Belfast Confetti

∷ 張劍 譯析

Suddenly as the riot squad1. riot squad： 防暴隊(duì)；squad： 小分隊(duì)，如bomb squad（拆彈小分隊(duì)）。moved in, it was raining

exclamation marks,

Nuts, bolts, nails, car-keys. A fount of broken type.2. fount： 一副鉛字，a fount of broken type是一堆亂碼的意思。And the

explosion.

Itself—an asterisk on the map. This hyphenated3. hyphenated： 帶連字號(hào)的；hyphen：連字號(hào)。line, a burst

of rapid fire…

I was trying to complete a sentence in my head but it kept

stuttering4. stutter： 結(jié)巴，卡殼。,

All the alleyways and side streets blocked with stops and

colons.

I know this labyrinth so well—Balaclava, Raglan, Inkerman,

Odessa Street—

Why can’t I escape? Every move is punctuated. Crimea

Street. Dead end again.

A Saracen, Kremlin-2 mesh. Makrolon face-shields. Walkie-talkies.

What is

My name? Where am I coming from? Where am I going? A

fusillade5. fusillade：（槍炮）連續(xù)齊射，連珠炮。of question marks.

貝爾法斯特市政府

突然隨著防爆隊(duì)的到來(lái)，驚嘆號(hào)從天而降，

螺絲帽、螺絲釘、鐵釘、汽車(chē)鑰匙。一堆亂碼。

爆炸——地圖上的星號(hào)。帶連字號(hào)的這行文字，

爆燃的火焰……

我在腦海里構(gòu)思句子，但它不斷地卡殼，

所有巷子和街道都被句號(hào)和分號(hào)堵死。

我對(duì)這個(gè)迷宮式的地點(diǎn)太熟悉——巴拉克拉瓦、拉格蘭、

因克曼、奧德薩街——

我為什么逃不掉？每一步都被標(biāo)點(diǎn)阻攔。克里米亞街，

也被堵死。

克里姆林-2電子偵察網(wǎng)。聚碳酸酯面罩。對(duì)講機(jī)。

我的名字

叫什么？我從哪里來(lái)？我到哪里去？機(jī)關(guān)槍掃射出的

問(wèn)號(hào)。