剛踏入新年，你可有特別的感覺和想法嗎？美國女詩人Kim Addonizio一首以新年為名的詩作”New Year’s Day”寫到正值四十歲的她渡過新年時的那份孤單、哀愁。詩人憶起少年時期認識的女同學們，曾經誰與誰一起快樂過，如今已各散東西，她現在也不在乎她們的存在了。詩人沒有許下甚麼新年願望，她只想活在當下，感受著當下的祝福，迎接新開始。
New Year’s Day
by Kim Addonizio
The rain this morning falls
on the last of the snow
and will wash it away. I can smell
the grass again, and the torn leaves
being eased down into the mud.
The few loves I’ve been allowed
to keep are still sleeping
on the West Coast. Here in Virginia
I walk across the fields with only
a few young cows for company.
Big-boned and shy,
they are like girls I remember
from junior high, who never
spoke, who kept their heads
lowered and their arms crossed against
their new breasts. Those girls
are nearly forty now. Like me,
they must sometimes stand
at a window late at night, looking out
on a silent backyard, at one
rusting lawn chair and the sheer walls
of other people’s houses.
They must lie down some afternoons
and cry hard for whoever used
to make them happiest,
and wonder how their lives
have carried them
this far without ever once
explaining anything. I don’t know
why I’m walking out here
with my coat darkening
and my boots sinking in, coming up
with a mild sucking sound
I like to hear. I don’t care
where those girls are now.
Whatever they’ve made of it
they can have. Today I want
to resolve nothing.
I only want to walk
a little longer in the cold
blessing of the rain,
and lift my face to it.
English language & literature 