The biggest sales of poetry since records began(自有记录以来) are expected this year. The reason? The movies, of course. UK print sales of The Odyssey increased by 1,400% in the four weeks to 25 July compared with the same period last year. In the US, year-to-date sales of The Odyssey are up 76% so far. Christopher Nolan(克里斯托弗·诺兰，著名导演) is doing miracles(奇迹) for Homer – whatever problems one might have(无论人们可能有什么问题) with the movie (and Emily Wilson(艾米莉·威尔逊，古典学者和翻译家), who made the most popular recent translation, has a few).
今年预计将创下有记录以来诗歌的最高销量。原因何在？当然是电影。在截至7月25日的四周内，英国《奥德赛》的印刷销量比去年同期增长了1400%。在美国，《奥德赛》今年迄今的销量已上涨76%。克里斯托弗·诺兰正在为荷马创造奇迹——无论人们对这部电影有何看法（而艾米莉·威尔逊，她做了最近最受欢迎的译本，就有一些看法）。
Strip out(排除，剔除) the Odyssey factor, though, and poetry is still doing exceptionally well, driven by writers whose work is often mildly denigrated(贬低，诋毁) as “Instapoetry(Instagram诗歌，网络短诗)”, such as Lucas Jones. His is a kind of versifying that delivers immediate uplifting aphorisms(格言，警句) rather than either the kind of dense, allusive(引经据典的，含典故的) play with language that might reward repeated reading; or the sort of limpid(清澈的，清晰的), performable music that propels a well-translated Homeric epic. But even so, the poets of Instagram reach for something that can’t quite be expressed through everyday speech. And readers respond to it.
然而，撇开《奥德赛》因素，诗歌仍然表现得异常出色，这得益于那些作品常被轻蔑地称为“Ins诗歌”的作家，比如卢卡斯·琼斯。他的诗是一种即时的、令人振奋的格言式写作，既不是那种密集、引经据典的语言游戏，值得反复阅读；也不是那种流畅、可表演的音乐，推动一部翻译精良的荷马史诗。但即便如此，Instagram上的诗人们所触及的东西，是日常言语无法完全表达的。而读者对此产生了共鸣。
Sales figures are a rough and insubstantial(非实质的，空洞的) metric(衡量标准，指标), though. They don’t tell us how someone feels when they read a good poem, what it expands for them, what memories it brings, what connections to other times and places. What shiver of alienation(疏离感，异化) it offers; what moment (often) of puzzlement. Poetry can be baffling(令人困惑的); it can refuse to unfurl(展开，铺开) all of itself to the reader. Better, I think, to sink into(沉浸于，陷入) the sensations that a poem creates than always to worry at(反复琢磨，不断撕咬) it like a puzzle. By its nature, poetry expresses what can’t be said in prose; it can be resistant, you can snag(绊住，钩住) on it. Poetry is needed in an emergency, when ordinary ways of writing or speaking can’t get at the moment, or the feeling, or the thought.
然而，销售数字是一个粗略而空洞的衡量标准。它们无法告诉我们，当一个人读到一首好诗时是什么感受，诗为他们扩展了什么，带来了什么回忆，与其它时空有什么联系。它带来怎样的疏离感；又常常带来怎样的困惑。诗歌可能令人费解；它可能拒绝向读者完全展开自己。我认为，与其总是像解谜一样琢磨一首诗，不如沉浸于它创造的感觉中。就其本质而言，诗歌表达的是散文无法言说的东西；它可能具有抵抗性，你可能被它绊住。在紧急情况下，当普通的写作或言说方式无法触及那一刻、那种感觉或那个想法时，诗歌便不可或缺。