Among School Children
|
在學(xué)童中間
|
Ⅰ |
一 |
I walk through the long schoolroom questioning; |
我邊走邊問,從長長的教室走過, |
A kind old nun in a white hood replies; |
一位和藹的老修女回答著問題; |
The children learn to cipher and to sing, |
孩子們做算術(shù)、唱歌, |
To study reading-books and history, |
學(xué)習(xí)各樣的讀本和歷史, |
To cut and sew, be neat in everything |
還要做精巧的手工, |
In the best modern way—the children's eyes |
時(shí)髦樣子的那些——而孩子們 |
In momentary wonder stare upon |
時(shí)不時(shí)地出于好奇,偷眼來看 |
A sixty-year-old smiling public man. |
這位花甲之年的微笑著的名人。 |
Ⅱ |
二 |
I dream of a Ledaean body, bent |
我夢一個(gè)麗達(dá)般的身影, |
Above a sinking fire, a tale that she |
俯向奄奄的爐火,講起 |
Told of a harsh reproof, or trivial event |
一次童年所受的苛責(zé),一件小事 |
That changed some childish day to tragedy— |
給童心埋下陰影的一天—— |
Told, and it seemed that our two natures blent |
待她講完,我們兩人的天性仿佛 |
Into a sphere from youthful sympathy, |
出于年輕的同情心而合成一個(gè)球體, |
Or else, to alter Plato's parable, |
或者說——不妨篡改一下柏拉圖的妙喻—— |
Into the yolk and white of the one shell. |
成為同一蛋殼里的蛋黃與蛋白。 |
Ⅲ |
三 |
And thinking of that fit of grief or rage |
心想著那時(shí)的悲與怒, |
I look upon one child or other there |
我看看這個(gè)孩子,又看看那個(gè), |
And wonder if she stood so at that age— |
想到她在這個(gè)年紀(jì)是否也是這般樣子—— |
For even daughters of the swan can share |
因?yàn)樘禊Z的女兒也會(huì)遺傳 |
Something of every paddler's heritage— |
所有鳴禽的共性—— |
And had that colour upon cheek or hair, |
是否也有這樣顏色的臉孔或發(fā)辮。 |
And thereupon my heart is driven wild: |
心念及此,直要讓我瘋狂: |
She stands before me as a living child. |
她仿佛一個(gè)活生生的孩子在我面前。 |
IV |
四 |
Her present image floats into the mind— |
她現(xiàn)在的形象在我腦海, |
Did Quattrocento finger fashion it |
可是出自十五世紀(jì)大師的指端? |
Hollow of cheek as though it drank the wind |
那凹陷的臉頰,莫不是終日里 |
And took a mess of shadows for its meat? |
以風(fēng)影為飲食的結(jié)果? |
And I though never of Ledaean kind |
而我,雖非麗達(dá)般的人物, |
Had pretty plumage once—enough of that, |
卻也有過漂亮的羽翎——夠了, |
Better to smile on all that smile, and show |
何不以微笑面對所有微笑的人, |
There is a comfortable kind of old scarecrow. |
顯示著老去的稻草人正過著舒心的日子。 |
V |
五 |
What youthful mother, a shape upon her lap |
年輕的母親,膝上有個(gè)人形。 |
Honey of generation had betrayed, |
受生殖蜜的捉弄, |
And that must sleep, shriek, struggle to escape |
必將睡眠、哭喊、掙扎著逃走, |
As recollection or the drug decide, |
是受制于回憶或藥物的力量。 |
Would think her son, did she but see that shape |
她會(huì)怎樣看她的孩子?假如她只把那人形—— |
With sixty or more winters on its head, |
把那頭上披著六十多年寒冬的人形—— |
A compensation for the pang of his birth, |
當(dāng)作對生他時(shí)的劇痛的補(bǔ)償, |
Or the uncertainty of his setting forth? |
或當(dāng)作曾對他前程的憂慮的補(bǔ)償? |
VI |
六 |
Plato thought nature but a spume that plays |
柏拉圖認(rèn)為自然只是泡沫, |
Upon a ghostly paradigm of things; |
戲弄著萬物幽靈般的萬變; |
Solider Aristotle played the taws |
亞里士多德?lián)]動(dòng)著樺木條, |
Upon the bottom of a king of kings; |
抽打著那萬王之王的屁股; |
World-famous golden-thighed Pythagoras |
而聲名顯赫的畢達(dá)哥拉斯 |
Fingered upon a fiddle-stick or strings |
從琴弦和琴弓上洞悉: |
What a star sang and careless Muses heard: |
那星星所唱的、無心的繆斯所聽的樂曲: |
Old clothes upon old sticks to scare a bird. |
嚇唬鳥兒的舊竹竿上的破衣。 |
VII |
七 |
Both nuns and mothers worship images, |
修女和母親們都崇拜偶像, |
But those the candles light are not as those |
但那些燭光里的尊容 |
That animate a mother's reveries, |
并不能激起哪位母親的幻想, |
But keep a marble or a bronze repose. |
只是使石像或銅像沉靜。 |
And yet they too break hearts—O Presences |
但他們也叫人心碎——諸般形象, |
That passion, piety or affection knows, |
諸般激情、虔敬、愛念所熟知的形象, |
And that all heavenly glory symbolise— |
這些榮耀的神靈, |
O self-born mockers of man's enterprise; |
這些自生的人類理想的嘲弄者。 |
VIII |
八 |
Labour is blossoming or dancing where |
辛勞本身就是開花,就是舞蹈, |
The body is not bruised to pleasure soul, |
只要軀體不為取悅靈魂而傷殘, |
Nor beauty born out of its own despair, |
只要美并非產(chǎn)生于絕望的念頭, |
Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil. |
只要模糊的智慧并非出于熬夜到通宵。 |
O chestnut-tree, great-rooted blossomer, |
栗樹啊,虬根的花樹, |
Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole? |
你是葉子、是花朵、還是株干? |
O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, |
踏著節(jié)拍的身體,發(fā)光的眼神, |
How can we know the dancer from the dance? |
我們怎樣區(qū)分舞蹈與跳舞的人? |