Louis Simpson was born in Jamaica in 1923. He emigrated to the United States at the age of 17。He earned a Ph.D. at Columbia University and taught at Columbia, the University of California at Berkeley, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Louis Simpson has published over seventeen books of original poetry, including At the End of the Open Road, Poems (1963), for which he won the Pulitzer Prize.

路易-辛普森1923年生于牙买加。他17岁移民美国。获得哥伦比亚大学博士学位之后，先后任教于哥大，柏克莱加州大学和纽约州立大学石溪分校。辛普森出版了超过17本诗集，包括赢得普立策奖的《在空旷大路的尽头，诗作》(1963)。

戴玨，毕业于伦敦经济学院和澳洲国立大学。其诗作及译诗曾发表于《创世纪诗杂志季刊》《乾坤诗刊》《诗选刊》等。现居于香港。

Edgar Dive studied at the London School of Economics and the Australian National University. His poems and translations appeared in a few literary journals, including Epoch Poetry Quarterly, Chien Kun Poetry Quarterly and Poetry Selected. He lives in Hong Kong.

The Battle

战斗

Helmet and rifle, pack and overcoat
Marched through a forest. Somewhere up ahead
Guns thudded. Like the circle of a throat
The night on every side was turning red.

They halted and they dug. They sank like moles
Into the clammy earth between the trees.
And soon the sentries, standing in their holes,
Felt the first snow. Their feet began to freeze.

At dawn the first shell landed with a crack.
Then shells and bullets swept the icy woods.
This lasted many days. The snow was black.
The corpses stiffened in their scarlet hoods.

Most clearly of that battle I remember
The tiredness in eyes, how hands looked thin
Around a cigarette, and the bright ember
Would pulse with all the life there was within. 
    

头盔和步枪，背包和大衣，
行军穿过森林。大炮砰然
在前方某处作响。四面的夜色
变得通红，就像喉道的圆圈。 

他们停下来，他们挖掘。他们
如鼴鼠般陷入树木间湿冷的土壤。
很快那些哨兵，在他们的坑洞里站着，
感觉到了初雪。他们的脚开始冻僵。 

破晓第一颗炮弹劈啪落地，
接着枪炮横扫结了冰的树林。
就这样持续了很多天。雪是黑色的。
尸首在它们的深红色兜帽里变硬。 

对于那场战斗我记得最清楚的
是眼中的疲倦，握着香烟
显得瘦削的手，还有那明亮的余烬
总带着里面所有的生命力震颤。
			

The Cradle Trap

摇篮困境

A bell and rattle, 
a smell of roses, 
a leather Bible, 
and angry voices... 

They say, I love you. 
They shout, You must! 
The light is telling 
terrible stories. 

But night at the window 
whispers, Never mind. 
Be true, be true 
to your own strange kind. 
			

铃铛和拨浪鼓， 
玫瑰花的怪味， 
一本皮圣经， 
和生气的说话声... 

他们说，我爱你。 
他们嚷嚷，你必须！ 
光正在讲诉 
糟糕的故事。 

可窗前的夜 
小声说，无所谓。 
要忠心，要忠于 
你的怪同类。