It was not dying: everybody died.

不是即将死去：每个人已死去。

It was not dying: we had died before

不是即将死去：早前，在例行的撞毁

In the routine crashes—and our fields

我们已死去——我们的训练场

Called up the papers, wrote home to our folks,

打电话给报纸，写信给我们的家人，

And the rates rose, all because of us.

而比率上升，全因为我们。

We died on the wrong page of the almanac,

我们死在年鉴的荒诞页面，

Scattered on mountains fifty miles away;

散布在五十英里外的山上；

Diving on haystacks, fighting with a friend,

跳落在干草堆上，和一个朋友打仗，我们

We blazed up on the lines we never saw.

闪耀在我们从未见过的航线。

We died like aunts or pets or foreigners.

我们像姑妈、宠物或外国人一样死去。

(When we left high school nothing else had died

（当我们离开高中，没有他物为我们而死

For us to figure we had died like.)

以估测我们的死亡方式。）

In our new planes, with our new crews, we bombed

驾着我们的新飞机，和我们的新队员，我们轰炸了

The ranges by the desert or the shore,

沙漠或海岸附近的靶场，

Fired at towed targets, waited for our scores—

向拖靶开火，等待我们的分数——

And turned into replacements and woke up

然后转为接替队员，然后在一天早晨

One morning, over England, operational.

醒来，在英格兰上空，进入激战。

别无二致：但如果我们死去，

It wasn’t different: but if we died

并非意外，而是一次失误

It was not an accident but a mistake

（一个人人易犯的失误）。

(But an easy one for anyone to make.)

我们阅读邮件，数着我们的任务——

We read our mail and counted up our missions—

驾着起着女孩名的轰炸机，焚毁

In bombers named for girls, we burned

在学校里了解到的城市——

The cities we had learned about in school—

直到我们的生命耗尽；我们的身体躺在

Till our lives wore out; our bodies lay among

那些我们杀死而从未见过的人中。

The people we had killed and never seen.

当我们持续够久他们给我们勋章；

When we lasted long enough they gave us medals;

当我们死时他们说：“我们的损失甚微。”

When we died they said, ‘Our casualties were low.’

他们说：“这有地图”；我们焚毁了城市。

They said, 'Here are the maps’; we burned the cities.

不是即将死去——不，从未即将死去；

但我死的那晚，我梦见我的死，

It was not dying—no, not ever dying;

而那些城市对我说：“你为什么要死？

But the night I died I dreamed that I was dead,

如果你满意，我们也满意；但我为什么要死？”

And the cities said to me: ‘Why are you dying?

We are satisfied, if you are; but why did I die?’