Born in Boston in 1932. At eight, her German-emigrant entomologist father died, which she, years later, would interpret as abandonment, and which became one important motif in her poetry. In 1962, her marriage with British poet Ted Hughes collapsed, and after his departure in October, she produced some forty poems in less than two months, the most stunning in the 20th century literary history. Her move to London in December 1962 did not bring any luck due to the extremely cold winter, and on February 11, she gassed herself. She published a thin volume of poems The Colossus (1961) and an autobiographical novel The Bell Jar (1962) during her lifetime. Her posthumous Collected Poems edited by Ted Hughes won a Pulitzer in 1982.

西尔维亚-普拉斯于1932年生于波斯顿。八岁那年其蜂学专家的德裔父亲去世。这被她后来阐释为一种背弃，并进而成为她诗歌的一个重要主题。1962年她与英国诗人泰德-休斯的婚姻破裂，休斯在10月留下她和两个孩子。在过后的两个月里，她写出的数十首诗篇无论诗艺还是内容都震撼着二十世纪文学史。1963年，伦敦遭遇几十年不见的寒冬，她独自带着两个孩子，或许因为无助，她于2月11日以煤气自杀。生前她出版过一本诗集《巨雕》以及一部自传性小说《钟罩瓶》。她去世后泰德-休斯编辑出版了她的《诗全编》（1981年），获得普立策奖。

Edgar Dive studied at the London School of Economics and the Australian National University. He now lives in Hong Kong.

戴玨，伦敦经济学院和澳洲国立大学毕业。现居于香港。

Poppies in October

十月的罂粟花

Even the sun-clouds this morning cannot manage such skirts.
Nor the woman in the ambulance
Whose red heart blooms through her coat so astoundingly —

A gift, a love gift
Utterly unasked for
By a sky

Palely and flamily
Igniting its carbon monoxides, by eyes
Dulled to a halt under bowlers.

O my God, what am I
That these late mouths should cry open
In a forest of frost, in dawn of cornflowers.
			

即使早上的云霞也无法应付这样的裙子。
救护车里的女人也不能
她红色的心透过外衣，很吓人地开花 —

一件礼物，爱的礼物
完全未经请求
苍白而炽灼地

对着它的一氧化碳点火
的天空未曾请求
礼帽下滞涩的眼睛也没有。

哦，我的上帝，我是什么呀
竟使这些来迟的嘴张开呼叫，
在结霜的森林，矢车菊的黎明。
			

Cut
For Susan O'Neill Roe

割
给苏珊-奥尼尔-罗

                           
What a thrill —
My thumb instead of an onion.
The top quite gone
Except for a sort of hinge

Of skin,
A flap like a hat,
Dead white.
Then that red plush.

Little pilgrim,
The Indian's axed your scalp.
Your turkey wattle
Carpet rolls

Straight from the heart.
I step on it,
Clutching my bottle
Of pink fizz. 

A celebration, this is.
Out of a gap
A million soldiers run,
Redcoats, every one.

Whose side are they on?
O my
Homunculus, I am ill.
I have taken a pill to kill

The thin
Papery feeling.
Saboteur,
Kamikaze man —

The stain on your
Gauze Ku Klux Klan
Babushka
Darkens and tarnishes and when

The balled
Pulp of your heart
Confronts its small
Mill of silence

How you jump —
Trepanned veteran,
Dirty girl,
Thumb stump.
			

真刺激——
我的拇指而不是洋葱。
指尖部份差不多没了
只剩类似铰链的

一块皮，
象帽子一样的封盖，
惨白。
然后变成那红绒布。

小朝圣者，
印第安人用斧头砍掉了你的头皮。
你那火鸡肉垂
象地毯一样

从心脏直接卷起。
我踩上去，
紧抓着我那瓶
桃红汽水。

这是，一次庆祝活动。
百万士兵
从一个缺口冲出，
每个人都穿着红衣服。

他们帮哪一边？
噢，我的
雏型人，我病了。
我吃了一片药止住

那薄薄的
纸一样的感觉。
破坏者，
神风飞行员——

你那三K党
薄纱头巾上
的污点
变暗并失去光泽而当

你心脏的
球状肉浆
面对它那
沉默的小磨坊

你怎样跳过——
没了脑壳的老兵，
下流女人，
拇指的残段。
			

Fever 103^o

高烧103华氏度

                           
Pure? What does it mean?
The tongues of hell
Are dull, dull as the triple

Tongues of dull, fat Cerberus
Who wheezes at the gate. Incapable
Of licking clean

The aguey tendon, the sin, the sin.
The tinder cries.
The indelible smell

Of a snuffed candle!
Love, love, the low smokes roll
From me like Isadora's scarves, I'm in a fright

One scarf will catch and anchor in the wheel.
Such yellow sullen smokes
Make their own element. They will not rise,

But trundle round the globe
Choking the aged and the meek,
The weak

Hothouse baby in its crib,
The ghastly orchid
Hanging its hanging garden in the air,

Devilish leopard!
Radiation turned it white
And killed it in an hour.

Greasing the bodies of adulterers
Like Hiroshima ash and eating in.
The sin. The sin.

Darling, all night
I have been flickering, off, on, off, on.
The sheets grow heavy as a lecher's kiss.

Three days. Three nights.
Lemon water, chicken
Water, water make me retch.

I am too pure for you or anyone.
Your body
Hurts me as the world hurts God. I am a lantern —

My head a moon
Of Japanese paper, my gold beaten skin
Infinitely delicate and infinitely expensive.

Does not my heat astound you. And my light.
All by myself I am a huge camellia
Glowing and coming and going, flush on flush.

I think I am going up,
I think I may rise —
The beads of hot metal fly, and I, love, I

Am a pure acetylene
Virgin
Attended by roses,

By kisses, by cherubim,
By whatever these pink things mean.
Not you, nor him

Not him, nor him
(My selves dissolving, old whore petticoats) —
To Paradise.
			

纯洁？什么意思？
地狱之舌
感觉迟钝，就象

在冥府大门前呼哧呼哧
迟钝肥胖的三头狗的
三条舌头一样迟钝。不能舔干净

发冷的肌腱，罪过，罪过。
干燥的易燃物叫喊。
熄灭的蜡烛

那不散的气味！
爱人，爱人，柔弱的烟自我
翻滚而出，犹如依莎多拉的围巾，我很怕

其中一条围巾会卷入车轮并卡住2
这种迟缓的黄烟
构造自己的元素。它们不会升起，

只是围绕着地球滚动
呛死年老的，温顺的
软弱的

摇床中的温室婴孩，
恐怖的兰花
把它高悬的花园挂在半空，

邪恶的豹子！
辐射把它变白
一个小时内便将它杀死。

给通奸者的身体上润滑油
就象广岛的灰烬，并侵蚀进去。
罪过。罪过。

亲爱的，一整晚
我都在闪烁，熄灭，亮起来，熄灭，亮起来。
被单犹如色鬼的强吻般变得沉重。

三天。三夜。
柠檬水，鸡
水，水令我作呕。

对于你或任何人来说我都太纯洁了。
你的躯体
伤害了我正如人人都伤害上帝。我是个灯笼——

我的头是日本纸做的
月亮，我那锤薄了的金色皮肤
无限娇嫩，无限昂贵。

我的热力你难道不感到吃惊。还有我的光。
我是朵巨大的山茶花，独自
发光，来去，激动得满脸通红。

我觉得我就要上去了，
我觉得我可能会升起——
炽热金属的气泡飞溅，而我，爱人，我

是个纯洁的乙炔
处女
由鲜花看护着，

由亲吻，天使，
由这些粉红色的东西，无论它们代表些什么，看护着。
不是由你，也不是他

不是他，也不是他
（我的自我在分解，破旧的娼妓衬裙）——
去天堂。