Convalescing

I spend the days deciding
on a commemorative poem.
Not,luckily,an epitaph.
A quiet poem
to establish the  fact of me.
As one of the incidental faces
in those stone processions.
Carefully done.
Not claiming that I was
at any of the great victories.
But that I volunteered.

                              -------Jack Gilbert
作者简介：Jack Gilbert won the 2005 National Book Critics Award for poetry for 'Refusing Heaven. '
（康复
我花了几天的时间
在一首纪念的诗词上。
庆幸，不是一阕墓志铭。
一首平静的诗
建成事实上的我。
好似附在
这些排列的石头队列中
众多面孔里的一张脸。
精心完成。
没有宣称我曾是
任何了不起的成功者。
不过这是我的自愿。）