理查德·威爾伯(Richard Wilbur)(1921 - )，美國著名詩人。1946年被任命為第六位國會圖書館桂冠詩人顧問，並於1957年和1989年兩次獲得普利策詩歌獎。1987年，成為繼羅伯特·沃倫之後第二位獲美國桂冠詩人稱號的詩人。2006年, 威爾伯贏得了盧斯·里利詩歌大獎(the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize)。

以下詩作皆譯自《詩集：1943 - 2004》
Collected Poems 1943-2004 Harvest Books (April 3, 2006)

完畢的人

那四個把他拋落船塢的粗俗之輩
三個已經死掉，所以他們對他嗆水、
濺水、恐懼模樣的嘲弄也更加軟弱無力。
他對第四位的記憶則開始消逝。

他無法原諒的是他自己；
而那女人，他駭人的失禮
讓她驚愕，用餐巾半掩笑態，
能比她更長命總算有些慰懷，

或者那白頭的同事，如今肯定已走了，
曾因發覺他說假話而面有窘色，
聳眉，還轉身面向窗戶。
所有目擊者都變得暗淡，眼睛一只比一只模糊。

所以今天他能夠漫步，心情輕松，
經過舊四方院，由受托人陪同，
去奉獻那座雄偉的體育館
給一所欲以他命名、感激不盡的學院。

當年輕的院長站起來講話
他坐著，感到溫暖的陽光雕刻他的面頰。
如果死者死去，如果他不過是得忘卻，
如果金錢會說話，他早晚會完美無缺。

A Finished Man

Of the four louts who threw him off the dock
Three are now dead, and so more faintly mock
The way he choked and splashed and was afraid.
His memory of the fourth begins to fade.

It was himself whom he could not forgive;
Yet it has been a comfort to outlive
That woman, stunned by his appalling gaffe,
Who with a napkin half-suppressed her laugh,

Or that grey colleague, surely gone by now,
Who, turning toward the window, raised his brow,
Embarrassed to have caught him in a lie.
All witness darkens, eye by dimming eye.

Thus he can walk today with heart at ease
Through the old quad, escorted by trustees,
To dedicate the monumental gym
A grateful college means to name for him.

Seated, he feels the warm sun sculpt his cheek
As the young president gets up to speak.
If the dead die, if he can but forget,
If money talks, he may be perfect yet.

橫紋鵂鹠

晚間扭曲的微風將一只
鵂鹠低沉的叫聲帶進了黑暗的寢室，
我們對被吵醒的孩子說她聽到的
不過是只林鳥的一個
古怪問題。它在問我們，如果聽真點，
“誰給你們做飯？”又問“誰給你們做飯？”

話語，令我們的驚駭變得煥然明晰，
因此也能馴服恐懼，
能在晚上將小孩子送回夢鄉
不用再聽悄飛的聲響
或夢到爪下的某種小東西
給抓上陰暗的枝椏，活生生地被吃。

A Barred Owl

The warping night-air having brought the boom
Of an owl's voice into her darkened room,
We tell the wakened child that all she heard
Was an odd question from a forest bird,
Asking of us, if rightly listened to,
"Who cooks for you?" and then "Who cooks for you?"

Words, which can make our terrors bravely clear,
Can also thus domesticate a fear,
And send a small child back to sleep at night
Not listening for the sound of stealthy flight
Or dreaming of some small thing in a claw
Borne up to some dark branch and eaten raw.

原載《詩天空》

花花公子

傻瓜般高坐在庫房的梯子上，
倉管小伙子宛如哲人般鑽研
一光滑頁面上的內容，迷失在曲線
裡頭，就像從前阿基米德那樣。

偶爾，看也不看，他吃點東西。
有如飛行中的母禽，他的左手
帶來三文治，讓他在邊上咬一口，
然後又送回滿是灰塵的架子裡。

是什麼讓他這樣全神貫注？一位
裸女跌跌撞撞進了這間貼滿粉紅牆紙的
凹室，布置雜亂，地板上橫陳著
一大堆華麗的枕頭和動物毛皮，

她跪在裡面，擺了個逢迎
的姿勢，伸出的手
舉著高腳杯，似乎要向花几敬酒，
一束炸開的玫瑰從長頸水晶花瓶

射出來，在花几上面懸浮。
瓶子擺在一塊紅如朱砂的
有穗台布上，連衣蛾嘗一口都會變得
干癟？或許他只是在琢磨她無暇的胸脯？

所有優美的地方都逃不過他的眼，
她的軀體，泛光般明亮的肌膚，
如此光滑溫暖，竟出奇地像件制服，
不過此時緊握他想像力的是她的臉，

那精巧的照片如何在那微笑的瞬間
令她一動不動，而她的心則變得
溫婉無力，不可抑制地
傾倒服從於他的冷酷意願。

Playboy

High on his stockroom ladder like a dunce
The stock-boy sits, and studies like a sage
The subject matter of one glossy page,
As lost in curves as Archimedes once.

Sometimes, without a glance, he feeds himself.
The left hand, like a mother-bird in flight,
Brings him a sandwich for a sidelong bite,
And then returns it to a dusty shelf.

What so engrosses him? The wild decor
Of this pink-papered alcove into which
A naked girl has stumbled, with its rich
Welter of pelts and pillows on the floor,

Amidst which, kneeling in a supple pose,
She lifts a goblet in her farther hand,
As if about to toast a flower-stand
Above which hovers an exploding rose

Fired from a long-necked crystal vase that rests
Upon a tasseled and vermillion cloth
One taste of which would shrivel up a moth?
Or is he pondering her perfect breasts?

Nothing escapes him of her body's grace
Or of her floodlit skin, so sleek and warm
And yet so strangely like a uniform,
But what now grips his fancy is her face,

And how the cunning picture holds her still
At just that smiling instant when her soul,
Grown sweetly faint, and swept beyond control,
Consents to his inexorable will.