原文：                 

                           Mirror

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.

Whatever I see, I swallow immediately.

Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike

I am not cruel, only truthful –

The eye of a little god, four-cornered.

Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.

It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long

I think it is a part of my heart.But it flickers.

Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me.

Searching my reaches for what she really is.

Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.

I see her back, and reflect it faithfully

She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.

I am important to her. She comes and goes.

Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.

In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman

Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish. 

                                                                                          By Sylvia Plath

翻译：

                               镜子

  《镜子》是美国二十世纪最具有影响力的诗人西尔维娅.普拉斯的作品。该诗创作于二十世纪中期。

   这是一面镜子的自述，一个很新鲜的视角。镜子看东西和人看不一样，它不会在看到什么东西之前就先对其有了主观印象。它也很诚实，不会向你隐瞒什么，也不会把你没有的东西硬按在你头上。这是正在自述的这面镜子与其他镜子的相同之处。

   有趣的是，这面镜子竟然声称自己有“heart”。被它提及的有两件事物，一个在第一段，是墙壁，一个在第二段，是来照镜子的女人，尽管这个时候它已经成河了。很显然，它对待两件事物的态度是迥然不同的。对于前者，它还是很实在地描述了它所见到的“it is pink, with speckles”，可到了后者，却被它恶毒的比喻成了’terrible fish’。

  揣摩诗意，自然有一种作者对时光易逝，自己容颜会老的感慨。对于镜子而言，这没有能力改变什么的物件，却没有随着时间的流逝失去多少当初的美貌；反而是女人，一个清晨又一个清晨，任凭她怎么浓妆艳抹，也瞒骗不了溪水明亮的双眼，她已然是一个“an old woman”了。 

                                                    -----吴国强