I

一．

In my beginning is my end. In succession

在我的开始是我的终点。

Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended,

持续不断地

Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place

房屋建起又倾颓，瓦解，又扩展

Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass.

迁移，破败，重修，或在原址上

Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires,

出现一片空旷的原野，或一家工厂，或一条间道。

Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth

旧石变作新楼，旧木变作新火，

Which is already flesh, fur and faeces,

旧火变为灰烬，灰烬化作泥土。

Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and leaf.

泥土又化作了血肉、皮毛和粪便，

Houses live and die: there is a time for building

化作人与兽的骨头、稻草和叶子。

And a time for living and for generation

房屋活着又死掉：它有建造的时间

And a time for the wind to break the loosened pane

有生存和更新换代的时期

And to shake the wainscot where the field-mouse trots

有被风吹打的日子——窗棂破碎，

And to shake the tattered arras woven with a silent motto.

壁板松脱——老鼠在上面跑来跑去，

织着箴言的挂毯破烂不堪，在风里摇晃。

    In my beginning is my end. Now the light falls

Across the open field, leaving the deep lane

在我的开始是我的结束。现在，日光降落，

Shuttered with branches, dark in the afternoon,

掠过空旷的原野，只留下一条幽深的小路，

Where you lean against a bank while a van passes,

被树木遮掩；昏暗的下午，

And the deep lane insists on the direction

你倚着堤岸，一辆货车从身边驶过。

Into the village, in the electric heat

幽深的小路，固执地朝着

Hypnotised. In a warm haze the sultry light

村庄的方向伸展，在炙热中

Is absorbed, not refracted, by grey stone.

被催眠。在朦胧的暖雾中，阳光

The dahlias sleep in the empty silence.

被灰色的石头吸收，而不是反射，

Wait for the early owl.

大丽花在空寂中沉睡，

等到早来的猫头鹰。

                                    In that open field

If you do not come too close, if you do not come too close,

在那空旷的原野，

On a summer midnight, you can hear the music

如果你不走得太近，如果你不走得太近，

Of the weak pipe and the little drum

你会在夏日的子夜，听到音乐

And see them dancing around the bonfire

由柔弱的笛子和小鼓演奏，

The association of man and woman

会看到篝火旁的舞蹈，男女结对

In daunsinge, signifying matrimonie—

而舞，——为婚礼而举行？

A dignified and commodiois sacrament.

一桩庄严而便捷的圣礼？

Two and two, necessarye coniunction,

成双结对，必然的结合。

Holding eche other by the hand or the arm

以手或臂膀相拥，

Whiche betokeneth concorde. Round and round the fire

昭示和谐美满。围绕着篝火，

Leaping through the flames, or joined in circles,

人们跳过火焰，或加入圆形的队列

Rustically solemn or in rustic laughter

加入这朴拙的庄严或无羁的大笑，

Lifting heavy feet in clumsy shoes,

抬起穿着笨重鞋子的脚，

Earth feet, loam feet, lifted in country mirth

粘着泥土，肥沃的泥土，抬起来，在乡野的欢笑中，

Mirth of those long since under earth

这欢笑发自地下，长久以来

Nourishing the corn. Keeping time,

滋养着地上的谷物。踏着节拍，

Keeping the rhythm in their dancing

在韵律中起舞，

As in their living in the living seasons

就像他们的生活，生活在季节更替的节律中，

The time of the seasons and the constellations

挤牛奶的时刻与丰收的时刻，

The time of milking and the time of harvest

男女婚配的时刻与

The time of the coupling of man and woman

野兽交合的时刻。脚抬起，放下。

And that of beasts. Feet rising and falling.

吃与喝，排泄与死亡。

Eating and drinking. Dung and death.

破晓时分，新的一天，

    Dawn points, and another day

准备着新的炎热和沉寂。晨风掠过海面，

Prepares for heat and silence. Out at sea the dawn wind

吹起波纹，滑行而去。我在这里

Wrinkles and slides. I am here

或那里，或别处。在我的开始。

Or there, or elsewhere. In my beginning.

二．

II

这个十一月在做什么，用

What is the late November doing

春天的搅扰，

With the disturbance of the spring

夏暑的造物，

And creatures of the summer heat,

脚下翻腾的雪块，

And snowdrops writhing under feet

向往过高却由红变灰

And hollyhocks that aim too high

跌落下来的蜀葵，

Red into grey and tumble down

和盖满初雪的迟开的玫瑰？

Late roses filled with early snow?

雷声滚过运转的群星，

Thunder rolled by the rolling stars

似凯旋的战车

Simulates triumphal cars

驶过星座汇集的战场，

Deployed in constellated wars

天蝎与太阳争锋，

Scorpion fights against the Sun

直至日月沉落

Until the Sun and Moon go down

彗星哭泣，狮子座流星飞驰

Comets weep and Leonids fly

追捕处于一团漩涡中旋转

Hunt the heavens and the plains

的天空和大地；这漩涡

Whirled in a vortex that shall bring

把世界卷入毁灭之火

The world to that destructive fire

直到冰雪君临大地。

Which burns before the ice-cap reigns.

这曾是一种诗意的表达方式——并不尽人意：

    That was a way of putting it—not very satisfactory:

用一种过时的风格进行拐弯抹角的尝试，之后

A periphrastic study in a worn-out poetical fashion,

人们仍然被留在同词语和内涵

Leaving one still with the intolerable wrestle

进行的令人难以忍受的搏斗中。诗歌并非重点所在。

With words and meanings. The poetry does not matter.

它不是（重新开始）人们所期待的事物。

It was not (to start again) what one had expected.

什么才是人们长久以来渴求的价值，

What was to be the value of the long looked forward to,

久久期盼的宁静，秋日的安详

Long hoped for calm, the autumnal serenity

或岁月的智慧？它们曾欺骗我们，

And the wisdom of age? Had they deceived us

或欺骗它们自己？那音容消逝的长者，

Or deceived themselves, the quiet-voiced elders,

遗赠给我们的仅是一张谎言的签收单？

Bequeathing us merely a receipt for deceit?

平静只是一种刻意的愚蠢，

The serenity only a deliberate hebetude,

智慧只是无用的知识

The wisdom only the knowledge of dead secrets

是黑暗——他们在其中凝视，或移开目光——中关于

Useless in the darkness into which they peered

死去的秘密的知识。由此，看来

Or from which they turned their eyes. There is, it seems to us,

它们只是有限的价值，

At best, only a limited value

在出自经验的知识中。

In the knowledge derived from experience.

知识塑造出一个样品，它弄虚作假，

The knowledge imposes a pattern, and falsifies,

这样品在每一刻都是新的

For the pattern is new in every moment

而且在每一刻都是重新对我们过往一切

And every moment is a new and shocking

进行的骇人的估价。只有在欺骗

Valuation of all we have been. We are only undeceived

不再有害时，我们才能不受骗。

Of that which, deceiving, could no longer harm.

在中间，不仅是在路途中间，

In the middle, not only in the middle of the way

而是自始至终，在黑暗的树林里，在荆棘丛中，

But all the way, in a dark wood, in a bramble,

在沼泽的边缘，没有安全的立足之地，

On the edge of a grimpen, where is no secure foothold,

而且伴着鬼怪与异光的胁迫，

And menaced by monsters, fancy lights,

经受着中邪的危险。别让我们听从

Risking enchantment. Do not let me hear

长者的智慧，不如听从他们的愚行，

Of the wisdom of old men, but rather of their folly,

听从他们对疯狂和恐惧的恐惧，他们对财产的恐惧，

Their fear of fear and frenzy, their fear of possession,

对被另一个人，被他人，甚或被上帝奴役的恐惧。

Of belonging to another, or to others, or to God.

唯一我们可以祈求得到的智慧

The only wisdom we can hope to acquire

是谦卑：谦卑是无止境的。

Is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.

所有的房屋都沉入大海。

    The houses are all gone under the sea.

所有的舞者都长眠山下。

    The dancers are all gone under the hill.

三．

III

哦，黑暗黑暗黑暗。他们都进入黑暗，

空荡荡的星际太空，空虚进入空虚，

O dark dark dark. They all go into the dark,

上校们，银行家们，显赫的文字工作者们，

The vacant interstellar spaces, the vacant into the vacant,

慷慨的艺术赞助人，政治家和统治者们，

The captains, merchant bankers, eminent men of letters,

显要的都市公仆们，各色委员会主席，

The generous patrons of art, the statesmen and the rulers,

工业巨子和卑微的承包商们，都进入黑暗，

Distinguished civil servants, chairmen of many committees,

日月也隐去光芒，哥达年鉴

Industrial lords and petty contractors, all go into the dark,

证券市场报，董事名录，

And dark the Sun and Moon, and the Almanach de Gotha

冷却了感觉，失去了行动的欲望。

And the Stock Exchange Gazette, the Directory of Directors,

我们都将跟随他们，进入肃穆的葬礼，

And cold the sense and lost the motive of action.

无人的葬礼，因为没有人要下葬。

And we all go with them, into the silent funeral,

我对自己的灵魂说，安静，让黑暗降临于你

Nobody's funeral, for there is no one to bury.

那将是上帝的黑暗。就像，在一座剧院里，

I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you

为了变幻场景，灯光消失了，

Which shall be the darkness of God. As, in a theatre,

随着一阵空寂的翅膀的摩挲声，随着一阵移动，在黑暗之上的黑暗中，

The lights are extinguished, for the scene to be changed

我们知道小山，树林，远景，

With a hollow rumble of wings, with a movement of darkness on darkness,

和那些显眼的正面装设，都被移走；

And we know that the hills and the trees, the distant panorama

或者，像是一辆地下的火车，当它在两个车站之间的隧道里，停留得太久

And the bold imposing facade are all being rolled away—

乘客们的谈话声响起，又逐渐陷入沉默，

Or as, when an underground train, in the tube, stops too long between stations

于是，你透过每张脸看到正在加深的内心的空虚，

And the conversation rises and slowly fades into silence

大脑一片空白，只剩下恐惧在增长；

And you see behind every face the mental emptiness deepen

或者，在苍穹之下，思维变得清醒却无可思想——

Leaving only the growing terror of nothing to think about;

我对自己的灵魂说，安静，等待但无须希望，

Or when, under ether, the mind is conscious but conscious of nothing—

因为希望可能是对不善之物的渴望；等待但无须爱念，

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope

因为爱有可能是对不善之物的爱恋；信念也同样如此，

For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,

然而，信念、爱和希望都处于等待之中，

For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith

等待但没有思考，因为你还没有为思考做好准备：

But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.

于是，黑暗成为光明，静止成为舞蹈。

Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:

So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.

淙淙的溪水，冬日里的闪电。

Whisper of running streams, and winter lightning.

无人赏识的野草莓和百里香，

The wild thyme unseen and the wild strawberry,

花园里的笑声，回荡着曾经的迷醉，

The laughter in the garden, echoed ecstasy

没有消逝，它们要求着，指向着

Not lost, but requiring, pointing to the agony

生与死的苦痛。

Of death and birth.

你说我在重复

我之前曾说过的。我还要再一次谈起。

                                    You say I am repeating

我还要再次谈起吗？为了到达那里，

Something I have said before. I shall say it again.

到达你所在之地，从你所不在之处，

Shall I say it again? In order to arrive there,

你必须走一条没有欢愉之路。

To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,

为了达到你所不解之物，

    You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.

你必须走一条无知之路。

In order to arrive at what you do not know

为了获得你所未拥有的，

    You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.

你必须走一条被剥夺之路。

In order to possess what you do not possess

为了成就你所不是之物，

    You must go by the way of dispossession.

你必须走一条非我之路。

In order to arrive at what you are not

你所不知道的是你所唯一知道的

    You must go through the way in which you are not.

你所拥有的是你所不拥有的

And what you do not know is the only thing you know

你所在之地是你所不在之地。

And what you own is what you do not own

And where you are is where you are not.

四．

IV

受伤的外科医生挥舞着钢刀

去探究那不健康的部位；

The wounded surgeon plies the steel

在那滴血的双手下，我们感知到

That questions the distempered part;

他那浸透着医者尖利同情的技艺

Beneath the bleeding hands we feel

正揭开体温表格里的迷局。

The sharp compassion of the healer's art

我们唯一的健康是疾病

Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.

如果我们依从那垂死的护士，

她持久的看护并不受欢迎，

    Our only health is the disease

但却让我们忆起加于我们和亚当身上的诅咒，

If we obey the dying nurse

而且，一旦它重临，我们的病情必将恶化。

Whose constant care is not to please

整个世界是我们的医院，

But to remind of our, and Adam's curse,

由那位破产的百万富翁所捐赠，

And that, to be restored, our sickness must grow worse.

在那里里，只要我们表现良好，我们就会

死于那无限的父爱——

    The whole earth is our hospital

它从不会离开，而是随时随地看守着我们。

Endowed by the ruined millionaire,

寒冷从双脚升到膝盖，

Wherein, if we do well, we shall

热病在神经线上一路欢歌。

Die of the absolute paternal care

如果被温暖，我一定会被冰冷的

That will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere.

地狱之火冻僵、颤抖，

那火焰是玫瑰，烟雾是荆棘。

    The chill ascends from feet to knees,

滴下的血是我们唯一的饮料，

The fever sings in mental wires.

带血的肉是我们唯一的食物：

If to be warmed, then I must freeze

尽管如此，我们依然认为

And quake in frigid purgatorial fires

我们健康活跃，有血有肉，

Of which the flame is roses, and the smoke is briars.

是的，即便如此，我们仍会说这个星期五不错。

    The dripping blood our only drink,

The bloody flesh our only food:

五．

In spite of which we like to think

That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood—

那么，我在这里，人生的中途，已有二十年——

Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.

二十年大半虚度——处在两次世界大战之间，

曾学着使用语言，而每次尝试

都是全新的开始，和全新的失败，

V

因为人必须让语言朝向更高处，

而无须重复那不是必须言说之物，或不去使用

So here I am, in the middle way, having had twenty years—

你早已不想再用的形式。所以，每次冒险

Twenty years largely wasted, the years of l'entre deux guerres

都是一次新的开始，一次进攻

Trying to use words, and every attempt

用可怜的装备向口齿不清发起反抗；

Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure

但却在一团模糊的印象和感觉中，

Because one has only learnt to get the better of words

在一系列无序的激情中，败退下来。

For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which

而那所要征服的——用勇气和妥协——

One is no longer disposed to say it. And so each venture

早已被那些无法企及的先辈所揭示，

Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate

一次，

With shabby equipment always deteriorating

两次，甚至多次。——但这其中不存在竞争，

In the general mess of imprecision of feeling,

唯一的战斗是要重获所失，

Undisciplined squads of emotion. And what there is to conquer

寻得，再失去，一次又一次：而且现在，似乎正处于

By strength and submission, has already been discovered

很不走运的情形中。也许既无所得，也无所失。

Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope

对于我们，唯一的就是尝试。剩下的与我们无关。

To emulate—but there is no competition—

There is only the fight to recover what has been lost

家是一个人出发地方。当我们老去

And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions

世界变得更为陌生，生死之路

That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.

变得更加难解。不是那孤立的

For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.

无前也无后的激情瞬间，

而是每时每刻都在燃烧的一生，

Home is where one starts from. As we grow older

甚至不仅是一个人的一生，

The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated

而是所有那些我们无法破译的古老石碑。

Of dead and living. Not the intense moment

在星光下的夜晚

Isolated, with no before and after,

在灯光下的夜晚

But a lifetime burning in every moment

（在灯下翻看相册的夜晚）

And not the lifetime of one man only

当此时与此地停止喧嚣，

But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.

爱最接近它自己。

There is a time for the evening under starlight,

老人应是先行者

A time for the evening under lamplight

这里还是那里无关紧要

(The evening with the photograph album).

我们必须在静止中前行，

Love is most nearly itself

进入另一次激情

When here and now cease to matter.

——更进一步的联合，更深入的沟通

Old men ought to be explorers

穿越严寒和虚空荒芜，

Here or there does not matter

波涛呼啸，狂风哀嚎，海燕和

We must be still and still moving

海豚的浩淼的大海。在我的结束中，是我的开始。

Into another intensity

For a further union, a deeper communion

Through the dark cold and the empty desolation,

The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters

Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.