派翠克．卡瓦納詩作：童年聖誕節
Patrick Kavanagh’s poem: A Christmas Childhood
派翠克．卡瓦納（Patrick Kavanagh, 1904-1967）是愛爾蘭二十世紀最重要詩人之一，很多人提醒：如果不認識他與他的作品，就不可能真正認識愛爾蘭。
都柏林南區大運河畔，有一尊卡瓦納坐姿雕像（Wilton Terrace, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2），運河附近是詩人最後時光喜歡散步的地點，他曾寫下愛爾蘭人朗朗上口的著名詩作《Lines Written on a Seat on the Grand Canal, Dublin（在都柏林大運河岸邊座椅上寫的詩句）》。但我們今天不讀這首詩，而是應景地推薦卡瓦納成年後回憶自己六歲農村過節往事情景的《童年聖誕節》――那是詩人開始上小學的啟蒙關鍵，有文評家分析，「這正是平凡變成不平凡的時候。（It is when the ordinary becomes extraordinary.）」請大家欣賞。
A Christmas Childhood
by Patrick Kavanagh
I
One side of the potato-pits was white with frost –
How wonderful that was, how wonderful!
And when we put our ears to the paling-post
The music that came out was magical.
The light between the ricks of hay and straw
Was a hole in Heaven’s gable. An apple tree
With its December-glinting fruit we saw –
O you, Eve, were the world that tempted me
To eat the knowledge that grew in clay
And death the germ within it! Now and then
I can remember something of the gay
Garden that was childhood’s. Again
The tracks of cattle to a drinking-place,
A green stone lying sideways in a ditch,
Or any common sight, the transfigured face
Of a beauty that the world did not touch.
II
My father played the melodion
Outside at our gate;
There were stars in the morning east
And they danced to his music.
Across the wild bogs his melodion called
To Lennons and Callans.
As I pulled on my trousers in a hurry
I knew some strange thing had happened.
Outside in the cow-house my mother
Made the music of milking;
The light of her stable-lamp was a star
And the frost of Bethlehem made it twinkle.
A water-hen screeched in the bog,
Mass-going feet
Crunched the wafer-ice on the pot-holes,
Somebody wistfully twisted the bellows wheel.
My child poet picked out the letters
On the grey stone,
In silver the wonder of a Christmas townland,
The winking glitter of a frosty dawn.
Cassiopeia was over
Cassidy’s hanging hill,
I looked and three whin bushes rode across
The horizon — the Three Wise Kings.
And old man passing said:
‘Can’t he make it talk –
The melodion.’ I hid in the doorway
And tightened the belt of my box-pleated coat.
I nicked six nicks on the door-post
With my penknife’s big blade –
There was a little one for cutting tobacco.
And I was six Christmases of age.
My father played the melodion,
My mother milked the cows,
And I had a prayer like a white rose pinned
On the Virgin Mary’s blouse.
《童年聖誕節》
愛爾蘭詩人派翠克．卡瓦納 / Pierre Yang 中譯
一
寒霜染白抹平馬鈴薯田斑駁坑坎
曾經多麼美好，多麼美好
當我們將耳朵貼上木柵欄
傳來音樂神奇飄渺
乾草堆稻草垛間隙微微透光
是天堂山牆破孔，我瞥見
一棵蘋果樹，枝頭掛著
十二月閃閃發光果實
呵，妳，夏娃，引誘著我的世界
食用從黏土長成的知識
並與其中細菌一起衰亡！時不時，
我會一再想起童年快樂花園舊夢
牛隻往返飲水區之足跡
路旁水溝裡一顆綠色石頭
或者任何尋常景象
外界未嘗碰觸的，聖潔美貌
二
我父親在門外吹奏口風琴
清晨東方天際有些星星
星星在他樂音裡跳舞
口風琴音穿透野地沼澤
召喚著男孩與女孩們
我趕緊套上長褲
忐忑某些怪事莫名牽扯
牛棚之外，我母親
演奏擠牛奶樂曲
皎潔明星照亮棚場
伯利恆之霜卻掩攏星光迷濛
秧雞在沼澤尖聲鳴啼
望彌撒的腳步
踩碎路上坑窪薄冰
有人在屋裡搖著鼓風器生火
孩童詩人從灰色石塊上
挑選字句
在聖誕節鄉鎮銀色夢境裡
清晨霜天光影含蓄
天后星座翻越卡西迪懸浮山丘
我注視三叢金雀花灌木樹影掠過
地平線 ―― 彷彿東方三賢王
一位老人經過說道:
「他無法讓口風琴，發聲說話。 」 我躲在門口，
繫緊明門襟外套的環腰皮帶
我以摺刀上大刀片
在門柱上刻下六道刻痕
刀身上另有切割菸草小刀
當時我正是度過六個聖誕節的年紀
父親吹奏口風琴
母親為牛擠奶
我則祈禱低吟，就像
一朵白玫瑰
別在聖母瑪利亞衣襟
