Sylvia Plath (1932-1963), "捕兔圈套" @ 蔗尾蜂房

捕兔圈套
--Sylvia Plath

此處充滿了暴力——
風吹亂我的長髮直往我嘴中塞
撕去了我的聲音，而海
用反光照瞎了我，無數死掉的性命
在海中舒展、擴散，如浮油

我嘗過金雀花的惡毒
它黑色的棘刺
它黃色燭狀花穗的臨終塗油禮
一試見效，大大的美好
而且花樣繁複，如同酷刑

此處只通往一個地方
慢火烹煮，香氣四溢
條條通道越變越窄縮入空洞
這些陷阱幾乎無形無跡——
像一堆零，圈閉著虛無

縮緊，如分娩的痛
嘶不出聲來
在大熱天開了一個窟窿，一陣真空
那道琉光成了一堵透明的牆
叢集的沉靜

我察覺到平靜之下四處張羅，處心積慮
我察覺到有一雙手正捧茶杯，枯燥、粗魯
環繞著白色的瓷器
盼啊盼著他的都是些，小小的死亡！
像情人似的等著。把他興奮的

而我們，也交往過——
無數緊繃的線圈橫亙我們之間
楔子深扎難拔，每一門心思都像一個套環
朝著疾馳之物倏然一收
我也死在這陣收縮之中

The Rabbit Catcher
--Sylvia Plath

It was a place of force—
The wind gagging my mouth with my own blown hair,
Tearing off my voice, and the sea
Blinding me with its lights, the lives of the dead
Unreeling in it, spreading like oil.

I tasted the malignity of the gorse,
Its black spikes,
The extreme unction of its yellow candle-flowers.
They had an efficiency, a great beauty,
And were extravagant, like torture.

There was only one place to get to.
Simmering, perfumed,
The paths narrowed into the hollow.
And the snares almost effaced themselves—
Zeros, shutting on nothing,

Set close, like birth pangs.
The absence of shrieks
Made a hole in the hot day, a vacancy.
The glassy light was a clear wall,
The thickets quiet.

I felt a still busyness, an intent.
I felt hands round a tea mug, dull, blunt,
Ringing the white china.
How they awaited him, those little deaths!
They waited like sweethearts. They excited him.

And we, too, had a relationship—
Tight wires between us,
Pegs too deep to uproot, and a mind like a ring
Sliding shut on some quick thing,
The constriction killing me also.