I know you are thinking, sitting all by yourself, that your boy must be dead by this time.
But I come to you all stained with blood, and say,
“Mother, the fight is over now.”
您蹲在轿子里,反复不断地祷告着神的名字。
轿夫们吓得瑟瑟发抖,在荆棘丛中躲藏起来。
我向您喊着:“不要害怕,妈妈,有我在。”
他们手执长棒,头发凌乱,越来越近了。
我大喊:“小心些!你们这些坏蛋!再往前一步,你们就等死吧。”
他们又发出可怕的号叫,并冲上前来。
您紧握住我的手,说:
“乖孩子,看在上天的份儿上,离他们远些。”
我说:“妈妈,看我的。”
于是我策马飞奔,
剑和盾互相撞击,铿锵作响。
这场战斗是多么激烈,妈妈,如果您从轿子里看得见,您一定会打冷战的。
他们中有许多人逃走了,
大多数被砍成了碎片。
我知道您正独自坐在那里,心想,您的孩子此时肯定死了。
然而我跑到您的身旁,满身是血,说:“妈妈,战争已经结束了。”
You come out and kiss me, pressing me to your heart, and you say to yourself,
“I don’t know what I should do if I hadn’t my boy to escort me.”
A thousand useless things happen day after day, and why couldn't such a thing come true by chance?
It would be like a story in a book.
My brother would say, “Is it possible? I always thought he was so delicate!”
Our village people would all say in amazement, “Was it not lucky that the boy was with his mother?”
您从轿子里走出来,吻着我,把我搂入您的怀中,自言自语地说:
“如果没有我的孩子保护着我,我真不知如何是好。”
日复一日,上千件无聊的事发生着,为什么这种事就不能偶尔实现呢?
就像一本书里的故事。
我的哥哥会说:“这怎么可能?我常常想,他是那么单薄!”
我们村里的人们都会惊讶地说:“这孩子正和他妈妈在一起,不是很幸运吗?”
The End
It is time for me to go, mother; I am going.
When in the paling darkness of the lonely dawn you stretch out your arms for your baby in the bed,
I shall say,“Baby is not there!”—mother, I am going.
I shall become a delicate draught of air and caress you; and I shall be ripples in the water when you bathe, and kiss you and kiss you again.
In the gusty night when the rain patters on the leaves you will hear my whisper in your bed, and my laughter will flash with the lightning through the open window into your room.
结 束
是我离开的时候了,妈妈,我走了。
当清晨孤寂的破晓时分,您在幽暗中伸出双臂,想抱起您睡在床上的孩子时,
我会说:“孩子不在那里了!”——妈妈,我走了。
我将化为一缕清风爱抚着您;我将化为串串涟漪,当您沐浴时,一次次地吻着您。
在刮风的夜里,当雨点儿在树叶上滴答作响时,
您在床上将听到我的私语,当电光从开着的窗口闪进您的屋里时,
我的笑声也随之一起闪现。
If you lie awake, thinking of your baby till late into the night,
I shall sing to you from the stars, “Sleep! mother, sleep.”
On the straying moonbeams I shall steal over your bed, and lie upon your bosom while you sleep.
I shall become a dream, and through the little opening of your eyelids I shall slip into the depths of your sleep; and when you wake up and look round startled, like a twinkling firefly I shall flit out into the darkness.
When, on the great festival of puja, the neighbours’children come and play about the house.
I shall melt into the music of the flute and throb in your heart all day.
Dear auntie will come with puja-presents and will ask,
“Where is air baby, sister?” Mother, you will tell her softly,
“He is in the pupils of my eyes, he is in my body and in my soul.”
如果您清醒地躺在床上,深夜里仍想着您的孩子,
我将在星空中对您吟唱:“睡吧!妈妈,睡吧。”
乘着四处游移的月光,我悄悄地来到您床上,趁您睡着时,躺在您的怀里。
我将变成一个梦,从您眼皮的微缝中,滑入您的睡眠深处;当您醒来,惊奇地张望时,我就像一只熠熠闪光的萤火虫,向黑暗中飞去了。
普耶节时,当邻居的孩子们来屋里玩耍时,
我将融合在笛声里,终日荡漾在您心头。
亲爱的阿姨带来了节日礼物,
她会问:“我们的孩子在哪里,姐姐?”
妈妈,您要温柔地告诉她:
“他此刻在我的眼眸里,在我的身体里,在我的灵魂里。”
The Recall
The night was dark when she went away, and they slept.
The night is dark now, and I call for her,
“Come back, my darling; the world is asleep; and no one would know, if you came for a moment while stars are gazing at stars.”
She went away when the trees were in bud and the spring was young.
Now the flowers are in high bloom and I call,“Come back, my darling. The children gather and scatter flowers in reckless sport. And if you come and take one little blossom no one will miss it.”
Those that used to play are playing still, so spendthrift is life.
I listen to their chatter and call, “Come back, my darling, for mother’s heart is full to the brim with love, and if you come to snatch only one little kiss from her no one will grudge it.”
呼 唤
她离开时,夜一片漆黑,他们睡去了。
这会儿,夜也漆黑,我呼唤着她:
“回来,我的宝贝。世界在沉睡,当繁星两两相望时,你回来一会儿是没有人知道的。”
她离开时,草木吐芽,春意正浓。
这会儿,花儿正怒放,我呼唤着:“回来,我的宝贝。孩子们毫无顾忌地在游戏中把花儿聚散离合,你若回来,带走一朵小花,没有人会发现的。”
那些常常嬉戏的人,还在那里玩耍,生命就这样被荒废了。
我聆听着他们的闲聊,呼唤着:“回来,我的宝贝。妈妈的心里充满着爱,你若回来,只从她那里取得一个小小的吻,没有人会妒忌的。”
The First Jasmines
All, these jasmines, these white jasmines!
I seem to remember the first day when I filled my hands with these jasmines, these white jasmines.
I have loved the sunlight, the sky and the green earth;
I have heard the liquid murmur of the river through the darkness of midnight;
Autumn sunsets have come to me at the bend of a road in the lonely waste, like a bride raising her veil to accept her lover.
最初的茉莉
啊,这些茉莉,这些洁白的茉莉!
我依稀记得我的双手第一次捧满了这些茉莉花,这些洁白的茉莉花的时候。
我曾爱那阳光,爱那天空和那绿色的大地;
我曾在漆黑的午夜聆听那河水淙淙的呢喃;
秋日的夕阳,在荒原道路的转弯处迎接我,好像新娘掀起她的面纱迎接她的爱人。
Yet my memory is still sweet with the first white jasmines that I held in my hand when I was a child.
Many a glad day has come in my life, and I have laughed with merrymakers on festival nights.
On grey mornings of rain I have crooned many an idle song.
I have worn round my neck the evening wreath of bakulas woven by the hand of love.
Yet my heart is sweet with the memory of the first fresh jasmines that filled my hands when I was a child.
然而,我回忆起孩提时第一次捧在手里的洁白茉莉,心里充满了甜蜜的回忆。
我平生有过许多快乐的日子,在节日盛典的夜晚,我曾与狂欢者一同大笑。
在细雨霏霏的清晨,我吟唱过许多闲散的歌谣。
我的颈上也曾戴着爱人用手织就的“芭库拉丝”黄昏花环。
然而,我回忆起孩提时第一次捧在手里的洁白茉莉,心里充满了甜蜜的回忆。
The Banyan Tree
O you shaggy-headed banyan tree standing on the bank of the pond, have you forgotten the little child, like the birds that have nested in your branches and left you?
Do you not remember how he sat at the window and wondered at the tangle of your roots that plunged underground?
The women would come to fill their jars in the pond, and your huge black shadow would wriggle on the water like sleep struggling to wake up.
Sunlight danced on the ripples like restless tiny shuttles weaving golden tapestry.
Two ducks swam by weedy margin above their shadows, and the child would sit still and think.