诗歌导言 作者：[美]比利·科林斯

andra

[I]科林斯也是一度任过美国桂冠诗人的著名诗人，但下面这首译后还是感觉烂诗一首，乏善可陈。是不是我因为我就是诗中讽刺的那种读者呢？[/I]

诗歌导言

[美]比利·科林斯

我让他们拣一首诗
并像彩色幻灯片那样
举起来照一照灯光

或者把耳朵贴在它的蜂巢上。

我说在一首诗里扔只老鼠
看看他怎么找到出来的路，

或者在诗的房间里散步
摸索墙上的电灯开关。

我想让他们如滑水般
掠过一首诗的表面
并向岸上诗人的名字招手。

但他们想做的只是
用绳子把诗绑在椅子上
痛加折磨逼它招供。

他们开始用塑料水管打它
想弄清它到底意味着什么。

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.