125. Reuben Bright

——E. A. Robinson

Because he was a butcher and thereby

Did earn an honest living (and did right),

I would not have you think that Reuben Bright

Was any more a brute than you or I;

For when they told him that his wife must die,

He stared at them, and shook with grief and fright,

And cried like a great baby half that night,

And made the women cry to see him cry.

And after she was dead, and he had paid

The singers and the sexton and the rest,

He packed a lot of things that she had made

Most mournfully away in an old chest.

Of hers, and put some chopped-up cedar boughs

In with them, and tore down the slaughter-house.

125　鲁本·布莱特

罗宾逊[1]

他是个屠夫，凭这门手艺

他生活得踏实（干得确实不错），

我不想让你们胡乱猜疑，

觉得鲁本比你我更暴力。

有人对他说他的妻子没救了，

他望着他们摇头，悲伤又惶惑，

像个大男孩痛哭了大半夜，

害得旁观的女人也陪他哭泣。

妻子死后，他付清丧葬费，

吹鼓手、司事，人人拿到钱，

他怀着悲痛，整理好她的遗物，

连同一些砍来的杉树枝，

一概锁进她的一只旧箱里，

随后便将屠宰房拆除。

* * *

[1]埃德温·阿林顿·罗宾逊（Edwin Arlington Robinson，1869—1935），生于缅因州，1891年就读于哈佛大学，两年后因父亲亡故而辍学。当过地铁建筑监工，利用业余时间写诗；1901年后专事诗歌创作。诗集有《夜的孩子》《激流和昨夜》《河边小城》等。曾三次获普利策奖。罗宾逊的诗属于美国现代诗歌初创时期的作品，语言机智、幽默。