张洁 译
你丈夫所有的衬衫和裤子
以及厚重的毛衣——一团凶险的云
从两架梯子间的管子上悬挂下来——
对我来说太大了，他的特大号的靴子
看起来又冷又深，像废弃的井，
他的工具对任何人都没有用，除了他自己：
他的锤子头因敲击而松动了，
他把螺丝刀拧出了
它的手柄，烧穿了那根电线
在他的烙铁上，还弄缺了那副刀片
他的横锯的，而做这一切都是用那些手指
那是他抚摸你所用的。他会在哪儿呢
当我和你聊起雨，开始
敲打车道上排成一排的
三轮车和自行车的挡泥板时？他在哪儿呢
当你和我把放着婴儿衣服的桌子
搬回到你的屋檐下，雨水淋湿
你肘部长着雀斑的手臂，闪耀
在你的脸上和充满盼望的小圆肩上时？
我就这么两手空空地走向我的车。
* Garage Sale车库甩卖，指在卖家自己的住所举行的二手家居用品或个人物品(如家具、工具或衣物)的出售活动。
Garage Sale
by TED KOOSER
From Delights & Shadows. Copper Canyon Press, 2004.
All of your husband’s shirts and slacks
and heavy sweaters – a bank of threatening clouds
that hang from a pipe between two ladders –
are much too big for me, and his extra boots
look cold and deep as abandoned wells,
and his tools are no good to anyone but him:
the head of his hammer is loose from pounding,
and he has twisted his screwdriver out
of its handle, and burned through the cord
on his soldering iron and chipped up the blade
of his crosscut saw, and all with the fingers
he touches you with. Where can he be
while I chat with you about the rain, beginning
to ring the fenders of trikes and bikes
pared in ranks on the drive? Where is he
as you and I carry the table of baby clothes
back under your roof and the rain wets the down
on your freckled, elbowy arms and shines
on your face and small round hopeful shoulders?
I walk so empty-handed to my car.
