蔗尾蜂房

幕後

--Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)，羅浩原 譯

每當我看見總統、副總統、國務卿站在閃亮的地磚上

高貴的白色廊柱之間

我自忖：「一定有人提早抵達

然後打掃、刷洗；有人撢淨灰塵。」

在總統蒞臨之前

有人擦亮他的皮鞋

總統挺直但不僵硬的白襯衫

不是靠他自己的巧手造成

在看不見的控制室：有群小人物

雙膝軟弱、受挫或充滿威能的男人與女人

Behind the Scenes

--Gwendolyn Brooks

When I see a President, a Vice President, a Secretary of State on sparkling tile,

beside noble columns of white,

I think to myself: “Somebody got there early,

and swept, and scrubbed; somebody dusted.”

Before the President came,

somebody buffed his shoes.

The not too-stiffened white of his shirt

was not achieved by his own agility.

At the invisible controls: some little

Weak-kneed, stricken, or powerful woman or man.

Gwendolyn Brooks, In Montgomery and Other Poems, Chicago: Third World Press, 2003, p.30.