2.
Charlton Heston is waiting to be let in. He asked once politely.
A second time with force from the diaphragm. The third time,
He did it like Moses: arms raised high, face an apocryphal white.
查尔顿·赫斯顿等着进去。他客气地请求一次。
第二次从隔膜发力。第三次，
他像摩西：双臂高举，面色伪经般苍白。
Shirt crisp, suit trim, he stoops a little coming in,
Then grows tall. He scans the room. He stands until I gesture,
Then he sits. Birds commence their evening chatter. Someone fires
衬衫笔挺，外套整洁，他微弯着腰进来，
然后挺直。他扫了一眼房间。他站着，直到我示意，
才坐下。鸟开始入夜的啁啾。有人在楼下外面
Charcoals out below. He’ll take a whiskey if I have it. Water if I don’t.
I ask him to start from the beginning, but he goes only halfway back.
That was the future once, he says. Before the world went upside down.
点燃木炭。假如我有他会喝威士忌。没有就喝水。
我要他从头讲起，但他从半当中开始。
那时也曾是未来，他说。在世界颠倒之前。
Hero, survivor, God’s right hand man, I know he sees the blank
Surface of the moon where I see a language built from brick and bone.
He sits straight in his seat, takes a long, slow high-thespian breath,
英雄，幸存者，上帝右手边的人，我知道他看到月球空白的
表面，那里我看到用砖骨堆砌的语言。
他端坐在那，缓缓吸了一口极具悲剧色彩的长气，
Then lets it go. For all I know, I was the last true man on this earth. And:
May I smoke? The voices outside soften. Planes jet past heading off or back.
Someone cries that she does not want to go to bed. Footsteps overhead.
然后呼出。就我所知，我是这个地球上最后一个真男人。又说：
我可以抽烟吗？外面的声音软化了。喷射飞机飞去或飞回。
有人哭闹着她不想去睡觉。头顶有脚步声。
A fountain in the neighbor’s yard babbles to itself, and the night air
Lifts the sound indoors. It was another time, he says, picking up again.
We were pioneers. Will you fight to stay alive here, riding the earth
邻居院子里的喷泉自言自语，夜晚的空气
抬高室内的声音。那是另一次，他说，重新拾起话题。
我们是开拓先锋。你会不会为了生存而战，骑着地球
Toward God-knows-where? I think of Atlantis buried under ice, gone
One day from sight, the shore from which it rose now glacial and stark.
Our eyes adjust to the dark.
向着神不知鬼不觉的地方？我想到埋在冰下的亚特兰蒂斯，有一天
从视线消失，它曾经矗立的海岸如今冰冷荒凉。
我们的眼睛适应了黑暗。