《母亲，任何距离》
西蒙 · 阿米蒂奇
翻译：青澄青果
母亲，测量超过一跨的长度
就得有人搭把手
你一听就忙活上了，帮我
量门、量窗帘盒、还量窗户
测量地板草原般的辽阔，测量墙体有
几英亩
你拿着尺子始端，我握着尺盘记录
长度，不时汇报着米数、厘米数
告诉站在地下室的你，然后
我爬上楼，盘尺不停地往外接着吐
回顾
这么些年的子与母。风筝。锚。
我在空旷的卧室来了个太空漫步，爬上了
阁楼的梯子，去够楼的顶点处，有个数据需要
提供
母亲隔着两层楼，指尖还捏着仅剩的
一英寸的百分之一处，我探身试着去够
那扇舱门，开向一望无际的天空
下落，抑或起飞
Mother any distance
by Simon Armitage
Mother, any distance greater than a single span
requires a second pair of hands.
You come to help me measure windows, pelmets, doors,
the acres of the walls, the prairies of the floors.
You at the zero-end, me with the spool of tape, recording
length, reporting metres, centimetres back to base, then leaving
up the stairs, the line still feeding out, unreeling
years between us. Anchor. Kite.
I space-walk through the empty bedrooms, climb
the ladder to the loft, to breaking point, where something
has to give;
two floors below your fingertips still pinch
the last one-hundredth of an inch...I reach
towards a hatch that opens on an endless sky
to fall or fly.
