David Whyte : Your Prayer

Photo by David Whyte

YOUR PRAYER / David Whyte
你的禱告

Your prayer
only began
with words,

你的禱告
只從
文字開始，

each one
you realize,
just
a hand
on the door
to silence,

你明瞭
每一回禱告
僅是按住
通往靜默的
那扇門，

even
in your
gathered
chanted strength,

即使
你使盡
所有誦禱的力氣，

what you said
in the end
was only
a shoulder
against the grain
of wood,

你所說的
到頭來
僅是
肩頭抵住
門板木紋，

trying to keep
the entrance
open,

設法
讓這入口
開一道縫隙，

until that door
which
had been
no door
at all

直到這扇
不曾
是門的門

gave in
to necessary grief,
which
is really
only the full
understanding
of what
you were missing
all along,

讓步為
無需迴避的悲傷，
你徹底了悟
那悲傷
正是你
一路錯過的，

which
is really
just that
vulnerability
you needed
to make
a proper
invitation,

正是你虔心
發出邀請
所需的脆弱，

which is really
just you
admitting
the full depth
of your love at last.

正是你
終於
願意承認
你全然
深邃的愛。

The heart-broken
heart
coming
to heart-felt rest

心碎之心
抵達了
衷心的
安憩，

the opening
inside you
now filled to the
gleaming brim
and
casting
its generous beam,

你內在的裂縫
如今滿溢至
閃耀邊緣，
無私地
放射光芒，

the part of you
you thought
was foolish,
the wisest voice of all.

你視為愚蠢的
那部份的你 —
最具智慧的
聲音。

(Mary May 譯）