Zoom!
嗖儿!
by Simon Armitage
翻译：青澄青果
始于一座房屋，就是那种
联排别墅
它可没打算停步彷徨，很快就延展成
一条街衢的繁忙
膨胀着弓形曲线，傲慢地绕过机械学院蜿蜒
头也不回，向左盘旋
上了主路接着向前
转瞬之间
化身一个镇，拥有四家清算银行
一家报业，和
一支足球队忙于晋级张扬
它一刻也不消停，把《城市规划法》彻底遗忘
碾压过绿化带继续生长
当我们还茫然四顾迷惘，它早已不由摆布：
成了一个国，一座城邦
半个地球，整个宇宙，它四面出击迅速扩张
突如其来， 一股温柔的力量
仁慈地将它拽到一旁，扽它
穿过黑洞的眼，
又一头射入临近的星系微茫
再次浮现
已凝缩成一团，比桌球还小巧还抛光
却超过土星的分量
人们把我堵在大街上，在结账队伍里
聒噪喧嚷
“这到底是什么？这么小还这么
滑光？
可是却比那个有环的行星还要有分量？”
“只是调侃的夸张”
我给他们打包票，不过他们可不买账。
Zoom!
It begins as a house, an end terrace
in this case
but it will not stop there. Soon it is
an avenue
which cambers arrogantly past the Mechanics' Institute,
turns left
at the main road without even looking
and quickly it is
a town with all four major clearing banks,
a daily paper
and a football team pushing for promotion.
On it goes, oblivious of the Planning Acts,
the green belts,
and before we know it it is out of our hands:
city, nation,
hemisphere, universe, hammering out in all directions
until suddenly,
mercifully, it is drawn aside through the eye
of a black hole
and bulleted into a neighbouring galaxy, emerging
smaller and smoother
than a billiard ball but weighing more than Saturn.
People stop me in the street, badger me
in the check-out queue
and ask "What is this, this that is so small
and so very smooth
but whose mass is greater than the ringed planet?"
It's just words
I assure them. But they will not have it.
网友评论