A Man Young and Old
|
一个男人的青春与暮年
|
I |
一 |
First Love
|
初恋
|
Though nurtured like the sailing moon |
是美色的孕育, |
In beauty's murderous brood, |
她美如滑行的月亮, |
She walked awhile and blushed awhile |
在我的小径上漫步, |
And on my pathway stood |
脸上时而泛起红晕, |
Until I thought her body bore |
我曾以为她的胸口里 |
A heart of flesh and blood. |
藏着一颗血肉的心。 |
But since I laid a hand thereon |
但我伸手过去,却发现 |
And found a heart of stone |
她的心有如石铸,从此 |
I have attempted many things, |
我的一切事情 |
And not a thing is done, |
再不顺遂,因为 |
For every hand is lunatic |
若伸手在月亮上摸索, |
That travels on the moon. |
定是神经出了问题。 |
She smiled and that transfigured me |
她的微笑改变了我的面容, |
And left me but a lout, |
自她去后,我如戏中的丑角, |
Maundering here, and maundering there, |
来回踱步, |
Emptier of thought |
内心荒芜, |
Than the heavenly circuit of its stars |
还不如群星在天上的轨迹 自月亮离开之后。 |
Ⅱ |
二 |
Human Dignity
|
人的尊严
|
Like the moon her kindness is, |
她的好意就像那月亮, |
If kindness I may call |
若我可以 |
What has no comprehension in't, |
把其中捉摸不透的、而对所有人 |
But is the same for all |
都一样的东西称作好意, |
As though my sorrow were a scene |
好像我的忧伤只是一个剧中场景, |
Upon a painted wall. |
衬着身后装饰过的墙壁。 |
So like a bit of stone I lie |
于是我躺倒,像一块石头 |
Under a broken tree. |
躺倒在枯树下边。 |
I could recover if I shrieked |
若能 |
My heart's agony |
把心中痛苦向着 |
To passing bird, but I am dumb |
掠过的鸟儿嘶喊, |
From human dignity. |
或许我才能平复一些,但我无言, |
When the moon sails out. |
出于人的尊严。 |
Ⅲ |
三 |
The Mermaid
|
美人鱼
|
A mermaid found a swimming lad, |
美人鱼发现一位游水的少年, |
Picked him for her own, |
便捉他来,做自己的情郎, |
Pressed her body to his body, |
紧紧拥抱着他的身体, |
Laughed;and plunging down |
恣意地笑着,潜入水底; |
Forgot in cruel happiness |
却忘记了啊,在残忍的欢娱里, |
That even lovers drown. |
便是有情人也会溺毙。 |
Ⅳ |
四 |
The Death of the Hare
|
野兔之死
|
I have pointed out the yelling pack, |
我指出那狂吠的犬群所在, |
The hare leap to the wood, |
好让野兔跳入树林, |
And when I pass a compliment |
当我对那低垂的眼眸致意时, |
Rejoice as lover should |
对那涨红的脸儿致意时, |
At the drooping of an eye, |
便有了恋人的欢愉。 |
At the mantling of the blood. |
|
Then suddenly my heart is wrung |
突然间,我心绞痛, |
By her distracted air |
因她失神的容颜, |
And I remember wildness lost |
遂忆起那野性早失, |
And after, swept from there, |
便被推离,我站在 |
Am set down standing in the wood |
那片树林里, |
At the death of the hare. |
站在那野兔死去的地方。 |
V |
五 |
The Empty Cup
|
空杯
|
A crazy man that found a cup, |
疯子找到了一只杯子, |
When all but dead of thirst, |
在焦渴的时候 |
Hardly dared to wet his mouth |
却不敢沾唇, |
Imagining, moon-accursed, |
心在迷乱,怕着 |
That another mouthful |
若喝上一口, |
And his beating heart would burst. |
那狂跳的心就会爆裂。 |
October last I found it too |
去年十月我找到了那只杯子, |
But found it dry as bone, |
却发现它已是一只空杯, |
And for that reason am I crazed |
我因此而疯癫, |
And my sleep is gone. |
因此而疏远了睡眠。 |
VI |
六 |
His Memories
|
他的回忆
|
We should be hidden from their eyes, |
我们应该远离他们的目光, |
Being but holy shows |
只如圣灵般出现, |
And bodies broken like a thorn |
身躯碎裂如荆棘, |
Whereon the bleak north blows, |
任由凛冽的北风吹打, |
To think of buried Hector |
想想已死的赫克托尔吧,他的名字 |
And that none living knows. |
如今已再无人知。 |
The women take so little stock |
我的所言所行 |
In what I do or say |
女人们并不关注, |
They'd sooner leave their cosseting |
她们宁可离座 |
To hear a jackass bray; |
去听驴子的歌声, |
My arms are like the twisted thorn |
而我那荆棘般的手臂, |
And yet there beauty lay; |
也曾有位美人枕过。 |
The first of all the tribe lay there |
那是整个部落里最美的人儿, |
And did such pleasure take— |
与我欢愉—— |
She who had brought great Hector down |
她曾使伟大的赫克托尔威风扫地, |
And put all Troy to wreck— |
还毁灭了一座特洛伊, |
That she cried into this ear, |
而她,“若我尖叫就再用力些吧,” |
‘Strike me if I shriek.' |
——曾在我耳边这样私语。 |
VII |
七 |
The Friends of His Youth
|
他青年时代的朋友们
|
Laughter not time destroyed my voice |
是笑声而非时光 |
And put that crack in it, |
沙哑了我的声音, |
And when the moon's pot-bellied |
每到月圆的时候 |
I get a laughing fit, |
我陷入笑的痉挛, |
For that old Madge comes down the lane, |
因老梅吉从小巷走来, |
A stone upon her breast, |
抱着一块石头, |
And a cloak wrapped about the stone, |
一块裹了斗篷的石头, |
And she can get no rest |
她嘴里喃喃着不停, |
With singing hush and hush-a-bye; |
唱着催眠的歌儿, |
She that has been wild |
她曾狂野过,如今 |
And barren as a breaking wave |
却如碎裂的浪花,无力生育 |
Thinks that the stone's a child. |
把石头当作婴儿。 |
And Peter that had great affairs |
彼得是个精力过人的家伙, |
And was a pushing man |
有过非凡的种种情事, |
Shrieks,‘I am King of the Peacocks,' |
他高喊着以孔雀王自诩, |
And perches on a stone; |
在石上歇息; |
And then I laugh till tears run down |
而我大笑着直到泪水流下, |
And the heart thumps at my side, |
心脏的胸口急跳, |
Remembering that her shriek was love |
想起从前,她的尖叫是因为爱情, |
And that he shrieks from pride. |
他的叫喊是因为骄傲。 |
VIII |
八 |
Summer and Spring
|
夏天和春天
|
We sat under an old thorn-tree |
我们坐在一棵老棘树下, |
And talked away the night, |
谈了整整一晚, |
Told all that had been said or done |
谈起我们有生之年 |
Since first we saw the light, |
做过的事,说过的话; |
And when we talked of growing up |
我们谈起成年的时候 |
Knew that we'd halved a soul |
裂去了一个完整的灵魂, |
And fell the one in t'other's arms |
谈到只有依偎在彼此的怀里 |
That we might make it whole; |
那灵魂才能再度合一; |
Then Peter had a murdering look, |
彼得突然露出凶巴巴的表情, |
For it seemed that he and she |
因为他和她 |
Had spoken of their childish days |
也是在这棵树下 |
Under that very tree. |
似曾同样谈起过他们共同的童年。 |
O what a bursting out there was, |
啊,怎样的萌芽初吐, |
And what a blossoming, |
怎样的花团锦簇, |
When we had all the summer-time |
当我们拥有着整个夏季, |
And she had all the spring! |
而她,拥有着全部的春天。 |
IX |
九 |
The Secrets of the Old
|
老人的秘密
|
I have old women's secrets now |
如今,我知晓了老妇的秘密, |
That had those of the young; |
知晓了她们年轻时的往事; |
Madge tells me what I dared not think |
梅吉告诉了我一位恋人溺死的经过, |
When my blood was strong, |
她的话像一支古老的谣曲, |
And what had drowned a lover once |
那是我年轻时候 |
Sounds like an old song. |
也不敢想象的事情。 |
Though Margery is stricken dumb |
要是玛格丽也在, |
If thrown in Madge's way, |
也会被这些故事惊得无言, |
We three make up a solitude; |
而我们虽然三人一起,却只感到孤单; |
For none alive to-day |
因为,今天在世的人啊, |
Can know the stories that we know |
无一知晓我们所知的往事, |
Or say the things we say: |
无一知晓我们所说的故事。 |
How such a man pleased women most |
在所有逝去的人当中, |
Of all that are gone, |
有那么一个男人曾经被女人们喜欢, |
How such a pair loved many years |
有那么一对恋人曾经相爱多年, |
And such a pair but one, |
许许多多的故事, |
Stories of the bed of straw |
富贵,贫贱, |
Or the bed of down. |
不再流传。 |
X |
十 |
His Wildness
|
他的狂野
|
O bid me mount and sail up there |
啊,让我上马,起程, |
Amid the cloudy wrack, |
在无数残骸中穿行, |
For Peg and Meg and Paris'love |
因为年轻的 |
That had so straight a back, |
佩格、麦格、帕里斯的恋人 |
Are gone away, and some that stay |
都已逝去,而留下的人 |
Have changed their silk for sack. |
用绸缎换取了麻布。 |
Were I but there and none to hear |
如果我在那里,无人知晓, |
1'd have a peacock cry, |
我会让一只孔雀啼叫, |
For that is natural to a man |
因这对一个活在回忆中的男人 |
That lives in memory, |
是件再自然不过的事情; |
Being all alone I'd nurse a stone |
在无比的孤独里,我情愿照看一块石头, |
And sing it lullaby. |
给它唱催眠曲听。 |
XI |
十一 |
From‘Oedipus at Colonus'
|
出自《俄狄浦斯在科洛努斯》
|
Endure what life God gives and ask no longer span; |
安于上天给予的生命,不要祈求长寿, |
Cease to remember the delights of youth, travel-wearied aged man; |
倦旅中的老者啊,别再回想往昔的欢愉, |
Delight becomes death-longing if all longing else be vain. |
若一切渴望都归于徒劳,欢愉即会变作对死亡的渴望。 |
Even from that delight memory treasures so, |
甚至,从那为记忆所珍藏的欢愉里, |
Death, despair, division of families, all entanglements of mankind grow, |
也会生出死亡、绝望、家庭的分裂、种种人世的纠葛, |
As that old wandering beggar and these God-hated children know. |
一如这流浪的老丐与这些被上天厌弃的孩童所知。 |
In the long echoing street the laughing dancers throng, |
在满是回声的长街上拥挤着跳舞的人群, |
The bride is carried to the bridegroom's chamber through torchlight and tumultuous song; |
在火把与喧闹的歌声中,新娘被领入新郎的卧房, |
I celebrate the silent kiss that ends short life or long. |
我赞美那结束短暂或漫长生命的沉默的亲吻。 |
Never to have lived is best, ancient writers say; |
如古代作家们所说,最好的事情莫过于从未活过, |
Never to have drawn the breath of life, never to have looked into the eye of day; |
莫过于从未汲取过生命的气息,从未凝视过白昼的眼眸, |
The second best's a gay goodnight and quickly turn away. |
其次,才是一声愉快的晚安和迅速的转身离去。 |