Introduction to Poetry
BY BILLY COLLINS

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide


or press an ear against its hive.


I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,


or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.


I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.


But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.


They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

诗之简介

比利柯林斯

我让他们举着一首诗

就像彩色幻灯片一样

对着光

或者把耳朵贴着诗的蜂巢

我说扔个老鼠到诗里

看它怎么探索出路

要么在诗之屋里游走

摸着墙找电灯开关

我让他们在

诗的表面划水

在岸边挥舞诗人的名字

可是他们只想

用绳子把诗捆绑在椅子上

刑讯逼供

他们开始拿根管子打它

要问出它到底什么意思