整整一生，我與她面對面

▍在一起

整整一生

我與她

面對面，吃飯如此，

烤火如此，甚至

床幃之歡

也是如此。你也許問過

她的一些情況？

哦，有個房間

她把自己關在裡面，

逗我，引我

走到玻璃門前，然而

我撞見的卻是

自己的鏡像。即便這樣

我仍向她學習。漫步在她岸邊

我發現了一些浮物

來自她的深處，對我講說

另一種秩序，

因為我崇拜

未馴服的自然。她

從藝術寶庫取出

自己的珍寶：幾條古老的

花邊，精緻如霜；

瓷器，記不清

年代；一個錢包，價值高於

它所能裝下的任何東西。

我捧著鮮花

從原野中走來，

卻發現她的花園

已搶先為我的書案

放上了文明之花。

「跟我講講生命吧。」

我說，「你呀

是它的使者，送來

我們的孩子。」 她雙目

含羞，以為自己的秘密

老遠就被識破，出乎

她所料。「 你認為

死是終結嗎？」

我愚蠢地問。現在我只記得

死神來得太快，

猛地按住她的唇，當時

她臉上的表情依然堅定，

矜持，如

那花的骨朵。

作者 / [威爾士] R.S.托馬斯翻譯/ 程佳選自 / 《R.S.托馬斯晚年詩選》，楚塵文化

Together

All my life

I was face to face

with her, at meal-times,

by the fire, even

in the ultimate intimacies

of the bed. You could have asked,

then, for information

about her? There was a room

apart she kept herself in,

teasing me by leading me

to its glass door, only

to confront me with

my reflection. I learned from her

even so. Walking her shore

I found things cast up

from her depths that spoke

to me of another order,

worshipper as I was

of untamed nature. She fetched

her treasures from art』s

storehouse: pieces of old

lace, delicate as frost;

china from a forgotten

period; a purse more valuable

than anything it could contain.

Coming in from the fields

with my offering of flowers

I found her garden

had forestalled me in providing

civilities for my desk.

"Tell me about life,』

I would say, "you who were

its messenger in the delivery

of our child.』 Her eyes had a

fine shame, remembering her privacy

being invaded from further off than

she expected. "Do you think

death is the end?』 frivolously

I would ask her. I recall

now the swiftness of its arrival

wrenching her lip down, and how

the upper remained firm,

reticent as the bud that is

the precursor of the flower.

Ronald Stuart Thomas

有多少個表白寄望於和對方在一起，就有多少個童話結束於「在一起」。在一起，彷彿是一場只屬於兩人的冒險，一面濃情蜜意，一面危機四伏。

難得的是面對彼此不同時心平氣和的接納，是越過一切疑慮、誤會、暗涌甚至對峙的耐心，是只有「死別」沒有「生離」的篤定，是將彼此陪伴、相守一生當成最酷最漫長的行為藝術。

「在我們的一生中，遇到愛，遇到性都不稀罕，稀罕的是遇到了解。 」（廖一梅語）而了解，是如此艱難但卻甜蜜無比的過程，足以耗費整整一生。

薦詩 / 楚歌