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I am signaling you through the flames. 我在火焰中向你发送信号。 The North Pole is not where it used to be. 北极已经不是曾经的北极。 Manifest Destiny is no longer manifest. 天命已经不再显现。 Civilization self-destructs. 人类文明正在自我毁灭中。 Nemesis is knocking at the door. 复仇女神正在敲门。 What are poets for, in such an age? What is the use of poetry? 在这样一个时代，诗人能干什么？诗歌的作用又是什么？ The state of the world calls out for poetry to save it. (A voice in the wilderness!) 这个世界的现状在呼唤诗歌来拯救它。（一个野外的声音！） If you would be a poet, create works capable of answering the challenge of apocalyptic times, even if this means sounding apocalyptic. 如果你想成为一名诗人，就要创作出那种可以回应末日来临之时的挑战的诗歌，即使这听起来像是末日。 You are Whitman, you are Poe, you Mark Twain, you are Emily Dickinson and Edna St.Vincent Millay, you are Neruda and Mayakovsky and Pasolini, you are an American or a non-American, you can conquer the conquerors with words. 你是惠特曼，你是艾伦-坡，你是马克吐温，你是艾米莉·狄金森和埃德娜·圣文森特·米莱，你是聂鲁达、马雅可夫斯基和帕索里尼，你是美国人还是非美国人，你可以用语言去征服那些征服者。 If you would be a poet, write living newspaper. Be a reporter from outer space, filling dispatches to some supreme managing editor who believes in full disclosure and has a low tolerance for bullshit. 如果你想成为一名诗人，就写一份活生生的报纸。做一名来自外太空的记者，给那些相信全面报道、对胡说八道容忍度较低的最高总编辑发邮件。 If you would be a poet, experiment with all manner of poetics, erotic broken grammars, ecstatic religions, heathen outpourings speaking in tongues, bombast public speech, automatic scribbling, surrealist sensing, streams of consciousness, found sounds, rants and raves--to create your own limbic, your own underlying voice, your ur voice. 如果你想成为一名诗人，去尝试各种类型的诗，色情的无章法的，狂喜的宗教的，语言涌出的异端的，夸张的公开的，自动的涂鸦的，超现实主义的，意识流的，找到声音，咆哮和狂欢--去创造你自己的边缘，你自己的潜在的声音，你的“本我之声”。 If you call yourself a poet, don’t just sit there. Poetry is not a sedentary occupation, not a “take your seat” practice. Stand up and let them have it. 如果你称自己为诗人，别只是坐在那里。诗歌不是一种久坐不动的占据，不是一种“坐在你自己的位置上”的练习。站起来，让他们拥有它。 Have a wide-angle vision, each look a world glance. Express the vast clarity of the outside world, the sun that sees us all, the moon that strews its shadows on us, quiet garden ponds, willows where the hidden thrush sings ,dusk falling along the river-run, and the great spaces that open out upon the sea...high tide and the heron’s call...And the people, the people, yes, all around the earth, speaking Babel tongues. Give voice to them all 拥有一种广阔的视野，扫视整个世界。表现出外面世界的广阔与清澈，那看到我们所有人的太阳，那向我们投下阴影的月亮，那安静的花园池塘，那隐藏的画眉歌唱的柳树，那黄昏沿着河流流淌，以及那在大海上敞开的巨大空间……涨潮和苍鹭的呼唤……以及地球上的人们，人们，是的，全世界的人们，说巴别塔语。赋予他们声音。 You must decide if bird cries are cries of ecstasy or cries of despair, by which you will know if you are a tragic or a lyric poet. 你必须决定鸟叫声是狂喜的叫声还是绝望的叫声，这样你才能知道你是悲剧诗人还是抒情诗人。 If you would be a poet, invent a new language anyone can understand. 如果你想成为一名诗人，发明一种任何人都能理解的新语言。 If you would be a poet, speak new truths that world can’t deny. 如果你想成为一名诗人，就说出世界无法否认的新真理。 If you would be a great poet, strive to transcribe the consciousness of the race. 如果你想成为一个伟大的诗人，就要努力将你民族的意识给抄下来。 Through art, create order out of the chaos of living. 通过艺术，从混乱的生活中创造秩序。 Make it new news. Write beyond time. 让它成为新的新闻。让书写超越时间。 Reinvent the idea of truth. Reinvent the idea of beauty. 重塑关于真理的观念。重塑关于美的观念。 In first light, wax poetic. In the night, wax tragic. 在第一缕阳光下，畅谈诗意。在夜晚，畅谈悲剧。 Listen to the lisp of leaves and the ripple of rain. 听那树叶的沙沙声和那雨的滴答声。 Put your ear to the ground and hear the turning of the earth, the surge of the sea, and the laments of dying animals. 把你的耳朵放在地上，听那地球的转动，那海洋的翻腾以及那些正在死去的动物们的哀鸣。 Conceive of love beyond sex. 想象爱情超过性爱。 Question everything and everyone, including Socrates, who questioned everything. Question “God” and his buddies on earth. 怀疑所有事情和所有人，包括苏格拉底，那个怀疑一切的人。怀疑上帝和他在地球上的伙计们。 Be subversive, constantly questioning reality and the status quo. 成为有颠覆性的人，不断地怀疑现实与现状。 Strive to change the world in such a way that there’s no further need to be dissident. 努力改变世界，这样就不再需要持不同政见。 Hip Hop and Rap your way to liberation. 用嘻哈说唱的方式使你得到解放。 Try being a singing animal turned pimp for a pacifist king. 试着成为一个会唱歌的动物，化皮条客为和平主义的国王。 Read between the lives and write between the lines. 在生活中阅读，在字里行间中写作。 Your poems must be more than wants ads for broken hearts. 你的诗一定要超过那些收获悲伤的广告语。 A poem must sing and fly away with you or it’s a dead duck with a prose soul. 一首诗必须和你一起歌唱和飞走，否则它就只是一只有着散文灵魂的死鸭子。 A lyric poem must rise beyond sounds found in alphabet soup. 一首抒情诗必须要升华超越那些字母汤中的声音。 Write down the words of astronomers who have seen, with Heinirch Olber, the place where all is light. 写下天文学家看到的话，与海因里希-奥尔伯（注：奥地利天文学家）一起，那里全都是光芒。 |
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