Because I Could Not Stop for Death ---- Emily Dickinson

向來對 Emily Dickinson 沒什麼特別喜好, 可能因為我的母語不是英語, 感受不到其詩字裡行間的感染力, 也不覺得詩中哲理有何特別之處. 對於她的生平, 除了她未婚, 我最記得的就是她曾經入讀Mount Holyoke Female Seminary(即著名女子大學 Mount Holyoke College 的前身), 未夠一年就退學了, 後人推測可能是因為抑鬱症, 也可能是因為她忍受不了學校的狂熱宗教氣氛.

近日臨睡翻翻詩集, 發現 “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” 的意境頗令人回味.

以下是我的非專業譯文, 沒有押韻和調整音步音尺, 只是粗略譯出文意而已:

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

Or rather, he passed us;
The dews drew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice in the ground.

Since then ’tis centuries, and yet
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses’ heads
Were toward eternity.

我不能停候死亡, 於是
死亡好意地停車等候我;
馬車只承載我倆, 與
不朽.

我們徐徐而行, 祂並不匆促,
而我也把工作及閑暇
置放一邊, 就為了
祂殷勤好禮的接待.

我們經過學校, 鐘聲間,
學童下課飛奔;
我們經過稻田, 在稻穗的凝視之下;
我們經過落日.

------或是, 落日經過我們;
露水帶來震顫的寒意,
因我的禮服只是薄紗,
披肩只是雲羅.

我們在某房子前停下,
它有如地面隆起的一塊,
屋頂隱然不見,
飛簷埋於地下.

此後, 幾個世紀過去, 但
只感時光飛逝, 方一日未盡.
我猜想當天馬兒奔向的
就是永恆.