OUT OUT
Robert Frost
The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
And from there those that lifted eyes could count
Five mountain ranges one behind the other
Under the sunset far into Vermont.
And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,
As it ran light, or had to bear a load.
And nothing happened: day was all but done.
Call it a day, I wish they might have said
To please the boy by giving him the half hour
That a boy counts so much when saved from work.
His sister stood beside them in her apron
To tell them "Supper." At the word, the saw,
As if to prove saws knew what supper meant,
Leaped out at the boy’s hand, or seemed to leap—
He must have given the hand. However it was,
Neither refused the meeting. But the hand!
The boy’s first outcry was a rueful laugh,
As he swung toward them holding up the hand
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all—
Since he was old enough to know, big boy
Doing a man’s work, though a child at heart—
He saw all spoiled. "Don’t let him cut my hand off—
The doctor, when he comes. Don’t let him, sister!"
So. But the hand was gone already.
The doctor put him in the dark of ether.
He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.
And then—the watcher at his pulse took fright.
No one believed. They listened at his heart.
Little—less—nothing!—and that ended it.
No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.
熄滅吧，熄滅
場院里的電鋸時而咆哮時而低吟，
濺起鋸末并吐出適合爐膛的木條，
微風拂過是木條散發出陣陣的清香。
人們從場院里抬眼就可以看見
有五座平行的山脈一重疊一重
在夕陽下伸到遠方的佛蒙特州。
電鋸咆哮低吟，電鋸咆哮低吟，
當它或是空轉、或是負荷工作之時。
一切平平安安，一天活就要干完。
他們要早點說一天活結束就好了，
給那孩子半小時空閑讓他高興，
一個孩子會非常看重半小時的空閑。
那孩子的姐姐系著圍裙站在一旁
告訴他們晚餐好了。此時那電鋸，
好像是要證明它懂得什么是晚餐，
突然跳向孩子的手——似乎是跳向——
但想必是他伸出了手。可不管怎樣，
電鋸和手沒避免相遇。那只手喲!
那男孩的第一聲慘叫是一聲慘笑，
他猛地轉身朝他們舉起那只手，
像是在呼救，但又像是要阻止生命
從那只手溢出。這時他看清了——
因為他已經是大孩子，已經懂事，
雖說有孩子的心，但干的大人的活——
他看見血肉模糊。“別讓他砍我的手——
姐姐，醫生來了別讓他砍掉我的手!”
好吧。可那只手已經與胳膊分離。
醫生來了，用麻醉藥使他入睡。
他躺在那兒鼓起雙唇拼命喘息。
后來——聽他脈搏的人猛然一驚。
誰都不相信。他們又聽他的心跳。
微弱，更弱，消失——到此為止。
不再有指望了。于是他們都轉身
去忙各自的事，因為他們不是死者。
Notes
This is based on a true event which is believed to have occured in April 1915, Raymond Fitzgerald, the son of Frost’s friend and neighbour, lost his hand to a buzz saw and bled so profusely that he went into shock, dying of heart failure in spite of his doctor’s efforts. Frost’s title invites us to compare the poem’s shocking story with Macbeth’s speech on learning of his wife’s death:
注：詩題“Out，Out—”取自莎劇《麥克白》第五幕第五場。原文為“Out，Out，brief candle!”取其義，故譯作“熄滅，熄滅”。全詩寫一位少年生命突然的熄滅，冷峻而充滿惋惜。對某些東西的嘲諷和反對大概是我們很多詩歌所缺乏的
