somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully, mysteriously) her first rose
or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands
有一處地方我從未去過,欣然超越
任何經驗,你的雙眼有種沉默:
你最纖弱的手勢里有物將我圍繞,
或是,靠得太近,我不能觸碰
你最輕的一瞥,就能輕易地將我松開
縱使我如合起的手指般將自己緊閉,
你總是一瓣一瓣松開我,如春天開啟
(巧妙而神秘地碰觸)第一朵玫瑰
或是如若你要閉合我,我和
我的生命會優雅地驟然合上,
一如這朵花的心,想象
雪,小心翼翼從四方飄落;
這世上我感受到的,無物能及你
極濃烈的纖弱之力,其質地
以其國度的本色驅動我
在每一鼻息間,體驗死亡與永恒
(我不知道你身上有什么本領閉合
又開啟我;只是我心里明白
你眼神的聲音,比玫瑰更深邃)
沒有人,哪怕是雨,也沒有如此的小手
e.e.cummings(愛德華·艾斯特林·康明斯,1894—1962)原名Edward Estlin Cummings,是美國著名詩人、畫家、評論家、作家和劇作家。出生于美國馬薩諸塞州劍橋的一戶書香人家,受教于劍橋拉丁語學校和哈佛大學。在美國20世紀的現代詩人中,大概屬康明斯與弗羅斯特(Robert Frost)最受歡迎,文學史評價也高。
康明斯在詩中對語言進行了獨特的“實驗”,對傳統詩歌進行了大膽的革新。他發表的詩歌在署名時總是用小寫的“e. e. cummings”,而這個最初由于排字工人粗心造成的錯誤恰好迎合了他追求的新意。在他的詩中,有些詩集的題名離奇古怪,詩行參差不齊,在語法和用詞上也是別出心裁。除了強調一般不用大寫,連I和自己的名字也是小寫。
這首康明斯的情詩名作《有一處地方我從未去過》,是他37歲的作品,描寫了愛情的曼妙,仿如神恩?!?br>