Exercise for the Evening

时间：2014-02-13 01:37:37

（单词翻译:单击）

Exercise for the Evening
Jean-Paul de Dadelsen
 
 
Stop. Instead of panting and gasping1（喘气） from second to second
 Like a torrent2 hurtling from rock to rock with no special merit,
 Breathe
 More slowly, without moving, ankles crossed, hands clasped,
 Observe, as if it were the whole world at once,
 An object, slight and domestic, for example
 This cup.
 
Ignore its curve, its undulating surface, this blue pattern.
 Only consider the interior, this white cavity, this surface's
 Smoothness.
 Water is only smooth like this on evenings of exceptional calm
 After a day that gathers and holds back its joy
 At the center of the silence where its breath
 Stops.
 
Can you cite a day, an hour, with no echo of yesterday,
 No haste for tomorrow, when your soul was as
 Smooth as this?
 
Don't listen to your heart, don't measure your pulse, don't envision（想象）
 Time moving through you toward death, only
 While holding your breath look at this pure and only quality
 Of smoothness.
 
If you learned now to fix your gaze, your thought,
 Your soul without blinking on a few square centimeters of
 Smoothness,
 Perhaps, without leaving the world or the company of women,
 With no change in your health, your country, your diet,
 You might aspire3 one day to begin to understand
 The whole world.
 
It's a cup of no value, bought at a dry-goods-and-grocery shop
 In a Savoyard village near Boëge and Séchemouille.
 It isn't smooth.
 A microscope would reveal Himalayas of cracks.
 What makes it smooth is the light, is your ingenuous4 fingers.
 To a different gaze, perhaps, a cup is worth
 A head.
 
As much as the solemn organ or the electronic machine,
 As much as the equatorial（赤道的） storm or the Pacific tides,
 This cup
 Honors the Holy Name. If you were exiled tomorrow, you would not
 Need, provided that you had looked at it long enough, provided
 You were able to reconstruct this smoothness in your heart, to bring
 This shard5 along.
 
Here is the entrance, not to wisdom, nor to silence,
 Nor to perfect control of yourself and your shadow,
 But to a first
 Cavity smooth enough to hold a handful of peace.
 Now you can sleep, your feet together so as not to cut
 The current, hands clasped, now you can
 Rise.
 
Slowly, calmly, a little higher than your body, recumbent
 And loosed, as if you inhabited only your head
 Or your nostrils6（鼻孔）
 Or the immediate7 vicinity of the pineal gland8;
 Now, above your pacified9 body, above
 Your box of balderdash（胡言乱语）, in the smooth fluid of your outstretched body, you can
 Keep watch.

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1 gasping gasping     
adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词
参考例句：
  • He was gasping for breath. 他在喘气。
  • "Did you need a drink?""Yes, I'm gasping!” “你要喝点什么吗？”“我巴不得能喝点！”
2 torrent 7GCyH     
n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发
参考例句：
  • The torrent scoured a channel down the hillside. 急流沿着山坡冲出了一条沟。
  • Her pent-up anger was released in a torrent of words.她压抑的愤怒以滔滔不绝的话爆发了出来。
3 aspire ANbz2     
vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于
参考例句：
  • Living together with you is what I aspire toward in my life.和你一起生活是我一生最大的愿望。
  • I aspire to be an innovator not a follower.我迫切希望能变成个开创者而不是跟随者。
4 ingenuous mbNz0     
adj.纯朴的，单纯的；天真的；坦率的
参考例句：
  • Only the most ingenuous person would believe such a weak excuse!只有最天真的人才会相信这么一个站不住脚的借口！
  • With ingenuous sincerity,he captivated his audience.他以自己的率真迷住了观众。
5 shard wzDwU     
n.（陶瓷器、瓦等的）破片，碎片
参考例句：
  • Eyewitnesses spoke of rocks and shards of glass flying in the air.目击者称空中石块和玻璃碎片四溅。
  • That's the same stuff we found in the shard.那与我们发现的碎片在材质上一样。
6 nostrils 23a65b62ec4d8a35d85125cdb1b4410e     
鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 )
参考例句：
  • Her nostrils flared with anger. 她气得两个鼻孔都鼓了起来。
  • The horse dilated its nostrils. 马张大鼻孔。
7 immediate aapxh     
adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的
参考例句：
  • His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
  • We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。
8 gland qeGzu     
n.腺体，(机)密封压盖，填料盖
参考例句：
  • This is a snake's poison gland.这就是蛇的毒腺。
  • Her mother has an underactive adrenal gland.她的母亲肾上腺机能不全。
9 pacified eba3332d17ba74e9c360cbf02b8c9729     
使（某人）安静( pacify的过去式和过去分词 )； 息怒； 抚慰； 在（有战争的地区、国家等）实现和平
参考例句：
  • The baby could not be pacified. 怎么也止不住婴儿的哭声。
  • She shrieked again, refusing to be pacified. 她又尖叫了，无法使她平静下来。

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