下来，
容忍了他们路径选择上的错误。
在故事中他们手拉手走入歧途，
兴致勃勃地带着最初的狂热，吓得
半死，但绝不
怀疑早已预先布置好的
出口：女孩从火炉中解救了哥哥，
可怕的女巫在合适的痛苦中死去；
她储藏的珍宝帮他们赎回了父母的爱。
＊＊＊
“与任何神话提供的
结局一样快乐，”乌鸦嚷嚷着，它曾期待更多：
来自女巫餐桌的精美食物。
这是一个老故事――的现代翻版
任性的孩子们尝试莫名的恐怖。
你夜夜在电视上看到的：
摄像机聚集于塑质尤克里里＊琴边
的一头大步流星的熊，因一时恼怒
毁坏了琴――失踪的孩子们
被发现的第一地点我们认为应在落叶下
寻找，在失踪孩子
散落的图画书页下寻找。
＊＊＊
但如果我们在雨中为错误的公车
而放弃恼人的等待，或者如果我们恼人地发现，
在最后一瞬间搭上正确的火车，
竟前往一个错误的车站――
如果我们唯独一次想到的快乐结局，
通常是一种延续，
由于快乐结局很有必要，
并不仅仅是一个伤感的策略
没有它也就
没有人而只是巫婆来讲这个故事，
那么故事意味着女孩和男孩
现在正准备走进她的厨房。
注：尤克里里琴，指夏威夷盛行的一种四弦琴。
诗人简介：
查尔斯.马丁1942年生于纽约。著有《从睡眠开始》等三部诗集。X.J.肯尼迪认为，他的诗思辩猛烈、富含激情。善于以持续的叙述使人着迷，或以刻毒的讽刺让人心悸。
附原作：
Happy Ending for the Lost Children
by Charles Martin
One of their picture books would no doubt show
The two lost children wandering in a maze
Of anthropomorphic tree limbs: the familiar crow
Swoops down upon the trail they leave of corn,
Tolerant of the error of their ways.
Hand in hand they stumble onto the story,
Brighteyed with beginnings of fever, scared
Half to death, yet never for a moment
Doubting the outcome that had been prepared
Long in advance: Girl saves brother from oven,
Appalling witch dies in appropriate torment;
Her hoarded treasure buys them their parents' love.
* * *
"As happy an ending as any fable
Can provide," squawks the crow, who had expected more:
Delicate morsels from the witch's table.
It's an old story—in the modern version
The random children fall to random terror.
You see it nightly on the television:
Cameras focus on the lopeared bear
Beside the plastic ukulele, shattered
In a fit of rage—the lost children are
Found in the first place we now think to look:
Under the fallen leaves, under the scattered
Pages of a lost children's picture book.
* * *
But if we leave terror waiting in the rain
For the wrong bus, or if we have terror find,
At the very last moment the right train,
Only to get off at the wrong station—
If we for once imagine a happy ending,
Which is, as always, a continuation,
It's because the happy ending's a necessity,
It isn't just a sentimental ploy"
Without the happy ending there would be
No one to tell the story to but the witch,
And the story is clearly meant for the girl and boy
Just now about to step into her kitchen. |
