酷我-北美枫

[anna]

Night and Fog

(on seeing Nuit et Brouillard, Alain Resnais’s documentary film about Nazi concentration camps, at Wellesley College in 1965)

Out of the night,
out of the fog
we climb to our seats in the chemistry lecture-room
full of warm dinners and thoughts of tomorrow.
We sink into place, stop our gossip, and watch
as out of the night,
out of the fog
the movie projector lights up a bare screen.
Frame after frame, subtitles surrender
a strange tongue’s meaning … crows sweep a bare field
into the night,
into the fog
into Buchenwald, Auschwitz, Dachau … the list
of devil’s geography mapped in our minds.
We try to catch hold of thoughts of tomorrow
but into the night,
into the fog
we plunge with the train, locked inside, down the track.
“Useless to tell…” “torn concrete on the ceiling,”
“Prisoners, starving, forced down their own rags.”
Out of the night,
out of the fog,
the film track reels on – see today, see the past.
Head, hair, eyes, teeth … whose grandmother’s brother?
Chemical stenches ooze into the room
into the night,
into the fog.
“Lights on!” You are there. Outside, someone’s laughing.
Everything seems a mirage. The montage
of dying and death still plays in our eyes
one with the night
one with the fog.

Ellen S. Jaffe
(written in 1966, revised 2006. Unpublished – may appear in new collection)
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[[星子安娜]]

Night and Fog

(on seeing Nuit et Brouillard, Alain Resnais’s documentary film about Nazi concentration camps, at Wellesley College in 1965)

Out of the night,
out of the fog
we climb to our seats in the chemistry lecture-room
full of warm dinners and thoughts of tomorrow.
We sink into place, stop our gossip, and watch
as out of the night,
out of the fog
the movie projector lights up a bare screen.
Frame after frame, subtitles surrender
a strange tongue’s meaning … crows sweep a bare field
into the night,
into the fog
into Buchenwald, Auschwitz, Dachau … the list
of devil’s geography mapped in our minds.
We try to catch hold of thoughts of tomorrow
but into the night,
into the fog
we plunge with the train, locked inside, down the track.
“Useless to tell…” “torn concrete on the ceiling,”
“Prisoners, starving, forced down their own rags.”
Out of the night,
out of the fog,
the film track reels on – see today, see the past.
Head, hair, eyes, teeth … whose grandmother’s brother?
Chemical stenches ooze into the room
into the night,
into the fog.
“Lights on!” You are there. Outside, someone’s laughing.
Everything seems a mirage. The montage
of dying and death still plays in our eyes
one with the night
one with the fog.

Ellen S. Jaffe
(written in 1966, revised 2006. Unpublished – may appear in new collection)
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[anna]

I like this very much since it brings the past and the current time together and smoothly transplant....

here is her blog

http://writingyourway.blogspot.com/
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[[星子安娜]]

I like this very much since it brings the past and the current time together and smoothly transplant....

here is her blog

http://writingyourway.blogspot.com/
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com