by Ezra Pound

 

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough. 

 

这是印象主义（Imagism） 诗歌中的名篇！

 

Pound在一篇文章（Vorticism，载The Fortnightly Review 571 (Sept. 1, 1914)）中谈到本诗的缘起时说：

 

"Three years ago in Paris I got out of a "metro" train at La Concorde, and saw suddenly a beautiful face, and then another and another, and then a beautiful child's face, and then another beautiful woman, and I tried all that day to find words for what this had meant to me......"

 

三年前，我走出巴黎La Concorde地铁站，突然看到一个美丽的面孔，然后是另一个，再一个，然后是一个美丽的孩子的脸，再然后是一个美丽的女人。那一整天，我都在试图用文字表达这次事件（或经历）（this，指Pound saw suddenly...，所以译成“这次事件”或“这次经历”）的意义......

 

但努力一天的结果却无法在语言上把握（表达、表现）“这次经历”（and I could not find any words that seemed to me worthy, or as lovely as that sudden emotion.），最后灵光突现，得到了一幅“印象”——颜色的斑点（splotches of colour）......