卡羅爾·安·達菲

卡羅爾·安·達菲，是當代重要的英語女詩人，已經出版六本詩集，獲得多種獎項。1985年出版第一本詩集《站立的裸女》Standing Female Nude，受到普遍讚賞，立刻入圍當年的第一本詩集獎；1987年出版《出售曼哈頓》Selling Manhattan，1990年出版《另一個國度》The Other Country，1993年出版《卑鄙時刻》Mean Time獲得英國著名的兩項詩歌大獎威特布賴德Whitbread和前進獎Forward最佳詩集獎，1999年出版《世界之妻》The World’s Wife獲得美國的佛斯特獎，2002年出版《女性福音書》The Feminine Gospels。目前她是曼徹斯特大都會大學的當代詩歌教授。

SAYING SOMETHING

Carol Ann Duffy

Things assume your shape; discarded clothes, a damp shroud

in the bathroom, vacant hands. This is not fiction. This is

the plain and warm material of love. My heart assumes it.

We wake. Our private language starts the day. We make

familiar movements through the house. The dreams we have

no phrases for slip through our fingers into smoke.

I dreamed I was not with you. Wandering in a city

where you did not live, I stared at strangers, searching

for a word to make them you. I woke beside you.

Sweetheart, I say. Pedestrian daylight terms scratch

darker surfaces. Your absence leaves me with the ghost

of love; half-warm coffee cups or sheets, the gentlest kiss.

Walking home, I see you turning on the lights. I come in

from outside calling your name, saying something.

fromStanding Female Nude (Anvil)