城市西川 译

The CityJohn Cavafy 译


你说:“我要去另一块土地,我将去另一片大海。
You said: “I will go hence to another land,
另一座城市,比这更好的城市,将被发现。
I will betake me to another sea.
我的每一项努力都是对命运的谴责;
A better place than this may well be found.
而我的心被埋葬了,像一具尸体。
All my endeavours are foredoomed to fail,
在这座荒原上,我的神思还要坚持多久?
and as though dead my heart is sepulchred.
无论我的脸朝向哪里,无论我的视线投向何方,
How long shall this corrosion sap my brain?
我在此看到的尽是我生命的黑色废墟。
On every side — whichever way I look —
多年以来,我在此毁灭自己,虚掷自己。”
dark ruins of my life confront me here

where I have spent and wrecked so many years.”
你会发现没有新的土地,你会发现没有别的大海。

这城市将尾随着你,你游荡的街道
You shall not find new places; other seas
将一仍其旧,你老去,周围将是同样的邻居;
you shall not find. The place shall follow you.
这些房屋也将一仍其旧,你将在其中白发丛生。
And you shall walk the same familiar streets,
你将到达的永远是同一座城市,别指望还有他乡。
and you shall age in the same neighbourhood,
没有渡载你的船,没有供你行走的道路,
and whiten in these same houses. Ever this place
你既已毁掉你的生活,在这小小的角落,
shall you arrive at. There is neither ship,
你便已经毁掉了它,在整个世界。
nor road, for you, to bring you otherwhere.
As here, in this small nook, you wrecked your life,
even so you spoilt it over all the earth.


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