作者简介    

曼娜． 埃尔芬

　　是屡获殊荣的诗人和剧作家， 出版逾12 本诗集， 当中的《手中鸟》( 1990) 荣获威尔斯艺术局荣誉奖「年度最佳诗集」。埃尔芬的其中 4 卷诗集由 Bloodaxe Book 推出双语版本， 包括《细胞天使》( 1996)、《瞎子的亲吻》( 2001)、《完美缺陷》( 2007) 及2012 年秋季为诗集协会推荐翻译奖获选的最新诗集《细语》。她亦为威尔斯和美国多位作曲家填词，并为纽约爱乐乐团1999 年之合唱交响曲《光之林》及近期威尔斯国立歌剧院清唱剧《血肉之字》的填词人之一。另外， 埃尔芬创作了大量舞台剧、广播剧和电视剧，并自1995 年起于英国威尔斯大报《西部邮报》定期撰写专栏。她在2002– 2003 年度成为威尔斯儿童桂冠诗人，2009 年于撒丁岛获得外国诗歌奖，并获提名为伊夫林． 兰斯洛特奖的欧洲女诗人， 亦获授予威尔斯文学名誉院士和阿伯里斯特威斯大学皇家文学研究员。2009 年，她获得威尔斯艺术委员会颁发的奖项， 写成《睡眠》一书。埃尔芬是威尔斯语诗人中最为人熟悉且翻译作品最多的诗人， 其作品已翻译成18 种语言。她现为威尔斯大学三一圣大卫学院创意写作硕士课程主任。

　　（张志豪译）

　　Menna Elfyn is an award-winning poet and playwright. She has published over twelve volumes of poetry including Aderyn Bach Mewn Llaw (Bird in Hand, 1990), winner of Welsh Arts Council Prize for best volume of the year. Four volumes have appeared bilingually by Bloodaxe Books: Cell Angel (1996), Blind Man’s Kiss (2001), Perfect Blemish (2007), and her latest Murmur, which was chosen as Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation for autumn 2012. Her other works include libretti for various composers in Wales and America. She is co-librettist for Garden of Light, a choral symphony for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1999 and more recently an oratorio for the Welsh National Opera Gair ar Gnawd (Word on Flesh). She has also written numerous stage, radio and television plays and has a regular column in the national newspaper of Wales, The Western Mail, since 1995. She was made Poet Laureate for the Children of Wales in 2002–2003. She received the Foreign Poetry Prize in Sardinia in 2009 and was also nominated for the Evelyn Encelot Prize for European women poets. Her other awards include Honorary Fellow of Welsh Literature and Royal Literary Fellow at the Aberystwyth University. In 2009, she received an award from the Welsh Arts Council to write on “Sleep.” She is the most traveled and translated of all Welsh language poets and her work has been translated into eighteen languages. She is Director of the Masters programme in creative writing at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David.
 

盐

他们称之「白色的金子」
这些人笃信地球是平的

她来自于另外一族
那里巫师佈道，巫语满天飞

万物皆有道
盐是如此珍资

「所有敬天的祭祀之物
都应
洒上盐粒」
太多或者太少

都可能虐杀，连如何撒盐
都可能刺痛
那些粒粒皆辛苦的盐工
***
我送给他撒盐器的那天
(透明的有机玻璃的磨盐器
她或许已经把它託付
于海底

就像那个黑暗的民间传说
为什么海是咸的)
她轻巧地摇动盐瓶

无声无息
用她的魔术师的手
***
这件礼物最终归还给我
像一只沙漏

在洁白的台布上
露出的盐粒都无影无踪

有时她的声音言犹在耳
屏声轻气，她在耳语，「请把盐瓶递给我」

(谢凌岚译)

译註：
1.第7-9行：来自于《圣经‧利未记》第2章13节。
2.第19行：据挪威民间传说，海底有只巨大的磨盐器，海盐从其所出。

Salt

“White gold”they called it,
the flat-earthers.

And she who was of an earth
where sermons poured

and kept things in their place
knew how precious it was

how “whatsoever sacrifice
thou offerest, thou shalt
season it with salt,”
how too much or too little

can kill, how to spill it
stings the wounds
of those who mined it.
        ***
The day I gave her the grinder
(the see-through salt-mill
she would have consigned
to the sea bed

in that dark tale
Why the Sea is Salt)
she worked on, lightly

proving invisibility
with magician’s hands.
        ***
The gift has come home to me—
seized hour-glass

on a white table cloth
where the spilt grains hide.

And sometimes I still hear her voice
in a hush, asking “Pass the salt please”

(Translated by Paul Henry)

Translators Notes:
1. Lines 7-9: Leviticus 2:13.
2. Line 19: Norwegian folk tale where a mill on an ocean bed grinds the seas salt.