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.
熄灭吧，熄灭
场院里的电锯时而咆哮时而低吟，
溅起锯末并吐出适合炉膛的木条，
微风拂过是木条散发出阵阵的清香。
人们从场院里抬眼就可以看见
有五座平行的山脉一重叠一重
在夕阳下伸到远方的佛蒙特州。
电锯咆哮低吟，电锯咆哮低吟，
当它或是空转、或是负荷工作之时。
一切平平安安，一天活就要干完。
他们要早点说一天活结束就好了，
给那孩子半小时空闲让他高兴，
一个孩子会非常看重半小时的空闲。
那孩子的姐姐系着围裙站在一旁
告诉他们晚餐好了。此时那电锯，
好像是要证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。可不管怎样，
电锯和手没避免相遇。那只手哟!
那男孩的第一声惨叫是一声惨笑，
他猛地转身朝他们举起那只手，
像是在呼救，但又像是要阻止生命
从那只手溢出。这时他看清了——
因为他已经是大孩子，已经懂事，
虽说有孩子的心，但干的大人的活——
他看见血肉模糊。“别让他砍我的手——
姐姐，医生来了别让他砍掉我的手!”
好吧。可那只手已经与胳膊分离。
医生来了，用麻醉药使他入睡。
他躺在那儿鼓起双唇拼命喘息。
后来——听他脉搏的人猛然一惊。
谁都不相信。他们又听他的心跳。
微弱，更弱，消失——到此为止。
不再有指望了。于是他们都转身
去忙各自的事，因为他们不是死者。
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：诗题“Out，Out—”取自莎剧《麦克白》第五幕第五场。原文为“Out，Out，brief candle!”取其义，故译作“熄灭，熄灭”。全诗写一位少年生命突然的熄灭，冷峻而充满惋惜。对某些东西的嘲讽和反对大概是我们很多诗歌所缺乏的
