英语诗歌：The Sleeping Dogs of Erice.docx

The Sleeping Dogs of Erice
Stanley Plumly

At half-a-mile the thirty marble churches and cobbled
marble streets feel light as air above the sky-blue depths
of the Tyrrhenian, feel able, in fact, to float as on the platform
of the mountain of a cloud, La Montagna del Signore,

though the plural1 would make more common sense
since the gods of the many mountains around the Mediterranean
have each had their day conquering the history of the island,
arriving in a morning fog from sea on a schedule fit for war.

Right now, first light, the night ghosts of the air have risen
off the sea or fallen from sky or both at once, it doesn't matter --
from this balcony it's as if we have ascended2 into life
in a wholly different way, purer in the purity of il velo di Venere.

It will take all morning for the mist to disappear,
especially from the slick stones of medieval village paths
that still pass for streets and the shining stained-glass windows
so bright they'll stop the sunlight until the afternoon --

which is when I see them first, curled up for naps
in an awkward weedy courtyard, four stories down, spaced
as if assigned. Six of them at least, though their numbers tend
to change, depending on the day and where they trail,

usually at the edges of the town: which is when I see them running,
sometimes chasing, sometimes playing, but always together,
but not always because the large dog lying or sleeping in the traffic
of the Piazza3 Umberto, is, I'm sure, at heart, one of them --

lean the way these hunters are living off the land:
the kind, when I was a kid in the country of Ohio, we called strays,
dogs who'd been let out from the backs of trucks or cars to die
or survive, burned with sores and starving. These, though, are Italians,

Sicilians, who understand the value of community and numbers,
the civilizing4 forces of the pack, so that when I see them now
at different times at different intermissions, nuzzling or mating,
I'd swear they know themselves, the mythic body back

to the nursing loving founding of Old Rome, mist turned into stone.
And stone turned, inevitably5, to ruin, back into mist. These dogs
are ruins, quarried6, cut to shape, interchangeable through time,
ghosts of ghosts, the blood-veined lily and lilac color of white marble.

词汇解析：
1 plural
n.复数；复数形式；adj.复数的
参考例句：
Most plural nouns in English end in's '.英语的复数名词多以s结尾。
Here you should use plural pronoun.这里你应该用复数代词。
2 ascended
v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句：
He has ascended into heaven. 他已经升入了天堂。 来自《简明英汉词典》
The climbers slowly ascended the mountain. 爬山运动员慢慢地登上了这座山。 来自《简明英汉词典》
3 piazza
n.广场；走廊
参考例句：
Siena's main piazza was one of the sights of Italy.锡耶纳的主要广场是意大利的名胜之一。
They walked out of the cafeteria,and across the piazzadj.他们走出自助餐厅,穿过广场。
4 civilizing
v.使文明，使开化( civilize的现在分词 )
参考例句：
The girls in a class tend to have a civilizing influence on the boys. 班上的女生往往能让男生文雅起来。
It exerts a civilizing influence on mankind. 这产生了教化人类的影响。 来自辞典例句
5 inevitably
adv.不可避免地；必然发生地
参考例句：
In the way you go on,you are inevitably coming apart.照你们这样下去，毫无疑问是会散伙的。
Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.技术变革必然会导致失业。
6 quarried
v.从采石场采得( quarry的过去式和过去分词 )；从（书本等中）努力发掘（资料等）；在采石场采石
参考例句：
The workmen quarried out a huge block of marble. 工人们从采石场采得一块很大的大理石。 来自《简明英汉词典》
The large limestone caves are also quarried for cement. 同时还在这些大石灰岩洞里开采水泥原料。 来自辞典例句