Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932, in Boston, Massachusetts. After graduating from Smith College in 1955, she moved to Cambridge, England, on a Fulbright Scholarship. Her first collection of poems, Colossus, was published in 1960 in England. In 1963, Plath published a semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar. Most of her poems were published posthumously, including The Collected Poems, which was the recipient of the 1982 Pulitzer Prize.

西尔维娅-普拉斯于1932年出生于美国麻省波士顿，1955年从史密斯学院毕业，后获富布莱特奖学金赴英国剑桥深造。1960年在英国出版第一本诗集《巨像》，1963年出版半自传体小说《钟罩》。普拉斯大部分诗在她死后集结出版，包括获1982年普利策奖的《诗集》。

冯冬，1979年生于重庆，南京大学英文系博士毕业，现任教于暨南大学，译过游记《中华帝国纪行》、《亲密接触中国》、小说《蛛网与磐石》等，在海内外诗刊发表作品，与人合著诗集《残酷的乌鸦》（2011），主要研究诗歌、精神分析和当代哲学。

Peter Feng was born in Chongqing, China, in 1979. He has received a Ph.D degree in literature from Nanjing University and currently teaches English at Jinan University. He has co-translated A Journey through the Chinese Empire, Intimate China, and The Web and the Rock, and co-written a book of poems Cruel Raven (2011). His study includes poetry, psychoanalysis, and contemporary philosophy.

Metaphors

隐喻

I'm a riddle in nine syllables,
An elephant, a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
This loaf's big with its yeasty rising.
Money's new-minted in this fat purse.
I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
I've eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there's no getting off. 
			

我是一个九音节的谜语，
一只大象，一座笨重房子，
一个散步的甜瓜，两条卷须腿。
哦，红果子，象牙，好木材！
这面包被酵母搞大了。
这肥钱包中，钱币被新铸。
我是一个手段，舞台，奶牛犊。
我吃了一袋青苹果，
上了不能下站的列车。
			

Dark Wood, Dark Water

暗木，暗水

                           
This wood burns a dark
Incense. Pale moss drips
In elbow-scarves, beards 

From the archaic
Bones of the great trees.
Blue mists move over 

A lake thick with fish.
Snails scroll the border
Of the glazed water

With coils of ram's-horn.
Out in the open
Down there the late year 

Hammers her rare and
Various metals.
Old pewter roots twist 

Up from the jet-backed
Mirror of water
And while the air's clear 

Hourglass sifts a 
Drift of goldpieces
Bright waterlights are 

Sliding their quoits one
After the other
Down boles of the fir.
			

这木头燃起
一股暗香。苍白的
青苔从披肩滴落，

大树的老骨头
长出胡子。蓝色的
雾在挤满鱼的

湖水上移动。
蜗牛用一卷卷羊角
卷起光滑的

水面的边界。
在空旷的
彼处，晚近的岁月

捶打她的多种
稀有金属。
古老的白镴树根

在飞机机身般的
水的镜面上弯曲，
此时空气的

透明沙漏渗出
一股金币的风，
明亮的水光滑动

它们的铁环，一个
接一个，滑下
冷杉的树干。