Fleur Adcock
 : Weathering

Photo by David Whyte

Weathering /Fleur Adcock

風蝕

Literally thin-skinned, I suppose, my face
catches the wind off the snow-line and flushes
with a flush that will never wholly settle. Well:
that was a metropolitan vanity,
wanting to look young for ever, to pass.

我的肌膚的確薄弱敏感，飽受
來自雪線以下的風霜摧殘，
臉頰總是泛紅，難以消散。
也好，我和那份渴求永遠年輕的
大都會虛榮感擦肩而過，毫不相干。

I was never a pre-Raphaelite beauty
nor anything but pretty enough to satisfy
men who need to be seen with passable women.
But now that I am in love with a place
which doesn’t care how I look, or if I’m happy,

我不曾是前拉斐爾派的畫中美女，
我的面貌只足以滿足那些必須攜伴的
男士，他們的標準是過得去就可以。
但如今，我深深愛上一個地方，那地方
不在意我的長相，也不在意我快不快樂，

happy is how I look, and that’s all.
My hair will grow grey in any case,
my nails chip and flake, my waist thicken,
and the years work all their usual changes.

快樂，就是我的長相，就這樣。
我的髮色必會褪成銀灰，
指甲脆弱易裂，徒增腰圍，
歲月照慣例進行如常的改變。

If my face is to be weather-beaten as well
that’s little enough lost, a fair bargain
for a year among the lakes and fells, when simply
to look out of my window at the high pass
makes me indifferent to mirrors and to what
my soul may wear over its new complexion.

如果我的臉龐也必須飽受風霜，
實是微不足道，以這小小代價
換取這一整年的湖畔山居如此划算 ;
僅是單純的望向窗外山脈
就能讓我無視鏡子的存在，
不在乎靈魂的嶄新面容該如何裝扮。

(Mary May 譯）