Charles Olson (1910-1970), an avant-garde poet and literary theorist, was born in 1910, in Massachusetts. From Wesleyan University, he received a B.A in 1932 and an M.A. the following year. He taught at Clark University and Harvard University, but his real influence began in the late 1940s as an instructor and then as rector (1951－56) at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Olson's The Maximus Poems (1953, 1956, combined 1960) is a long sequence of poems continued in subsequent volumes, while In Cold Hell, in Thicket (1953) and The Distances (1960) contain some of his best-known shorter poems.

查尔斯-奥尔森（1910-1970），美国前卫派诗人兼文学理论家，1910年生于马萨诸塞州。1932他在卫斯廉大学获得了文科学士学位，翌年又获文科硕士学位。后于克拉克大学和哈佛大学执教。1940年代后期，在北卡罗来纳州的黑山学院先任教后当院长，才开始发挥影响力。其主要诗作包括1960年发表的：《马克西穆斯的诗》，《在寒冷的地狱中，在灌木丛中》（1953），《距离》（1960）等。

戴玨毕业于伦敦经济学院和澳洲国立大学。其诗作曾发表于《乾坤诗刊》《诗选刊》等。现居于香港。

Born in 1972， Edgar Dive has studied at the London School of Economics and the Australian National University. He has published works in literary journals including Chien Kun Poetry Quarterly and Poetry Selected. He now lives in Hong Kong.

Pacific Lament

太平洋挽歌

In memory of William Hickey, a member of 
the crew of the U.S.S. Growler, lost at sea 
in February, 1944.


Black at that depth
turn, golden boy no more
white bone to bone, turn
hear who bore you weep
hear him who made you
deep there on ocean's floor
turn
as waters stir;
turn, bone of man

Cold as a planet is
cold, beat of blood no more
the salt sea's course
along the bone jaw white
stir, boy, stir
motion without motion
stir, and hear
love come down.

Down as you fell
sidewise, stair to green stair
without breath, down 
the tumble of ocean
to find you, bone
cold and new among the ships
and men and fish askew.

You alone o golden boy no more
turn now and sleep
washed white by water
sleep in your black deep
by water out of which man came
to find his legs, arms, love, pain.
Sleep, boy, sleep
in older arms than hers,
rocked by an older father;
toss no more, 
love;
sleep.
			

纪念威廉-希奇，美国海军黑鲈号船员，
1944年二月在海上阵亡。


在那深处漆黑一片
翻转，不再是金童子
白骨连白骨，翻转
听听生你的人为你哭泣
是他造就了你，你仔细听
在大洋深深的底部
随着海水的搅动
翻转；
翻转，男子汉的骨头

如行星般寒冷
寒冷，血不再脉动
盐海的航向
沿着白色颌骨
搅动，小伙子，搅动
没有动作的姿态
搅动，并聆听
爱降下来

向下，当你倒向
一侧，梯级到绿梯级
没有呼吸，随着
大洋的翻滚
找到你，骨头
寒冷而新鲜，在歪歪斜斜
的船只丶人丶鱼之间。

孤零零的你，噢，不再是金童子
翻转并睡吧
且让海水洗白
在你那漆黑的深处睡吧
自那海水有人到来
来找他的双腿，臂膀，爱，痛苦。

睡吧，小伙子，睡吧
在比她更古老的臂弯里，
让更老的父亲抱着摇晃；
别再翻动，
爱；
睡吧。
			

Maximus, to Himself

马克西穆斯，对他自己说

I have had to learn the simplest things
last. Which made for difficulties.
Even at sea I was slow, to get the hand out, or to cross
a wet deck.
	The sea was not, finally, my trade.
But even my trade, at it, I stood estranged
from that which was most familiar. Was delayed,
and not content with the man's argument
that such postponement 
is now the nature of
obedience,
	that we are all late
	in a slow time,
	that we grow up many
	And the single
	is not easily
	known
It could be, though the sharpness (the achiote)
I note in others,
makes more sense
than my own distances. The agilities

	they show daily
	who do the world's
	businesses
	And who do nature's
	as I have no sense
	I have done either

I have made dialogues,
have discussed ancient texts,
have thrown what light I could, offered
what pleasures
doceat allows

	But the known?
This, I have had to be given,
a life, love, and from one man
the world

	Tokens.
	But sitting here
	I look out as a wind
	and water man, testing
	And missing
	some proof

I know the quarters
of the weather, where it comes from,
where it goes. But the stem of me,
this I took from their welcome,
or their rejection, of me

	And my arrogance
	was neither diminished
	nor increased,
	by the communication

			2

It is undone business
I speak of, this morning,
with the sea
stretching out
from my feet
			

我曾不得不最后才学习
最简单的事情。这造成了不少困难。
既使在海上我也很迟缓，取出手来，或穿过
湿漉漉的甲板。
	航海，最终，并未成为我的职业。
但就算那是我的职业，在海上，我也和最为人熟知
的事情脱节。给耽误了
而且不甚满意那人的理由
说这种耽误现在已成了
服从的特征
	说在缓慢的时间中
	我们全都迟了，
	说我们长大后会和众人一样
	而个别的并不容易
	为人了解
可能是，不过我在他人身上
留意到的鲜明（胭脂树籽1）
比我自己的距离
更加合乎情理。他们平日
	表露出的机敏
	他们做世俗的事
	做自然界的事
	因为我没见识
	哪样也没做过

我进行过对话
讨论过古代文字
发过我能发的光，贡献过
可教导的
乐事

	但那些人人都熟知的事呢？
这，最终得别人给我，
生命，爱，以及由某人那儿
世事
	表征。
	但坐在这里
	我却像风和船夫
	一般留心，测试
	也错过
	一些证据

我知道气候的
方向，从哪里来
到哪里去。但我的血统
取自它们对我的欢迎
或对我的拒绝

	而我的傲慢
	既没有因这种交流
	而消减，也没有
	增强
	
		2

我讲述的
是未竟的事，今晨，
因大海自我脚下
不断延伸


注1):碾碎后可做染料，色彩有如红辣椒。