[分享] Wole Soyinka, Gulliver

[hahastarr (漫步中的哈哈星人)]

Once upon a ship-(of-state)-wreck, where
The sun had shrunk the world at last to a true
Stature of deserving--the ant for unit--
I lay on earth tide-flung, obtruding
Miles of heart and mind, an alien hulk
Into a thumb assemblage. My feet
Were scaled as mountains. Fearful I was
Lest, rising, I dislodge a crossbeam
Of their skies. And this was well, I
Proved obedient to their laws: alien minds
Must learn recumbent postures. A brief
Impulse to unguided knowledge raised
A shower of needles, full-fanged, venom-bodied.
I took their meaning, pressed my hands
To earth. They quenched my fleshly thirst
In draughts of Lethe, and I was plunged
Deep in mindless trance. Wheels approached,
They bore me through the famished blades--
As dead the living come into necropolis--
Corded to a span of tumbrils, drugged.

They lodged me in a hall of sorts
A desecrated temple--and this proved sign
Of much that came to pass. I schooled me
In their ways, picked a wary course
Through egg-shell structures. I looked above
Their draughty towers, peered within
Secret chambers, and marvelled at their councils.
Peacock vain, mannikin cruel, sycophant.
The world was measured to a dwarf
Sufficiency; the sun by state decree
Was lowered to fit the sextant of their mind
And planets sighted lower to turn
In calculable grooves, in orbits centred
On the palace of the Sun of suns,
Man-Mountain, King of Lilliput, Lord
And Terror of a thimble universe!

In such surrounds, in truth of fire
Was it a wonder I would sagely err?
How could a stranger tell an earthly sun
Identify as meteors matchwood tongues
Licking lawns, toy orchards, fairy groves?
In plainsight I decried an earthly burn
And squelched the puny flames in fountains
Of urine.

I sought nor favour nor reward, content
In civic duty done, presence of mind
Quick thinking. Alas! This act was rain
Upon long stunted passions,
Customs, taboos, parched sensibilities;
The storm unleashed within the chamberpot
Was long subsiding. Time passed. I kissed
The Queen's fingers. The land bestowed
A Royal Pardon. I pledged my strength anew
To service of the state, enticed the court
Statesmen, minions and nobility
To grace my temple home. They trod a measure
On the dais of my handkerchief
The king excelled in skating on a mucus
Rink-indeed we passed the rapid days
In feasts of love, in mirth and mutual service.

The seasons passed of peace, winds gathered
To a storm within an egg-cup.
Excavating scrolls in long forgotten archives
They stretched the warps of mind to rigid poles
Of opposition, blared the martial note:
From Us the Lillywhite King Lillypuss
To you obfuscating Blefuscoons
From Us the Herrenyolk of Egg
To you Albinos of the Albumen ... We Declare .. !

I could not choose but serve
I took their measure in the depth
Of sea-beds, galley-slave to claims
Of bread and salt. I brought the enemy fleet
To port, and pressed a reasoned course
Of temperate victory. It did not suffice.
I pledged reversion of my strength
To arbitration; they pledged extinction of their kind.
At this rebellion of the galley slave
They looked much, said little. I waded
Home in high-tide of their hate.

Indictments flowed at secret sessions
The palace deed re-echoed, concluding--
Imprimis: Unless by aid of Secret Powers
No human bladder could eject such potent
Piss to douse sidereal flames. Thus:

Imprimis: A blasphemer who dared mistake
Cosmic conflagration for mundane disaster, and--
For paradox: An arsonist for dwarfing
Flames of Lilliput with stark reflection.

From a capital doom, the saving thought
Was waste disposal--how rid the state
Of carrion weightier than the court and state.
The Court Hygienists voiced a dread
Of plagues, infections, cautioned--Hold!
A cult of septic hydrants may derive
From such a monumental corpse, springing
To douse orthodoxies of state and power
In rank corrosive draughts! A compromise
Was sought and found, the sentence writ:

The fault is not in ill-will but in seeing ill
The drab-horse labours best with blinkers
We pardon him to lose his sight to a cure
Of heated needles, that proven cure for all
Abnormalities of view--foresight, insight
Second sight and all solecisms of seeing--

Called vision.





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※ 編輯: hahastarr       來自: 210.54.148.202       (02/05 07:25)
推 searenata:感謝！
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