有人说：“下面很深的地方是中国，
挖得足够深你就能够看见天空
像在一口水井的井底一样清澈。
但它是真的——一片不一样的天空。
接着继续往下挖你就可以来到
中国！哎哟，它跟新泽西天差地别。
那里有人，有树，有房子，等等等等，
但非常非常不一样。没东西相像。”

我去棚子里把泥铲给拿了出来，
整个上午像苦力一样挥汗苦干，
手掌撑地膝盖跪着，在丁香花丛
旁边挖了一个坑，这有点像是在
拜神，我觉得。我眼看自己的双手
越挖越深，越挖越黑，一次又一次
梦想一个万物都不一样的地方。
那把铲子从没有真正破及蓝天。

在我的梦想厌烦了它自己之前
我的眼睛已经看黑暗看得够呛，
日烤着的头再受不了垂进坑中。
我在一个我忘了的地方直起身，
眼眨着脚摇晃着而地球在转动，
把镀银的畜棚显现在我的面前，
原野在光罩下打着盹，在叶浪中
圣餐碟生成又消失，遍天的瓷蓝。
恢复平衡之前我看见的
全部都是中国、中国、中国。

Digging For China
by Richard Wilbur

"Far enough down is China," somebody said.
"Dig deep enough and you might see the sky
As clear as at the bottom of a well.
Except it would be real--a different sky.
Then you could burrow down until you came
To China! Oh, it's nothing like New Jersey.
There's people, trees and houses, and all that,
But much, much different. Nothing looks the same."

I went and got the trowel out of the shed
And sweated like a coolie all that morning,
Digging a hole beside the lilac bush,
Down on my hands and knees. It was a sort
Of praying, I suspect. I watched my hand
Dig deep and darker, and I tried and tried
To dream a place where nothing was the same.
The trowel never did break through to blue.

Before the dream could weary of itself
My eyes were tired of looking into darkness,
My sunbaked head of hanging down a hole.
I stood up in a place I had forgotten,
Blinking and staggering while the earth went round
And showed me silver barns, the fields dozing
In palls of brightness, patens growing and gone
In the tides of leaves, and the whole sky china blue.
Until I got my balance back again
All that I saw was China, China, China.


· From The Poems of Richard Wilbur (Harvest).