北岛的诗
Poem by Bei Dao
艾略特·温伯格译
Translatedby Eliot Weinberger

序曲

为什么此刻到远古
历史逆向而行
为什么万物循环
背离时间进程
为什么古老口信
由石碑传诵
为什么帝国衰亡
如大梦初醒
为什么血流成河
先于纸上谈兵
为什么画地为牢
以自由之名

难道天外有天
话中有话
电有短路的爱情
难道青春上路
一张张日历留下
倒退的足印
难道夜的马群
奔向八方
到天边畅饮黎明
难道江山变色
纸上长城
也是诗意的苍龙

谁在圣人的行列中
默默阅读我们
谁从鎏金的风铃
从带血的鞭梢
不断呼唤我们
谁用谎言的红罂粟
照亮苍茫大地
谁把门窗的对话
卖给穿堂风
谁指挥秋天的乐队
为小桥迎娶
一盏幽怨的渔灯

哪儿是家园
安放死者的摇篮
哪儿是彼岸
让诗跨向终点
哪儿是和平
让日子分配蓝天
哪儿是历史
为说书人备案
哪儿是革命
用风暴弹奏地平线
哪儿是真理
在词语寻找火山

何时乘东风而来
从沏好的新茶
品味春天的忧伤
何时一声口哨
为午夜开锁
满天星星在咳嗽
何时放飞一只鸽子
把最大的广场
缩小成无字印章
何时从关闭的宫门
从岁月裂缝
涌进洪水的光芒


Prologue

Why does history travel backwards
From the presentto the ancient
Why do all things spin away
From the course oftime
Why are the oldest messages
Transmitted and chanted by tablets of stone
Why do empires wither and die
As though waking from the dream of grandeur
Why did rivers of blood
Come before the strategic plans
Why did people draw a prison circle in the sand
In the name of freedom  

Is there a sky beyond the sky
A speech beyond speech
An electricity with short-circuited love
Is youth setting off
Leaving pages ofthe calendar behind
As backward footprints
Is a team of horses
Running in all directions through the night
Drinking down the dawn at the rim of the sky
Are the rivers and mountains changing color
And the Great Wallon paper
Is the black dragon of poetry

Who in the procession of the sages
Silently reads us
Who between the gilded wind-chimes
And the bloody end of a whip
Endlessly calls tous
Who uses the lies of red poppies
To light the black and boundless earth
Who takes the dialogue of door and window
And sells it to the draft blowing through the hall
Who conducts the orchestra of autumn
And celebrates the marriage of a small bridge
And a sad fish lantern

Where is the homeland
That lays a cradlefor the dead
Where is the others hore
Where poetry gallops to the finish line
Where is the peace
That lets the days share out the blue sky
Where is the history
For the storytellers to record
Where is the revolution
Playing storms on the horizon
Where is truth
Finding a volcano among the words

When will we come from the east wind
And taste theme lancholy of spring
In steeped new tea
When will thesound of a whistle
Unlock formidnight
A sky full ofcoughing stars
When will a dovebe set free
And shrink thebiggest square
Into a sealwithout characters
When from theclosed palace gates
Will the radianceof the flood
Gush through thecracks of time