I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out, or walk inside the poem's room and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the author's name on the shore. But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.
《诗歌导论》
作者：比利·柯林斯
翻译：忒绿
我请他们拿起一首诗
朝向光线举起
像观看一张彩色幻灯片
或者将耳朵贴在它的中间。
我说把一只小鼠放进诗里
看它如何寻找出路，
或者走入诗的房间
抚摸墙壁寻找灯的开关。
我要他们滑水
滑过诗的表面
向岸上的作者名字致意。
然而他们想做的
是用绳子把诗绑在椅子上
逼迫它坦白。
他们开始痛打它
让它交代它的真正含义。
Introduction to Poetry
By Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
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