After Apple-picking

 

 

 

My long two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree

Toward heaven still,

And there’s a barrel that I didn’t fill

Beside it, and there may be two or three

Apples I didn’t pick upon some bough.

But I am done with apple-picking now.

Essence of winter sleep is on the night,

The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.

I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight

I got from looking through a pane of glass

I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough

And held against the world of hoary grass.

It melted, and I let it fall and break.

But I was well

Upon my way to sleep before it fell,

And I could tell

What form my dreaming was about to take.

Magnified apples appear and disappear,

Stem end and blossom end,

And every fleck of russet showing clear.

My instep arch not only keeps the ache,

It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.

I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.

And I keep hearing from the cellar bin

The rumbling sound

Of load on load of apples coming in.

For I have had too much

Of apple-picking: I am overtired

Of the great harvest I myself desired.

There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,

Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.

For all

That struck the earth,

No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,

Went surely to the cider-apple heap

As of no worth.

One can see what will trouble

This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.

Were he not gone,

The woodchuck could say whether it’s like his

Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,

Or just some human sleep.

 

 

 

摘苹果之后

 

 

 

我的长梯两个尖梢穿过树叶，

刺向静静蓝天，

旁边有个没装满的桶

也许还有二三个苹果

没摘净，留在枝头。

但我已经干完这活。

冬夜本来就该休息，

苹果的香味使我瞌睡。

可是我再擦眼睛也忘不了

这景象，今晨我从水槽

捞出一片薄冰，透过它

看到这灰黄的枯草世界。

冰化了，我松手让它跌碎，

但是它还没

落到地上我已昏昏欲睡，

我已经能说出

我会梦见什么景象。

好大的苹果，时隐时现，

一头是枝，一头是花，

每个褐斑都十分鲜明。

我的脚背还在疼痛，

脚底还似乎踩着梯子。

我能感到梯子随树枝摇晃。

还不断听到地窖里

隆隆的声音

那是一桶桶苹果入仓。

我摘苹果太久

累得够呛，盼望已久的收获

反而使我厌倦。

千万个果子要摘，

小心翼翼，不能掉地。

所有那些

碰到地面的

哪怕没破皮，没戳上刺儿，

只能堆起来酿酒

似乎一钱不值。

你能明白我

无论何时都难以安睡。

要是田鼠没有走，

倒可以问问它

我描写的这袭来的睡意

是否像他那长长的蛰眠，

还是和人的睡眠一样？

 

 

（赵毅衡／译）