Philip Levine has published 16 books of poems, as well as several volumes of translations and two collections of essays. His honors include two National Book Awards, two National Book Critics Circle Awards, the American Book Award, the Ruth Lily Poetry Prize, and the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

菲利普-莱文出生于底特律，早年在汽车厂做工，为美国第十八任桂冠诗人。曾出版过16本诗集和一些译著。他曾获普利策奖、国家图书奖等众多奖项。

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.

In A Vacant House

在一所空房子里

Someone was calling someone;
now they've stopped. Beyond the glass
the rose vines quiver as in
a light wind, but there is none:
I hear nothing. The moments pass,
or seem to pass, and the sun,
risen above the old birch,
steadies for the downward arch.
 
It is noon. Privacy is
one thing, but to be alone,
to speak and not to be heard,
to speak again the same word
or another until one
can no longer distinguish
the presence of silence or
what the silence is there for...
 
No one can begin anew
naming by turn beast, fowl,
and bush with the exact word.
Beyond the fence the sparse wood Yields;
light enters; nighthawk, owl,
and weasel have fled. To know
the complete absence of fear,
not to fear what is not there
 
becomes the end, the last brute
quiver of instinct. One moves,
or tries to move, among facts,
naming one's self and one's acts
as if they were real. Dead leaves
cling to the branch, and the root
grips to endure, but no cry
questions the illusion of sky.
			

某人在叫某人；
他们现在停止了。玻璃外面
蔷薇藤颤动，就像在
微风中，但是没有风：
我什么也没听到。时刻消逝
或似乎在消逝，而太阳，
已升至老白桦树上方，
稳定下来，准备好下行的拱形路线。

是午时。不受干扰是
一回事，但是独处，
说话而不被人听见，
再一次说同一个词
或另一个，直至
再也无法区分
沉默的存在，或
沉默为什么在那儿…

没人能够重新开始
用精确的词逐一命名
走兽，禽鸟，与灌木。
在篱笆那边，稀疏的树林退让；
光进来了；夜鹰，猫头鹰，
和黄鼠狼已经跑了。了解到
恐惧根本就不存在，
别惧怕那里没有的东西

变成了目的，最终的、非理性的
本能的颤抖。你移动，
或试着移动，在事实之间，
为你的自我与你的行为命名
仿佛它们是真的。枯萎的叶子
挂在树枝上，而根
抓紧了，继续存在，却没有叫声
质疑天空的错觉。