【英诗鉴赏】After Apple-Picking

Toyger

After Apple-Picking
by Robert Frost


My long two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there’s a barrel that I didn’t fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn’t pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and disappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it’s like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.

Toyger

摘苹果后

　　长梯穿过树顶，竖起两个尖端
　　刺向沉静的天穹。
　　梯子脚下，有一只木桶，
　　我还没给装满，也许
　　还有两三个苹果留在枝头
　　我还没摘下。不过这会儿，
　　我算是把摘苹果这活干完了。
　　夜晚在散发着冬眠的气息
　　——那扑鼻的苹果香；
　　我是在打磕睡啦。
　　我揉揉眼睛，
　　却揉不掉眼前的奇怪——
　　这怪景像来自今天早晨，
　　我从饮水槽里揭起一层冰——
　　像一块窗玻璃，隔窗望向
　　一个草枯霜重的世界。
　　冰溶了，我由它掉下．碎掉。
　　可是它还没落地，我早就
　　膘膘肪脆，快掉进了睡乡。
　　我还说得出，我的梦
　　会是怎么样一个形状。
　　膨胀得好大的苹果，忽隐忽现，
　　一头是梗枝，一头是花儿，
　　红褐色的斑点，全看得请。
　　好酸疼哪．我的脚底板．
　　可还得使劲吃住梯子档的分量，
　　我感到那梯子
　　随着弯倒的树枝，在摇晃。
　　耳边只听得不断的隆隆声——
　　一桶又一捅苹果往地窖里送。
　　摘这么些苹果，
　　尽够我受了；我本是盼望
　　来个大丰收，可这会儿已累坏了，
　　有千千万万的苹果你得去碰，
　　得轻轻地去拿，轻轻地去放．
　　不能往地上掉。只要一掉地，
　　即使没碰伤，也没叫草梗扎破，
　　只好全都堆在一边，去做苹果酒，
　　算是不值一钱。
　　你看吧，打扰我睡一觉的是什么，
　　且不提这算不算睡一觉。
　　如果土拨鼠没有走开，
　　听我讲睡梦怎样来到我身边，
　　那它就可以说，
　　这跟它的冬眠倒有些像，
　　或者说，这不过是人类的冬眠。

　　方平 译