The City
The City
by Grace Cavalieri
This is an occupied country, this city,
with a knowledge of different worlds
where smoke comes from all the chimneys of our origin.
Our separations are not of mountains here,
but the people we knew who walked with us,
who in dying filled our nights with their sleep.
All this time on their front porches, or
behind old restaurants with heavy doors,
walking past the trees, the city people
Swallowed our talk in small gasps,
and left us their dreams, as seasons roll past our streets,
as we walk their shadows into the light.
城市
作者：格蕾丝 加瓦利瑞
这是占领的国度，这座城池
见识过不同的世界…
烟囱飘出的烟，见证我们的身世
分隔我们的，并非山峦
是我们熟悉，与我们一起行过路的人
他们死亡的睡眠，填满了我们的夜晚
他们曾久坐在自家房前屋檐下
或常常从厚门后老饭店
的那些树下走过，这些城里人
一口口，吞下了我们的谈话
却留下梦，每当季节变换街景
我们便把他们，从阴影领入日光
-Translated by Karl K. Zhang, George Mason University
Die Stadt
von Grace Cavalieri
Besetztes Land ist das, diese Stadt,
mit Wissen um andere Welten,
wo Rauch steigt aus all unseren Herkunftskaminen.
Unser Trennendes hier sind nicht Berge,
sondern die Menschen die wir kannten die mit uns gingen,
die beim Sterben unsere Nächte füllten mit ihrem Schlaf.
Die ganze Zeit vor dem Haus sitzend, oder
hinter alten Restaurants mit schweren Türen,
die Bäume entlang gingen die Stadtmenschen
Tranken unser Reden schlückchenweise,
und ließen uns ihre Träume da, wenn Jahreszeiten unsre Straßen entlang fließen
und wir ihre Schatten ins Licht tragen.
-Übersetzt von Irmgard Wagner
About the Poet: Grace Cavalieri
Grace Cavalieri has published 14 books and chapbooks of poetry, and has had 20 plays produced on American stages. For 29 years she has produced and hosted The Poet and the Poem series of interviews on public radio.
About the Poem: The City
Not all ghosts are frightening, or even mysterious. In this poem, Grace Cavalieri evokes the surviving elements of those people to whom we owe our existence. Some we remember; we know them by voice or appearance. But others, those we were born too late to encounter firsthand, are also with us, enriching our lives with the dreams they held dear, the traditions they came from, the record of things they experienced and learned. These ghosts haunt our lives in the nicest way possible – they inspire us.
