【美诗协每日一诗】What They Found In the Diving Bell by Traci Brimhall

Rhapsodia

What They Found In the Diving Bell
by Traci Brimhall       
The first time I saw my mother, she'd been dead
fourteen years and came as a ghost in the mirror,
plucking the hair beneath her arms, and humming
a bossa nova. She lotioned her chapped heels
and padded her bra as if she were alive in the old way.
She said I was born with my cord wrapped
around my neck like a rosary, and she knew God,
the doomed father of her days, wanted us both.
Before midnight she plaited my hair, hemmed my skirt,
sang lullabies she'd learned on the other side of the flood.
She lifted her dress to show her bones shedding light
on stillborn fetus accidentally raptured into her ribs.
She said she'd choose her death again, obey any pain
heaven gave her. Years ago she watched a man ride
a diving bell to the bottom of the Amazon to face
the mysteries God had placed there. The chain broke,
and they pulled him to the surface smiling, stiff, refusing
to open his fists. They broke and unpeeled his fingers.
No one wept or fought to hold it. She covered her eyes
so she wouldn't see what God, in his innocence, had done.
(From “Poem-A-Day”, the Academy of American Poets, January 25, 2012)
他们在潜水钟里发现了什么
作者：特雷西•布林霍尔
翻译：晚枫
我第一次见到妈妈时，她已经死了
十四年之久，她的魂从镜子里走来
头发拉扯在臂下，口里还哼唱着
巴西爵士乐。她给开裂的脚后跟涂上油
胸罩里放了衬垫，像以前活着时一样。
她说，我出生时，脐带缠绕
在我的脖颈，像串念珠，她知道那时，
她命定的天父，上帝，在召唤我们俩个。
午夜来临前，她给我编好辫子，缝好裙边，
给我唱她在大洪水另一边学会的摇篮曲。①
她撩开衣襟，给我看她骨头泛光
照着意外地跑进她肋骨，去了天国的死胎，
她说她宁愿重新选择死的方式，为此可以忍受
天堂赐予的任何痛苦。多年前，她眼见一个人
驾着潜水钟，潜入亚马孙河底，去见证
上帝放在那里的种种谜团。系链断了，
待他们将他拉上水面，只见他面带微笑、僵挺着
拳头紧攥。他们折断了他的手指，皮也掉了。
没人哭泣，也没人愿意拿着那个东西。她蒙上眼睛
这样可以看不到，上帝在完全不知情时，干了什么。
注释：
① 大洪水：指圣经创世纪里提到的大洪水，即诺亚方舟为之建造的、毁灭地球的大洪水。但大洪水的传说在世界各地都有。无论如何，这里指代的是地球人类以外的另一个世界。
（译自2012年元月25日美国诗人协会网站的“每日一诗”）

周道模

叙事风格，深沉的诗。学习，谢谢！