http://s8/middle/4b819584g959be0137837&690Kids 節選選譯－by Patti Smith" TITLE="Just Kids 節選選譯－by Patti Smith" />

上週四晚上，在紐約Union Square的Barnes & Noble書店，Patti Smith和老友，合作多年的Lenny Kaye一起現身，為Jim Carroll的遺作the Petting Zoo做推介，緬懷故友。

而前一天，Patti的自傳Just Kids剛剛獲得了National Book Award的nonfiction（非小說類）的大奬。

Patti選讀了Just Kids中關於Jim Carroll的一小段，原文和我的粗淺譯文如下：

Jim and I spent a lot of time in Chinatown. Every outing with him was a floating adventure, riding the high summer clouds. I liked to watch him interact with strangers. We would go to Hong Fat because it was cheap and the dumplings were good, and he would talk to the old guys. You ate what they brought to the table or you pointed to someone's meal because the menu was in Chinese. They clean the tables by pouring hot tea on them and wiping it up with a rag. The whole place had the fragrance of oolong. Sometimes Jim just picked up an abstract thread of conversation with one of these venerable-looking old men, who would then lead us through the Opium Wars and the opium dens of San Francisco. And then we would tramp from Mott to Mulberry to Twenty-third Street, back in our time, as if nothing had ever happened.

Jim和我曾經在唐人街消磨不少時光。每次跟他出門簡直如同騰雲駕霧般流動的冒險遊歷。我喜歡看他跟陌生人打交道。我們常常去宏發，因為便宜，餃子美味，他也愛跟那里的老頭子們聊天。菜單是中文的，你就順手指著隔壁桌上人們點的菜來點，或者就要那些服務生端來的。服務生們把熱茶傾倒在桌上，然後拿塊破布來擦桌子。整個餐館有股烏龍茶的濃香。有時Jim隨口接過其中一位樣貌讓人肅然起敬的老人的話茬，那人便開始講起鴉片戰爭和三蕃市鴉片窟的山海經來。我們隨後便若無其事從Mott街轉到Mulberry街，再回到23街的大本營（當時Patti住在西23街的Hotel Chelsea）。

I gave him an autoharp for his birthday and wrote him long poems on my lunch break at Scribner's. I was hopeful he would be my boyfriend, but as it turned out, that was an improbable expectation. I would never serve as the source of his inspiration, though in attempting to articulate the drama of my feelings I became more prolific and I believe a better writer.

我給了Jim一個自鸣筝當生日禮物。在Scribner書店上班時，又趁著午休寫了長詩給他。我很希望他能成為我的男朋友，但看起來沒甚麼指望。我不可能成為他的靈感源泉，雖然因為試圖闡明我複雜的情感，我變得更為多產，覺得自己彷彿成了一個更出色的作家／詩人。

Jim and I had some very sweet times. I'm sure there were downs as well, but my memories are served with nostalgia and humor. Ours were ragtag days and nights, as quixotic as Keats and as rude as the lice we both came to suffer, each certain they originated from the other as we underwent a tedious regimen of Kwell lice shampooing in any one of the unmanned Chelsea Hotel bathrooms.

Jim和我有濄一段甜美的時光。當然也有濄低潮，但我的記憶充滿了懷舊和輕鬆詼諧。我們的時光隨意散亂，如同拉格泰格，像濟慈那樣狂想聯翩，又彷彿跳蚤一般粗魯，不拘小節。當時我們兩人都被跳蚤困擾，都確定這些跳蚤是從對方身上傳來，我們舉著Kwell跳蚤清潔劑噴遍了Chelsea Hotel所有無人看管的洗手間。

He was unreliable, evasive, and sometimes too stoned to speak, but he was also kind, ingenuous, and a true poet. I knew he didn't love me but I adored him anyway. Eventually he just drifted away, leaving me a long lock of his red-gold hair.

Jim為人不甚可靠，躲躲藏藏，有時醉醺醺的也沒法跟他說話，但他又是善良率直，而且是一個真正的詩人。我知道他並不愛我，但我還是愛慕他。終於他漸行漸遠，祇留給我一束他的赤金色長髮。