New poetry
新詩集
Sparks of warmth
溫暖的火花
Love's Bonfire. By Tom Paulin.
《愛之篝火》湯姆 坡林著
TOM PAULIN, an Anglo-Irish poet and Oxford academic, is no stranger to the evocative power of words. He was born in Leeds in 1949 and grew up in Belfast.
湯姆 坡林,一位盎格魯血統的愛爾蘭詩人兼牛津學者,運用字句能量來激蕩人心,揮灑自如。他于1949年出生于里茲,后于貝爾法斯特長大成人。
His work is attentive to the shift between these differing cultures, the pinpoints of speech that separate one from another.
他的作品關注不同文化之間的微妙轉換,以及相應的獨特語言記號。
His poetry takes place both against the backdrop of Irish sectarian violence and in the glare of “that cold intense/English light”;
其詩歌創作時期,正逢愛爾蘭宗派暴力斗爭涌起,同時“冷酷繁復的英文”正煥發光芒,大行其道。
his feeling of displacement between the two places described in lean, simple phrases.
他在兩者之間逡巡,頗有流離之感,于是付諸筆端,詞句嶙峋,著意素淡。
“Love's Bonfire”, his latest collection, is no less stark.
《愛之篝火》是他最新的集子,風格一如既往,鮮明奪目。
Eight years in the making, Mr Paulin's poetry has been whittled down over years of revision.
歷時8年,幾經批刪,坡林先生成詩十分精悍。
His short, punchy poems are characterised by their ability to evoke images through the smallest of details, or through sudden shifts of register.
雖篇幅短小,卻一擊中的,其詩特色便是,以最幽微的細節抑或語域的驟然切換,于讀者眼前喚起鮮活畫面。
Often impatient with what he sees as euphemisms or newspeak—“It was some phrase like level playing field/that gunked me as he said it”
他對于那些忸怩的委婉語或做作的新聞語極其不耐煩。“‘公平競爭平臺'一旦出口/我瞬間陷入泥潭沼澤”。
—Mr Paulin's poems fight against lazy uses of language: “let's try to unpack this gave me the cue/to leave”.
坡林先生極其反對懶惰地套用現成詞句。“‘我們就用這個吧'/此時我應掉頭便走”。
Like the nearly burned-out bonfire described in the title poem, Mr Paulin's poetry revels in a certain charred bleakness.
詩集開篇中所描述的,那余燼尚有一絲紅亮的篝火,正是坡林先生的詩,僅存詞句之焦燼,似無意涵之生息,卻別蘊一種狂縱和自得。
However, the poems that make up the centre of “Love's Bonfire”—translations and adaptations by Mr Paulin from the work of his contemporary, the Palestinian poet Walid Khazendar—are far more playful.
然而,構筑《愛之篝火》主骨的則是坡林先生譯自或改寫其同代人——巴勒斯坦詩人Walid Khazendar的作品,似乎出于玩樂趣味。
Coupling Mr Paulin's lean language with the livelier, surreal images of Mr Khazendar, they are among the most compelling works here.
坡林先生的語言瘦骨嶙峋,搭配Khazendar詩作的蓬勃生機和荒誕畫面,真是引人入勝的組合。
Whether it is the description “you drag your shadow behind you/like it's a ladder” or the dreamlike evocation of someone,
無論是“你身后拖著影子/仿佛踩著梯子”之類的句子,或是某人
who “wanted to rub his tongue on tree bark/and ask how it happened”, these poems prevent “Love's Bonfire” from becoming too austere.
“將舌頭于樹皮上摩擦/問這一切何以發生”之類夢幻的畫面,都讓《愛之篝火》不會過于素淡寡味。
And although Mr Khazendar's poetry can be serious or sinister—one,
盡管Khazendar的詩作可能嚴肅而且恐怖,
“Belongings”, opening “Who entered my room when I was out/and moved the vase on the mantelpiece just a tad?”—in Mr Paulin's translations, they never seem too laboured.
比如《歸屬》這首的開頭,“是誰趁我外出闖入房間/將壁爐上花瓶挪動一丁點”,坡林先生的翻譯卻毫無累贅之感。
This may surprise some readers who are aware of Mr Paulin's work as a cultural commentator in Britain.
對于那些把坡林先生視作英國文化評論員的讀者們來說,這些作品可能讓他們大吃一驚。
On television his political statements are not always so nuanced.
他在電視節目里的政治評論并不總是如此意涵微妙。
But unlike these appearances, in “Love's Bonfire” Mr Paulin demonstrates the strength that comes with saying less, not unlike relying on only a spark for warmth.
恰恰相反,坡林先生在《愛之篝火》里展現了簡詞素句的力量,所憑依的,不過是一顆溫暖的小火花。