黄昏

光闪过了
从一座桥到另一座桥，
从一朵花到另一朵花——
海泊提丝盛开着
在光下
渐渐暗淡——
花瓣向里伸展，
蔚蓝的尖端折卷着
弯向更蓝的花蕊，
花就这样完结了。

康纳尔花蕾依然洁白
但影子从
康纳尔的根部冒了上来——
黑色从一根根蔓爬行到另一根根，
每一片叶子
在草上割着另一片叶子，
影子寻求影子，
接着两片叶子
和叶子的影子都消失了。

裘小龙 译

EURYDICE 

Why did you turn back,
that hell should be reinhabited
of myself thus
swept into nothingness?

Why did you turn?
why did you glance back? 
So you have swept me back--
I who could have walked with the live souls
above the earth.
I who could have slept among the live flowers
at last. 

So for your arrogance
and your ruthlessness
I am swept back
where dead lichens drip
dead cinders among moss of ash.

What was it that crossed my face
with the light from yours
and your glance?

What was it you saw in my face --
the light of your own face,
the fire of your own presence?


-- Hilda Doolittle 

SEA ROSE 

Rose, harsh rose 
marred and with stint of petals, 
meagre flower, thin, 
sparse of leaf, 

more precious 
than a wet rose 
single on a stem -- 
you are caught in the drift. 

Stunted, with small leaf, 
you are flung on the sand, 
you are lifted 
in the crisp sand 
that drives in the wind. 

Can the spice-rose 
drip such acrid fragrance 
hardened in a leaf? 

-- Hilda Doolittle (1916)

LEDA 

Where the slow river 
meets the tide, 
a red swan lifts red wings 
and darker beak, 
and underneath the purple down 
of his soft breast 
uncurls his coral feet. 

Through the deep purple 
of the dying heat 
of sun and mist, 
the level ray of sun-beam 
has caressed 
the lily with dark breast, 
and flecked with richer gold 
its golden crest. 

Where the slow lifting 
of the tide, 
floats into the river 
and slowly drifts 
among the reeds, 
and lifts the yellow flags, 
he floats 
where tide and river meet. 

Ah kingly kiss-- 
no more regret 
nor old deep memories 
to mar the bliss; 
where the low sedge is thick, 
the gold day-lily 
outspreads and rests 
beneath soft fluttering 
of red swan wings 

-Hilda Doolittle (1919, 1921)

EURYDICE 

Why did you turn back,
that hell should be reinhabited
of myself thus
swept into nothingness?

Why did you turn?
why did you glance back? 
So you have swept me back--
I who could have walked with the live souls
above the earth.
I who could have slept among the live flowers
at last. 

So for your arrogance
and your ruthlessness
I am swept back
where dead lichens drip
dead cinders among moss of ash.

What was it that crossed my face
with the light from yours
and your glance?

What was it you saw in my face --
the light of your own face,
the fire of your own presence?


-- Hilda Doolittle (19??)

HELEN 

All Greece hates
the still eyes in the white face,
the lustre of olives
where she stands,
and the white hands.

All Greece reviles
the wan face when she smiles,
hating it deeper still
when it grows wan and white,
remembering past enchantments
and past ills.

Greece sees unmoved
God's daughter, born of love,
the beauty of cool feet
and slenderest knees,
could love indeed the maid,
only if she were laid,
white ash amid funereal cypresses.


-- Hilda Doolittle (1924) 

PEAR TREE 

Silver dust
lifted from the earth,
higher than my arms reach,
you have mounted,
O silver,
higher than my arms reach
you front us with great mass;
no flower ever opened
so staunch a white leaf,
no flower ever parted silver
from such rare silver;
O white pear,
your flower-tufts
thick on the branch
bring summer and ripe fruits
in their purple hearts. 

-- Hilda Doolittle (1916)