默温：《相像》

默温另一首诗，唯有到了那个年纪才能获得的真味。
From：The Shadow of Sirius, 25

相像

快到你的生日当我
在家里独自穿衣
一颗纽扣崩开我找来
一根针，针眼大得
我能够穿好线
终于把纽扣缝上
我展开一幅你的旧相片
你总是魔法一般做这些事情
有张照片你死后才找到
那时你才二十
有某种我永不
能看见的美丽
因为还要九年
我才来到世上
但突然间照片
黯淡下去
斑驳模糊
也许已经没法修复了
我只剩下我记住的

A likeness

Almost to your birthday and as I
am getting dressed alone in the house
a button comes off and once I find
a needle with an eye big enough
for me to try to thread it
and at last have sewed the button on
I open an old picture of you
who always did such things by magic
one photograph found after you died
of you at twenty
beautiful in a way
I would never see
for that was nine years
before I was born
but the picture has
faded suddenly
spots have marred it
maybe it is past repair
I have only what I remember