文/羅伯特·海頓 譯/鄒仲之

那些冬季的星期天

文/羅伯特·海頓 譯/鄒仲之

Sundays too my father got up early

And put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,

then with cracked hands that ached

from labor in the weekday weather made

banked fi res blaze. No one ever thanked him.

星期天，我父親也起得很早，

在天亮前的冰冷中穿上衣服，

然后用他皴裂的手把火生旺，

那手是平時(shí)露天干活給糟蹋的。

沒有誰謝過他。

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.

When the rooms were warm, he’d call,

and slowly I would rise and dress,

fearing the chronic angers of that house,

我會(huì)醒著，聽嚴(yán)寒土崩瓦解。

等房間都暖和了，他就喊，

我就慢騰騰地起床、穿衣，

害怕家里久積的怒氣，

Speaking indifferently to him,

who had driven out the cold

and polished my good shoes as well.

What did I know, what did I know

of love’s austere and lonely of fi ces?

我冷冷地跟他說話，

他已經(jīng)驅(qū)散了寒冷，

還擦好了我漂亮的鞋。

什么是樸素的愛和默默奉獻(xiàn)，

那時(shí)我懂嗎，我懂嗎？

Those Winter Sundays

By Robert Hayden

【注】這首美國詩人羅伯特·海頓（1913—1980）作于1962年的詩回顧了許多年前家里的不愉快。從事體力勞動(dòng)的父親星期天也照樣早起，他同樣嚴(yán)格要求家人，而他們卻想睡懶覺；所以父親費(fèi)力不討好，沒人感謝過他。詩人寫這首詩時(shí)49歲，顯然父親已經(jīng)過世，他后悔當(dāng)年對父親的不理解和冷淡。這首詩之所以有名，是因?yàn)樗莱龃嬖谟谠S多家庭中的矛盾或不幸，已為人父母的讀者無論年輕或年長都可從中得到啟示。

詩中第2行the blueblack cold即the pre-dawn cold。最后一行l(wèi)onely of fi ces直譯為“孤單地履行職責(zé)”。