David Whyte: The Body Full of Presence

Photo by David Whyte

THE BODY IN FULL PRESENCE / David Whyte
全然臨在的身體


The body in full presence

holds its first creative essence
in the pen that touches paper.
Lifting the glass that holds the wine,
this beckoning uncertainty is mine.

全然臨在的身體
將其原始精粹的創造力
握於輕觸紙張的筆。
舉起酒杯，盛滿醇酒，
這股未知的召喚本屬於我。


I’ll follow my line to an early death,

feeling out rhythm in the spoken breath
and startled by flame
this arrogance shall be my moth,
flying with his burning cloth.

我會跟隨首句赴往一場早逝，
於語音的氣息中將節奏感知
並於火焰之前感到震懾。
這股傲慢會是我的飛蛾，
一身熾燃的衣衫熊熊舞動著。

Then humility will rise
out of poetry’s deep surmise,
and I will have confidence in my powers;
wanting this presence, burnt by the past,
I’ll die in the first line -- and become the last.

而後，謙卑冉冉上揚
自詩靈深邃的懷想，
而我會堅信自身的力量；
並冀求那持續被過去燃噬的當下，
我將於首句死去 — 而成為最終的那一行。

( Mary May 譯 )