一种艺术

失去的艺术不难掌握；

如此多的事物似乎都

有意消失，因此失去它们并非灾祸。

每天都失去一样东西。接受失去

房门钥匙的慌张，接受蹉跎而逝的光阴。

失去的艺术不难掌握。

于是练习失去得更快，更多：

地方、姓名，以及你计划去旅行的

目的地。失去这些不会带来灾祸。

我丢失了母亲的手表。看！我的第三座

爱屋中的最后一座、倒数第二座不见了。

失去的艺术不难掌握。

我失去两座城，可爱的城。还有更大的

我拥有的某些领地、两条河、一片大洲。

我想念它们，但那并非灾祸。

——即使失去你（戏谑的嗓音，我爱的

一种姿势）我不会撒谎。

显然失去的艺术不算太难掌握，

即使那看起来（写下来！）像一场灾祸。

作者 / [美国] 伊丽莎白·毕肖普

翻译 / 包慧怡

One Art 

by Elizabeth Bishop

 

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;

so many things seem filled with the intent

to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

 

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster

of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.

The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

 

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:

places, and names, and where it was you meant

to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

 

I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or

next-to-last, of three loved houses went.

The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

 

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,

some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.

I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

 

— Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture

I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident

the art of losing’s not too hard to master

though it may look like (Writeit!) like disaster.