IV

四

Blue-geese, white-geese, you may say,

蓝雁，白雁，你会说，

yes, I know this duality, this double nostalgia;

不错，我了解这两重性，这双倍的怀乡；

I know the insatiable longing

我知道那无法满足的渴念，

in winter, for palm-shadow

在冬天，渴望棕榈树影

and sand and burnt sea-drift;

渴望沙滩，海面烤焦的草；

but in the summer, as I watch

但在夏天，当我注视

the wave till its edge of foam

海浪卷来，直到浪花

touches the hot sand and instantly

碰到火烫的沙滩，即刻

vanishes like snow on the equator,

就消失，像赤道上下雪，

I would cry out, stay, stay;

我嚷起来：且住，且住；

then I remember delicate enduring frost

这时我想起纤细耐久的霜

and its mid-winter dawn-pattern;

想起冬晨它画的图案；

in the hot noon-sun, I think of the grey

在这正午毒日下，我想起

opalescent winter-dawn; as the wave

白蒙蒙的冬晨；一如这浪

burns on the shingle, I think,

在卵石滩上燃烧，我想，

you are less beautiful than frost;

你不见得比冬霜更美；

but it is also true that I pray,

但我确也祈求，

O, give me burning blue

哦，请在浪花的边线上

and brittle burnt sea-weed

带给我燃烧的蓝色

above the tide-line,

和烤焦的脆弱的海草，

as I stand, still unsatisfied,

当我满怀饥渴，伫立

under the long shadow-on-snow of the pine.

在雪地上松树长长的影子里。