The Bight

by Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979)

At low tide like this how sheer the water is.

White, crumbling ribs of marl protrude and glare

and the boats are dry, the pilings dry as matches,

Absorbing, rather than being absorbed,

the water in the bight doesn't wet anything,

the color of the gas flame turned as low as possible.

One can smell it turning to gas; if one were Baudelaire

one could probably hear it turning to marimba music.

The little ocher dredge at work off the end of the dock

already plays the dry perfectly off-beat claves.

The birds are outsize. Pelicans crash

into this peculiar gas unnecessarily hard.

it seems to me, like pickaxes,

rarely coming up with anything to show for it,

and going off with humorous elbowings,

Black-and-white man-of-war birds soar

on impalpable drafts

and open their tails like scissors on the curves

or tense them like wishbones, till they tremble.

The frowsy sponge boats keep coming in

with the obliging air of retrievers,

bristling with jackstraw gaffs and hooks

and decorated with bobbles of sponges.

There is a fence of chicken wire along the dock

where, glinting like little plowshares,

the blue-gray shark tails are hung up to dry

for the Chinese-restaurant trade.

Some of the little white boats are still piled up

against each other, or lie on their sides, stove in,

and not yet salvaged, if they ever will be, from the last bad storm.

like torn-open, unanswered letters.

the bight is littered with old correspondences.

Click. Click. Goes the dredge,

and brings up a dripping jawful of marl.

All the untidy activity continues,

awful but cheerful.

海潮退到這樣的時(shí)候，水便分外清澈了。

白色的石灰泥灘，層層露出水來(lái)，浪紋斑駁，閃耀亮眼。

條條小船，曬得干干的；根根木樁，則干得像火柴棒。

吸收而非被吸收，

海灣里的水弄不濕任何東西，

而且呈現(xiàn)出一種瓦斯火開(kāi)至最低時(shí)的顏色。

你可以聞到那海水正轉(zhuǎn)化成瓦斯；假如你是波特萊爾的話

你說(shuō)不定可以聽(tīng)到那海水正轉(zhuǎn)化成馬林巴木琴的聲音。

而碼頭尾端，一個(gè)褐色小型撈網(wǎng)正在那里撈著

一直在那里以絕對(duì)冷硬的調(diào)子，打著雙節(jié)棒，伴奏著。

水鳥(niǎo)都是特大號(hào)的。鵜鶘嘩啦沖

入這一泓奇異的瓦斯之中，真是小題大作，

這景象對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)，有點(diǎn)像鶴嘴鋤，

一鋤下去，拉回來(lái)看看，什么也沒(méi)有，

于是只好游到一邊，樣子滑稽的擠入鵜鶘堆里去了。

黑白相間的軍艦鳥(niǎo)翱翔在

捉摸不定的氣流里

尾巴張開(kāi)，如剪刀彎彎裁過(guò)

尾巴緊繃，如叉骨繃然顫動(dòng)。

腥臭的海綿船不斷的開(kāi)了進(jìn)來(lái)

以一種獵狗銜回東西般的殷勤姿態(tài)，

上面豎立著稻草人般的魚(yú)叉魚(yú)鉤

裝飾著垂懸吊幌的海綿。

沿著碼頭，有一排方格鐵絲網(wǎng)墻

上面，掛著閃閃發(fā)光犁刀般

灰藍(lán)鯊的尾巴，一條條的，在那里風(fēng)干，

準(zhǔn)備賣給中國(guó)餐館。

一些白色的小船，仍然相互靠在一起

堆著放，或側(cè)著放，船身破裂，

還沒(méi)修好（要是將來(lái)真還會(huì)去修的話），都是上回暴風(fēng)弄壞的，

像一封封拆開(kāi)而沒(méi)有回復(fù)的信。

這小海灣內(nèi)到處都丟著廢棄的信件。

卡啦卡啦，撈網(wǎng)上下?lián)浦?

撈上來(lái)滴滴答答一大堆石灰泥。

所有亂七八糟的事都在進(jìn)行著，糟是糟透了，不過(guò)卻滿愉快的。