邻里

【美】詹姆斯·泰特　　陈子弘 译

他们会生孩子么？会再生更多么？
他们对狗咋看？大的、小的？
拴着的还是放养的？老婆比老公聪明些？
她比他要大点哇？这会引发问题吗？
他会升职哇？若没有，会不会婚姻有压力？
他家人认不认可她？倒过来又如何？他们
又是怎么处理婆媳关系的？会不会已经
不和了？如果她要回去工作，他会自己
做饭吃么？ 他剪草坪又清理雨水管，
总是这样没完没了，其实并不是弄院子，
而是不想面对那些烦人的问题吧？他们
还会做爱吗？还可以彼此满足么？他还想
要更多吗？她喃？他们会谈自己的问题么？
最私密的幻想中，他们各自又想改变生活的
什么？他们对我们，作为邻居，作为人又如何
看？他们对我们确实客气，路边信箱偶遇时
礼貌得让人恼火——但接着，就像相反的磁极，
猛然回退，返回各自根系的深处，黑暗与贪欲
掐死一切生机，以平复我们的渴念，滋养
我们无力摆脱的孤寂生活。我们爱我们的社区
因为给了我们这宝贵的机遇，我们也爱我们的狗，
我们的孩子，我们的丈夫和妻子。只是这一切，
太他妈难了！

诗人简介：詹姆斯·泰特（James Tate，1943-2015），美国诗人，以超现实主义、黑色幽默和对日常生活的独特洞察著称。他出生于密苏里州堪萨斯城，1967年以诗集《Lost Pilot》获耶鲁青年诗人奖。泰特的诗歌融合了荒诞、讽刺与深刻的情感，擅长从平凡场景中挖掘存在主义的哲思，题材涵盖孤独、爱情与社会疏离。他多次获得普利策奖、国家图书奖等殊荣。他长期在马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校任教，影响了众多年轻诗人。泰特的风格以口语化语言、跳跃的意象和出人意料的转折为特色，常通过幽默掩盖深刻的悲伤，被誉为美国后现代诗歌的代表人物之一。

JAMES TATE

Neighbors

Will they have children? Will they have more children?
Exactly what is their position on dogs? Large or small?
Chained or running free? Is the wife smarter than the man?
Is she older? Will this cause problems down the line?
Will he be promoted? If not, will this cause marital stress?
Does his family approve of her, and vice versa? How do
they handle the whole in-law situation? Is it causing some
discord already? If she goes back to work, can he fix
his own dinner? Is his endless working about the yard
and puttering with rain gutters really just a pretext
for avoiding the problems inside the house? Do they still
have sex? Do they satisfy one another? Would he like to
have more, would she? Can they talk about their problems?
In their most private fantasies, how would each of them
change their lives? And what do they think of us, as neighbors,
as people? They are certainly cordial to us, painfully
polite when we chance-encounter one another at the roadside
mailboxes—but then, like opposite magnets, we lunge backward,
back into our own deep root systems, darkness and lust
strangling any living thing to quench our thirst and nourish
our helplessly solitary lives. And we love our neighborhood
for giving us this precious opportunity, and we love our dogs,
our children, our husbands and wives. It's just all so damned
difficult!

                              from Sonora Review