Poems by Dennis Leftov
Translation and introduction:
Dennis Leftov was born in Yi Erfu, Essex, England on 1923. Her mother is Welsh and loves literature. Her father was a Hasidic Jew and later converted to Christianity. Before Levitov was born, he settled in England and became a pastor of the Church of England. Levitov received a good family education since childhood. She decided to become a writer at the age of five, and published her first poem in Poetry Quarterly at the age of seventeen. 1946, her first book of poetry, Ghost, was published and was criticized as one of the "neo-romanticism" poets. 1947, Levitov married American writer Mitchell Goodman and immigrated to the United States a year later. 1956, Levitov became an American citizen. In the same year, she published her first book of poetry, Here and Now, which made her an important avant-garde poet in America.
During his stay in the United States, Levitov met a large number of modernist poets, including Emerson, Thoreau, Pound and william carlos williams. Later, he had close contacts with Montenegrin poets, especially robert creeley and Robert Duncan. Levitov admitted that she was influenced by this, but she refused to accept any school. She has been studying various forms of poetry expression with an open attitude and devoted herself to finding her own voice. 1960s, she gradually formed her own style. Many critics also believe that Levitov's poems in the 1960s1960s represent her major achievements.
Political theme occupies a very important position in Levitov's works. On the one hand, this part of poetry shows the positive intervention of individuals in society, and she believes that social change can be promoted through the expression of personal imagination and personal experience; On the other hand, it shows the suffering caused by war and violence. Levitov's political poems pay attention to direct description and keen thinking, but she pays attention to balancing beautiful language and delicate emotions, trying to present the beauty of language and the ugliness of human violence at the same time. Her poetry pursues a conversational communication atmosphere and has a strong affinity. Whether thinking about war or attacking other political events, there is a kind of oriental compassion. She also takes an active part in real life. Since the 1960s, she has participated in political movements against the Vietnam War and the subsequent Gulf War, and actively participated in environmental protection movements and anti-nuclear weapons movements. During her time as the poetry editor of the National magazine, she supported various anti-war movements and feminist movements at that time with the magazine as the position.
Levitov's poems combine visual mysticism with concern for daily life. She emphasizes the complete connection between poetry and the outside world, pays attention to the stable characteristics of the object, and describes the object in detail. At the same time, she emphasizes visual projection, regards vision as light and magnifying glass, and tries her best to show the mysterious side of the object world. She started correspondence with Williams at 195 1, which had a profound influence on her. Her emphasis on the objective world was actually influenced by William's poetic goal of "only things, no thoughts", but Levitov revised this goal with his own visual observation and dreamy color.
After years of political movement practice and poetic expression, Levitov finally came to the conclusion that beauty, poetry and politics are inseparable. So she gradually turned to religion and eventually became a Roman Catholic. In fact, because of her family, Levitov was influenced by religion since childhood. She learned about Judaism and Christianity from her father. She firmly believes that her birth and family background are closely related to her writing. The mysticism advocated by Montenegrin poets and the transcendentalism of Emerson and Thoreau all have internal echoes with the religious influence she received since childhood. In her later poems, religion became an important theme.
In her poems involving religious themes, there is a very key theme to express her personal mental journey. Her early religious poems were filled with a feeling of longing, pursuit and emptiness. She devoted herself to exploring the meaning of life, while her later religious poems began to deeply understand the soul and truth. This is her own mental journey.
In addition, marriage and love are also an important theme in Levitov's poems. 1975 After divorcing her husband, she will often return to this topic, but never reveal her emotional secrets in the form of confession.
Levitov devoted himself to education in the latter half of his life, teaching at Brandeis University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts University and Washington University. From 1982 to 1993, she taught at Stanford University and spent the last stage of her life in Seattle, Washington. She died of lymphoma syndrome in February.
As a poet, political activist, teacher and critic, Levitov has experienced a rich life. She always pursues the balance between being an individual, a poet and a social person and never evades her social responsibility. She wrote poems with a unique perspective, multicultural tradition and a sense of moral mission, which made a unique contribution to the country she chose as her lifelong destination-the United States. (Ni Zhijuan)
1, alive
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
Fire, burning in leaves and grass,
So green, as if
Every summer is the last summer.
The breeze blew and the leaves fell
Trembling in the sun,
Every day is the last day.
A red salamander,
It's so cold and relaxed.
Being caught is like dreaming.
Swing its slender feet
And a long tail. I open my hand.
Let it fly away.
Every moment is the last.
2. To readers
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
As you have read, the white bear is in no hurry.
Pee and get snow.
Golden yellow,
As you know, some gods
Lying among vines: Obsidian eyes
Guarding the leaves that alternate between old and new,
As you have read,
The sea turns a dark page,
open
Its black pages.
3. Longing for the moon
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
Not the moon. But a flower.
Appear on the other side of the water.
The water surged away,
Wrapped in branches, swept away a whole tree,
A barn and a bridge. flower
Singing on the distant shore.
Not flowers, but birds,
Singing in the deepest part of the forest, singing
Skim across the water, in the brown folds of the river
Create a silence.
The moon. No, a young man walked in.
Under the tree. Ye shujian
Hang lanterns.
Gentle, intelligent, compassionate,
His face shone with natural light,
I saw it across the water, as if it had disappeared.
It's a clown. He rang the bell solemnly.
Trembling, a sad song,
I should dance with it on the river bank.
4. forbidden fruit
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
Knowledge tree is a rational tree.
That's why its smell makes us
The reason for driving out of Eden. Its fruit
It should be dried and ground into powder,
As a condiment, you only need to use a little at a time.
God may intend to tell us later.
This is a new delicacy.
We wolfed it down,
Put it in your mouth, but, however, it's a pity.
However, we don't know more.
Excessive use can lead to poisoning; smoke
Filled our brains and gradually spread to the whole body,
Forming hard and dense clouds,
This is a wall between us and God-heaven.
It's not that God is irrational-it's that kind of excessive rationality.
Is dictatorship,
Keep us within its boundaries, a polished ceiling.
Show our own faces. God lives in
The other side of the mirror,
Still on the wall
Gap with the ground
Trying to insert-like filtering light,
Fragments of the flame, some flickering.
Music melody.
5. Great Black Heron
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
Ever since I gave up my usual path,
Go for a walk in the Woods more often, which I often watch.
It is a tree; But for people in the same industry,
What I like best is an old woman.
She fished alone at one end of the pier,
I enjoyed it for hours on end.
After a rain, Russians picked mushrooms.
There is a world behind them: red shirts,
Nightingales, teapots and stoves burn until dawn.
There is no doubt that they themselves
Forget these). Vietnamese like it.
Fishing, or just sitting nearby.
By the water, I still remember Hanoi shrouded in amber light.
Lake, the first night we got there, jet lag,
Witnessed peace in the war.
This happy woman aroused
A complete culture is like a tenacious wild flower.
In the land of red soil,
In the cotton field, in the mule
And at the feet of the master, open freely. I saw her,
A barefoot child, standing by the muddy river,
Learn fishing skills. She passed.
What kind of war, what kind of labor?
She collected all the time in the world.
Nothing is lacking-waiting for the prize that has not yet arrived,
Like a heron, he perfected himself.
Step 6 talk to sadness
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
Talk to sadness
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
Ha, sad, I won't treat you like a stray dog.
Treat you,
This is a shell,
A bone came to the back door.
I will trust you.
I'll put you
I'll coax you home. Here you are.
Build your own corner,
Here is an old blanket for you.
And a water tray.
You think I don't know you lived here?
Under my porch.
You long for your real position, before winter comes.
Take it. you need
Name,
Collar and rope. you need
The right to bark at intruders,
can
Think of my house as yours,
Think of me as your master,
Put you
As my dog.
7. In your heart
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
In my mind, there is a kind of innocence.
Woman, she is very simple.
Beautiful, glowing
The smell of apples or grass. she wears
An imaginary shirt or T-shirt, light brown.
Her silky hair.
Kind and dignified, not at all.
Pretend-
but
She has no imagination,
One more
The girl riding on the moon
Or an old lady, or both. It's noisy.
With jewelry and taffeta
And feathers,
Can sing strange songs,
But not kind.
Step 8 celebrate
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
This bright day is a young art connoisseur.
The shadow of the morning light was cut open by sharp scissors-
Skillful hand, cut it open. Every green mile,
Whether it's ferns, moss, pine needles,
Or impatient buds on slender shrubs—
Everything is greener than before. yearn for
Take a new cone into the light of blessing,
This is a right to celebrate, and Singing Style adapted this right for them.
A hymn like the sea!
On this day, with cold light shining,
Like a champion's copper belt, it floats in.
Charcoal-filled
On the country road, the reason for melancholy
Arguing endlessly.
9. Good
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
When I was sixteen, I believed in moonlight.
Can change me, as long as it wants.
When the moon
Move slowly on the glass,
I'm on the pillow.
Turn my head and move my bed.
I long for beauty, a danger.
The reflection of steel makes my body thinner.
My pale face turned whiter.
I persevere.
Take a moonlight bath, just like others sunbathe.
But the moon's serious eyes
Makes me sleepless. In the morning,
I'm hot and uneasy.
Only the sleeping night,
I often dream that I fall into a well,
Quietly awake, even if it is not beautiful,
It has other energies.
10, Variations on the Theme of Rilke
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
Show it to me one day;
I met it-a sky, nothingness, light;
A kind of existence. When it went from noon
Before it began to fall, it tilted,
As if with a sword
Tap me on the shoulder and give it to me.
Glory and mission. The day is over.
A metallic voice-or me, a awakened bell,
What I hear is a complete self.
It is telling and singing what it knows: I can.
1 1, garden wall
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
Bricks on the wall,
Older than a house—
Maybe after this street is built.
From a collapsed farm—
Narrow bricks of another century.
Although equipped with simple boards and fences,
Hiding behind the flowers—
Rose, hollyhock, silver
Lupine, fragrant
Oleander, and the gray one.
Lavender-
There is nothing to see,
But I found out,
When the water pipe ejects water droplets,
Leave a small scar on the wall,
Its internal color woke up—
A little hazy red, a little
Beige is like a small shadow.
Purple comes from quiet and dry brown.
Jump out—
universal
Perfect example, always exist.
Outside the world, it
meet with
But it's not.
Beg.
12, target
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
"I am a landscape," he said.
"A landscape and a person walking in the landscape.
Among them are formidable cliffs,
Be content with being dull.
Brown plain. However, there are also
Sewer, danger
Terror zone, narrow
And the sinister abyss. "
"I know," she said. "When I'm alone.
Go in-maybe in one place.
It doesn't matter on a sunny afternoon.
Sooner or later, I will walk to sedge.
And white flowers, probably from the swamp.
Ruta, I know.
There is a swamp that can drag me in.
In the bubbling mud. "
"When I was young," he told her, "we had an old dog.
A kind dog, very friendly. But his head
If you get hurt, if you are not careful.
When it touches the wound, it will bark,
Jump up and bite you. It bit a child,
They had to let the vet kill it. "
"Nobody knows where the wound is," she said.
"No one can even accidentally touch it:
It's in my landscape, and I'm alone, climbing mountains and mountains,
Concentrate on opening the way for me,
When I slept on the moss in the forest,
I touched it unarmed,
I jumped up myself-"
"-or in time.
It's retracted. "
"Yes, we know.
We are not talking about fear, but about pain:
Some parts of us, like your dog's injured head,
There will be eternal scars, time
It will never heal, never. "
13, 196 1 September
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
This year, old people,
Great old man,
Leave us alone on the road.
This road leads to the sea.
We have words in our pockets,
Some vague instructions. the aged
Took away their light,
We watched it climb to the top of the mountain,
Disappear on the other side of the mountain.
They won't die,
But I came back.
A secluded place full of pain
Live a life without words.
Pound said, "It's like dying"-Williams said, "I
I can't describe it to you.
My change. "——
H.D. said, "It's a long story."
dark
Circling in the wind, stars
How small is the horizon?
Fog enveloped the city.
They already told us.
This road leads to the sea,
The language has been changed
Give it to us.
Every time we hear a truck.
Passing like lightning,
Leave us a new silence,
We heard our own footsteps.
This road
Without the end, it is difficult for us.
Reach the sea, unless
We avoided the finish line and followed.
aerial
Eagle, bend over,
Slide silently,
Finally, fly into the depths of the forest.
But this road
Spread out and we'll count.
In my pocket, I'd like to know.
What if there is no them? We can't.
Stop, we know.
Sometimes, there is still a long way to go.
We think the evening breeze
The smell of the sea came to my face. ...
14, watched for a while.
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
I thought I was growing wings—
This is a cocoon.
I think it's time to step into the fire.
Instantly-
This is deep water.
Eschatology, when I was a child,
I learned in one sentence: arguing for the purpose;
Face my mirror-no longer young,
News-always dying,
Dogs-wake up from a deep sleep, restless,
Wang Wang barks,
but
Look at it for a while and you will understand.
That's not: yes.
Let's begin.
Every word.
Over the grass,
Floating towards me.
15, preferences
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
I like to find out the answer.
Not directly
Look, but
In a peaceful and unique way
Something of another nature.
Glassy gull feathers, hidden in
White meat: I pulled it.
Squid bone fragments
Put it in the pool—
It seems to be sharp and stinging.
Mind, but fragile phenomenon.
Deviate from the essence. Or fruits, such as mangoes,
Have rough brown skin and red and yellow skin.
Meat and seeds:
The seed is woody drupe, walnut color,
Fine workmanship and beautiful shape.
Like Brazilian fruit, only bigger,
Big enough to fill.
Hungry palms.
I like juicy grass stems, which are wrapped in
In the rough leaves,
I also like flute.
Pale yellow luster,
Bring melancholy and coolness to the hot morning.
16, breathe
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
A pure
Patience.
The tree was propped up.
kneel
In the fog. fog
Slowly
Covered the mountains.
In the herd of deer
I was looking for apples there,
The white spider web is broken, grass
Lie down.
forest
Along the stream
Extend to the top of the mountain, overlooking
Fog, not birds.
Fly over.
How pure, this
Precisely
Happiness itself, quiet breathing.
If so, if not.
17, secret
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
Two girls
In a sentence
In a hasty poem
Discovered the secret of life.
write out
I don't know anything about this poem.
Know nothing. they
(through another person)
Tell me,
They discovered the secret,
But I don't know what it is,
I don't know.
The meaning of this poem. There is no doubt,
After more than a week,
They forgot.
This secret,
This poem, and this poem
Name. But I love them,
Love them and find out.
What I can't find is,
Love them and love me.
I wrote this poem,
Love them, forget the secret,
therefore
Before he died,
They can
In another poem,
extra
In this case,
Discover it a thousand times. Love them.
The desire to know this secret,
Most importantly,
love
They believe
There is such a secret.
Faith.
18, wedding ring
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
My wedding ring is in the basket,
It's like lying at the bottom of a well.
Nothing can catch it,
Let it go back to my finger.
It's lying
Keys to abandoned old houses,
Will be nailed to the wall
Nails,
A phone number without a name,
And idle paper clips.
It can't be discarded,
Because fear brings bad luck.
It can't be sold,
Because when marriage exists,
Everything is beautiful together, although that era has passed.
Can craftsmen be transformed?
Beat it into bright stone and make it.
A dazzling ring is no longer represented by it.
An unattainable sacred engagement
Still a promise; just
A little gift for my friend.
19 in California during the Gulf War
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
On the eucalyptus trees where pests spread, in the frost of Christmas.
In the withered bushes,
Due to the drought that lasted for five years, the gardens and hillsides were desolate.
Some illusory white flowers
Clusters of pink flowers with different shades bloom on time-
Delicate flowers. They're like
As always, the guests arrived happily.
Carnival, I didn't realize what happened this year, I didn't see it.
Everyone else is in mourning.
For some people, the gloomy scenery is just a comfort.
Shame and pain. Forever blue sky
And sunshine, like a smiling button, makes us sick.
And flowers, attached to twigs,
Lighter than agile birds,
With a heavy heart.
Cheer up against your will.
But flowers are not.
Symbol of hope: they are so fragile,
Just like our protests-protests again and again.
Crimes committed in our name; Yes, year after year, they will come back,
Yes, they just bloom with quiet joy.
Facing the dark ages
Evil. They and their existence
It was indescribable silence-it was bombing, once, now,
Undoubtedly, the same will be true in the future; That kind of silence, that kind of huge simultaneous occurrence.
Sound. No promises are kept, flowers
Not a dove of peace, not a rainbow. When war
It was not over when it was announced.
20. Get lost
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
You drift away,
After a long time
I thought you were still with me:
You follow the trend
Near the coast,
Gently wake me up,
Like a ship docked at the dock:
Am I just a pier?
Semi-submersible and semi-buoyant?
The joy of integration,
I'm completely lost,
I'm behind the moon,
Know that I will again
Before loneliness,
The tide swept you away,
The mud is rotten to the core.
My dark gray board,
The faint green dream has faded.
2 1, dwarf
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
In this world,
Dwarfs are no better than people.
In short, they can walk like people,
More elegant than most people,
They share the same fate.
Their beauty makes them no longer
Men or women,
Unless a woman has something on her mind.
The Fire of Leng Yan in Poetry: With it,
She can see them, and by its light,
They can get to know her carefree,
And bell-like love words
Will swing between them.
22. For a snake
Translated by Dennis Levitov and Ni Zhijuan.
Xiaoqing, I put you on my neck,
Touch your cold throbbing throat,
You spit at me, sharp golden scales
Shiny, I feel it
The weight of you on my shoulder,
The friction of your silver
Twirling gently in my ear—
Xiaoqing-I swear to my companion,
You are absolutely harmless! in fact
I'm not sure. I don't have this hope. I just want it.
Having you, for happiness-
My pleasure
The leaves shake after being paved for a long time.
You slipped into the grass and shadows.
In the pattern, I was in a trance and smiled.
Back to a gloomy morning.