蔚雅风诗3首
蔚雅风（Afaa Weaver），1951年生于美国马里兰州的巴尔地摩。他曾在马里兰大学（1968-70）和摩根州立大学（1975）就读，但均未获学位；1983-86年间，他在Excelsior 学院就读，取得英国文学学士学位；1985-87年间，他在布朗大学研究所进修，主修创作，获颁硕士学位。他曾在美国多所大学担任助理教授或讲师，开授创作、诗歌、黑人文学、编剧等课程；目前他任教于马萨诸塞州波士顿的西门斯学院。除了写诗，他也创作剧本。他出版的作品集有：《采集声音》（Gathering Voices, 1985），《水歌》（Water Song, 1985），《某些日子缓步走向黄昏》（Some days it’s a slow walk to evening, 1989），《我父亲的地理学》（My Father’s Geography, 1992），《梦中车站》（Stations in a Dream, 1993），《木料与祈祷》（Timber and Prayer, 1995），《上帝的十盏灯》（The Ten Lights of God, 2000），《砂石满布的海岬》（Sandy Point, 2000），《我认识的这些手》（These Hands I Know, 2000），和诗合集《大多数》（Multitudes, 2000）等。他曾获得许多奖项，包括「宾州艺术委员会研究奖金」，「美国杰出青年奖」以及「PDI剧作家奖」等。
蔚雅风认为在经过几十年的实验和蜕变之后，未来的诗歌将会是网络世界与传统诗歌形貌的综合体。为了让诗歌普及，他极力倡导诗歌朗读，除了在美国，他也受邀到伦敦和巴黎等地朗读诗作。不过，他认为将诗过分商业化、通俗化，是一件危险的事——读诗人口质的提升要比量的增加来得重要。
我的爱人的魔力
在我亲自站岗守护的臂弯里，
她的魔咒，她紧偎着鸟鸣的甜味
的舌头，用指头在我的木造门板上敲出一首摇篮曲，
光拍击灵魂之座舱，盘旋而上，我们的
逃亡音乐。
我们追逐大气，
一对象征欲望的图腾，
她的头在细微的羽毛里缠卷发辫，
她的脚趾踩碎潮湿青草发出
轻柔哀鸣。我唱出我们母亲的那首歌，
河之幻想曲——
乖乖，静下来吧
在月亮的叫喊中轻声细语
乖乖，静下来吧
我歌唱，我抚摸你。
在窗内，另一个唱诗班，
她黑色的愤怒里还有一个，
石头粉碎成星星，
自干涸过久的肺鱼的
悲泣中流出的血液，
蕴藏在紫色怒气中的嫉妒。
我的手认识你，
鼓掌又噼啪作响，从眼泪的
灌木丛蜂涌而出的鸟群，
汗水之歌——我的手知道。
我品尝你。
收音机年代
——给蔚马可
我父亲有一张我的照片
大约在查理．帕克死时
所照。我端坐如一名王子，
直立，灿烂，微笑。我的头上
笼罩着以黄金藤编织成的
希望，但这并没有在照片中显现。
我记得从那时起的收音机，
翻报纸搜寻我爱听的节目。.
我父亲习惯在他领薪日
带些玩具回家给我，一些
小东西。那是给
家中长子的奖赏。.
他们期望我让未来成为
安全之地。我必须屠狮。
我注视着我儿子，我弟弟。
我注视着我父亲。我们四个
是一道电路，其中的电流是
希望与恐惧之流，流动，
倒退，存在又不存在。
我们举起我们的手，梦想
从中飞出——带电的青鸟。
自我
上帝的声音
在噼啪作响的思想的
骚动中
被清楚听到
像枯叶般——
碎裂。
陈 黎、张 芬 龄 / 译
Afaa Michael Weaver
1951–
Afaa Michael Weaver was born Michael S. Weaver in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1951. The son of working class parents, he attended public schools and graduated as a National Merit finalist at the age of sixteen. After two years at the University of Maryland, he took a factory job alongside his father and uncles and remained a factory worker for fifteen years. During this period, he wrote and published poetry, short fiction, and freelance journalism; he also founded 7th Son Press and Blind Alleys, a literary journal.
Weaver’s first book of poetry, Water Song (Callaloo Journal), was published in 1985. Six months after signing the contract, he received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and left the factory to attend Brown University’s graduate writing program on a full university fellowship. He received an MA in theater and playwriting at Brown, while simultaneously completing a BA in literature at Excelsior College.
Since Water Song, Weaver has published several additional collections of poetry, including Spirit Boxing (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017); City of Eternal Spring (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2014); The Government of Nature (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013), for which he received the Kingsley Tufts Award; and The Ten Lights of God (Bucknell University Press, 2000). His full-length play Rosa was produced in 1993 at Venture Theater in Philadelphia. His short fiction appears in multiple anthologies, including Children of the Night: The Best Short Stories by Black Writers, 1967 to the Present (Little, Brown, 1997), edited by Gloria Naylor.
Weaver took the name Afaa in 1997, after the death of his first child; the name, given to him by the Nigerian playwright Tess Onwueme, is an Ibo word meaning “oracle."
Weaver has received numerous fellowships and awards, including a 1995 fellowship from the Pennsylvania State Arts Council, a 1998 Pew Fellowship, and a 2002 Fulbright Scholar appointment to Taiwan, where he taught at the National Taiwan University and Taipei National University of the Arts. Weaver retired from Simmons College, where he held the Alumnae Endowed Chair for twenty years, and is a member of the core faculty in the Drew MFA program in Poetry and Poetry in Translation. He lives in West Cornwall, Connecticut.
Selected Bibliography
Spirit Boxing (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017)
City of Eternal Spring (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2014)
The Government of Nature (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013)
The Plum Flower Dance: Poems 1985 to 2005 (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007)
Multitudes (Sarabande Books, 2000)
The Ten Lights of God (Bucknell University Press, 2000)
Water Song (Callaloo Journal, 1985)
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