《母親，任何距離》  西蒙•阿米蒂奇

《母親，任何距離》

Mother, any distance greater than a single span

requires a second pair of hands.

You come to help me measure windows, pelmets, doors,

the acres of the walls, the prairies of the floors.

You at the zero-end, me with the spool of tape, recording

length, reporting metres, centimetres back to base, then leaving

up the stairs, the line still feeding out, unreeling

years between us. Anchor. Kite.

I space-walk through the empty bedrooms, climb

the ladder to the loft, to breaking point, where something

has to give;

two floors below your fingertips still pinch

the last one-hundredth of an inch...I reach

towards a hatch that opens on an endless sky

to fall or fly.

譯文：

母親，任何距離只要大過一雙伸臂

要求第二雙手，

你來幫我丈量窗，窗帘盒，門，

牆的數英畝，地板的大草原。

你在零端，我拿著捲尺盤，記錄

長度，將米、厘米報告回基地，然後離開

上樓，線仍然在吐出，拉開

我們之間的年輪。錨。風箏。

我太空步行穿過空空的卧室，爬上

梯子進到閣樓，到達崩斷點， 到那裡

必須給出；

兩層樓下你的手指尖仍然捏著

一英寸的最後百分之一...我走向

那面對無盡天空打開的艙口

落下或者飛起。