薄冰

盖瑞·施耐德 著/李泽贤 译

二月，漫长的寒冷过后

一个温暖的日子

行走在苏马斯山下

一条伐木的陈年老路上

砍一段桤木做拐杖，

越过云层俯瞰

诺克塞克潮湿的旷野——

在路那边，一片结冰的水塘

我的脚踩到冰面上。

它嘎吱作响

冰下的白气

窜出，黑暗里

长长的裂缝伸展开，

我带钉的登山靴

在坚冰上打滑了

——像薄冰——突然

我感觉一句古话成了真

瞬间结冰的树叶，

冰水，和手中的棍棒。

“如履薄冰啊——”

我回头向一位朋友大喊，

冰破了，我落入水中

足有八英寸

Thin Ice

Walking in February

A warm day after a long freeze

On an old logging road

Below Sumas Mountain

Cut a walking stick of alder,

Looked down through clouds

On wet fields of the Nooksack—

And stepped on the ice

Of a frozen pool across the road.

It creaked

The white air under

Sprang away,long cracks

Shot out in the black,

My cleated mountain boots

—like thin ice—the sudden

Feel of an old phrase made real—

Instant of frozen leaf,

Icewater,and staff in hand.

"Like walking on thin ice—"

I yelled back to a friend,

It broke and I dropped

Eight inches in

选自《砌石》