I

一

I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river

我不太了解神明；但我以为这条河

Is a strong brown god—sullen, untamed and intractable,

准是个威武的棕色大神——阴沉，粗野而又倔强，

Patient to some degree, at first recognised as a frontier;

忍耐只能到一定侧过年度，起初人们把他认作一条边界；

Useful, untrustworthy, as a conveyor of commerce;

有用，但不值得信赖，像是个商业的运输人；

Then only a problem confronting the builder of bridges.

此后只成了桥梁建造则面临的一个问题。

The problem once solved, the brown god is almost forgotten

问题一旦解决，这个棕色大神就几乎

By the dwellers in cities—ever, however, implacable.

被城市的居民淡忘——尽管他依然难以平息，

Keeping his seasons and rages, destroyer, reminder

保持着他的四季和愤怒，作为破坏者，作为唤起

Of what men choose to forget. Unhonoured, unpropitiated

人们但愿忘怀的过去的提示者。得不到机器

By worshippers of the machine, but waiting, watching and waiting.

崇拜者的尊敬和抚慰，只是等待着，守望着，等待着。

His rhythm was present in the nursery bedroom,

他的律动出现在托儿所的卧室里，

In the rank ailanthus of the April dooryard,

出现在四月庭院中繁茂的埃朗萨斯树丛里，

In the smell of grapes on the autumn table,

出现的秋天餐桌上葡萄的芳香里，

And the evening circle in the winter gaslight.

和在冬天夜晚煤气灯的光圈里。

    The river is within us, the sea is all about us;

河在我们中间，海在我们周围；

The sea is the land's edge also, the granite

海也是大地的边缘，它波涛滚滚

Into which it reaches, the beaches where it tosses

拍向花岗岩，它把暗示它在远古和不久前的创造

Its hints of earlier and other creation:

星星点点地抛向岸滩：

The starfish, the horseshoe crab, the whale's backbone;

星鱼，鲎，鲸鱼的脊骨；

The pools where it offers to our curiosity

在水潭里，它给我们的好奇心

The more delicate algae and the sea anemone.

留下了更纤巧的海藻和海葵。

It tosses up our losses, the torn seine,

它抛起我们失落的东西，那破烂的渔网，

The shattered lobsterpot, the broken oar

捕捉龙虾的破篓，折断的船桨

And the gear of foreign dead men. The sea has many voices,

和异域死者的褴褛的衣衫。海有很多种声音，

Many gods and many voices.

很多神明和很多声音。

                                              The salt is on the briar rose,

　　　　　　　　　盐在多刺的玫瑰上，

The fog is in the fir trees.

雾在冷杉树林中。

                                        The sea howl

　　　　　　　　　大海的嚎叫

And the sea yelp, are different voices

和大海的呼喊，是不同的声音

Often together heard: the whine in the rigging,

常常能同时听到；帆索的哀鸣声，

The menace and caress of wave that breaks on water,

海面上巨浪翻滚的恐吓和爱抚，

The distant rote in the granite teeth,

远处的惊涛在花岗岩的齿缝中的排击声，

And the wailing warning from the approaching headland

还有为海岬逼近而发出的警告的呜咽声，

Are all sea voices, and the heaving groaner

这些斗士大海的声音，还有掉头朝向归途的

Rounded homewards, and the seagull:

发出尖啸声的浮标和海鸥：

And under the oppression of the silent fog

在悄无生息的浓雾的压力下

The tolling bell

那从容不迫的巨浪敲响了

Measures time not our time, rung by the unhurried

隆隆钟声，报告着时间，但不是我们的时间，

Ground swell, a time

一种时间

Older than the time of chronometers, older

比天文钟计量的时间更古老，

Than time counted by anxious worried women

比那些烦恼而焦虑不安的女人们计算的时间更古老，

Lying awake, calculating the future,

她们长夜不寐，计算着未来，

Trying to unweave, unwind, unravel

试着把过去和未来拆散，解开，

And piece together the past and the future,

又把它们重新拼合在一起，

Between midnight and dawn, when the past is all deception,

在夜半和黎明之间，当过去已变为一场欺骗，

The future futureless, before the morning watch

未来已成为没有未来，在四更之前

When time stops and time is never ending;

时间停歇，时间变成永无终了的时候；

And the ground swell, that is and was from the beginning,

巨浪滔滔，现在是这样，有始以来也是这样。

Clangs

钟声

The bell.

铿锵

II

二

Where is there an end of it, the soundless wailing,

这无声的呜咽，这秋花的悄然谢去，

The silent withering of autumn flowers

花瓣飘落从此凝然不动，它们的终极在哪里？

Dropping their petals and remaining motionless;

沉船的残骸随波漂泊，白骨在岸滩上祈求，

Where is there an end to the drifting wreckage,

那向宣布灾难临头的通告

The prayer of the bone on the beach, the unprayable

发出无从祈求的祈求，

Prayer at the calamitous annunciation?

这一切的终极在哪里？

    There is no end, but addition: the trailing

一切了无终极，不禁如此更有那

Consequence of further days and hours,

随未来的时日而接触而来的后果，

While emotion takes to itself the emotionless

当人生的无情岁月已落入你一度以为

Years of living among the breakage

最可信赖的事物的碎片之中——

Of what was believed in as the most reliable—

因而最恰当的对策莫如舍弃的时候，

And therefore the fittest for renunciation.

感情却兀自沉湎于往昔。

    There is the final addition, the failing

最后还有出于对自己的气力不济

Pride or resentment at failing powers,

而产生无济于事的自豪和怨恨；

The unattached devotion which might pass for devotionless,

驾一叶小舟漂泊海上，任凭海水从裂隙徐徐漏入，

In a drifting boat with a slow leakage,

那无所依附的眷恋可能北看作无所眷恋；

The silent listening to the undeniable

还有那最后的通告的钟声发出不可争辩的呼喊时

Clamour of the bell of the last annunciation.

默默无语的谛听。

    Where is the end of them, the fishermen sailing

何处是渔夫的归宿，他们驶进

Into the wind's tail, where the fog cowers?

风的尾势，雾霭在那里瑟瑟颤抖？

We cannot think of a time that is oceanless

我们无法想象一个没有海洋的时代

Or of an ocean not littered with wastage

或者一个不是漂满了废物的海洋

Or of a future that is not liable

或者一个不可能有一个目的地的未来，

Like the past, to have no destination.

像过去的岁月那样。

我们应该想起他们一如既往在戽水，

    We have to think of them as forever bailing,

在张网和拉网，当那东北风势减弱吹过

Setting and hauling, while the North East lowers

永不变化也永不销蚀的浅提，

Over shallow banks unchanging and erosionless

或者在船坞领取鱼钱，晒晾风帆；

Or drawing their money, drying sails at dockage;

而不应该想象他们在作一次毫无收益的出航，

Not as making a trip that will be unpayable

打一网经不起审查的捕捞。

For a haul that will not bear examination.

那无声的呜咽永无穷期，

    There is no end of it, the voiceless wailing,

那秋花的谢去，没有痛苦也没有运动的痛苦的运动，

No end to the withering of withered flowers,

海的冲卷和漂流的沉船残骸，

To the movement of pain that is painless and motionless,

白骨向它的上帝死神的祈求，这一切都永无穷期。

To the drift of the sea and the drifting wreckage,

只有圣母报喜节那一声几乎是不可能

The bone's prayer to Death its God. Only the hardly, barely prayable

却又是唯一苦难祈求的祈求。

Prayer of the one Annunciation.

当你年岁渐老，那过去

    It seems, as one becomes older,

仿佛已有了另一种模式，不再只是一个结果——

That the past has another pattern, and ceases to be a mere sequence—

或者甚至是一种发展：后者是部分的谬误，

Or even development: the latter a partial fallacy

受到肤浅的进化论思想的怂恿，

Encouraged by superficial notions of evolution,

而在常人的心目中变成否认自己的过去的一种手段。

Which becomes, in the popular mind, a means of disowning the past.

赏心乐事的瞬间——不是康泰之感，

The moments of happiness—not the sense of well-being,

功成名就，夙愿已偿，无忧无虑或感受到亲人之爱，

Fruition, fulfilment, security or affection,

甚至不是享用一顿丰美酒宴，而是猛地或然彻悟——

Or even a very good dinner, but the sudden illumination—

我们有过这种经验，但没有领会其中涵义，

We had the experience but missed the meaning,

而懂得涵义就是在我们能赋予幸福以任何意义之外

And approach to the meaning restores the experience

在不同的形式中恢复以往的经验。我以前说过

In a different form, beyond any meaning

在涵义中复活的以往经验

We can assign to happiness. I have said before

不仅是一个人一生的经验，

That the past experience revived in the meaning

而且是多少世代人的经验——不要忘记

Is not the experience of one life only

其中有的很可能根本无法言喻：

But of many generations—not forgetting

返顾典籍记载的历史的信念后面，

Something that is probably quite ineffable:

回转头去，只须稍稍返顾一下，

The backward look behind the assurance

就看到那远古的恐怖。

Of recorded history, the backward half-look

现在，我们终于发现痛苦的瞬间

Over the shoulder, towards the primitive terror.

（至于是否出于误解，我们一向

Now, we come to discover that the moments of agony

寄希望于虚妄，或畏惧于不当畏惧的，

(Whether, or not, due to misunderstanding,

在不是我们要谈的问题）都与时间所具有的永恒性

Having hoped for the wrong things or dreaded the wrong things,

一样永恒。在一点我们在别人的（与我们有关，

Is not in question) are likewise permanent

几乎像我们身受的一样）痛苦中领会得更深。

With such permanence as time has. We appreciate this better

因为我们自己的过去被行动和汹涌的激流淹没了，

In the agony of others, nearly experienced,

而别人的苦恼却始终是一种经验，

Involving ourselves, than in our own.

确凿无疑而又不为接踵而来的时间所磨损。

For our own past is covered by the currents of action,

人们变化，微笑，而痛苦常在。

But the torment of others remains an experience

时间这个破坏者也是时间这个保存者，

Unqualified, unworn by subsequent attrition.

就像这条运载死亡的黑人、牛棚和鸡笼的河，

People change, and smile: but the agony abides.

就像苦涩的苹果和苹果上留下的齿痕一样。

Time the destroyer is time the preserver,

而嶙峋的礁石在永不宁息的流水中

Like the river with its cargo of dead negroes, cows and chicken coops,

浪花冲刷它，浓雾掩蔽它；

The bitter apple, and the bite in the apple.

风平浪静的日子，它不过是一块标石，

And the ragged rock in the restless waters,

在适宜航行的气候永远是一个确定

Waves wash over it, fogs conceal it;

航道的航海标志，但当阴沉忧郁的季节

On a halcyon day it is merely a monument,

或当它暴怒的时候，就露出了它本来的面目。

In navigable weather it is always a seamark

To lay a course by: but in the sombre season

Or the sudden fury, is what it always was.

三

我有时怀疑克里希纳说的是否就是这个意思——

III

在别种涵义之外——或者同一件事的另一种说法：

未来是一支消寂的歌，一朵殷红的玫瑰，或者是

I sometimes wonder if that is what Krishna meant—

一株为那些还没有到这里来表示悔恨的人们

Among other things—or one way of putting the same thing:

留下的永志悔恨的薰衣草，

That the future is a faded song, a Royal Rose or a lavender spray

压在一本从未翻开却已发黄的书页之间。

Of wistful regret for those who are not yet here to regret,

而向上的路就是向下的路，向前的路就是回头的路。

Pressed between yellow leaves of a book that has never been opened.

你不能面对它而神色自若，但在件事却是确切无疑的，

And the way up is the way down, the way forward is the way back.

时间不是治病的医生，病人已一去不复返。

You cannot face it steadily, but this thing is sure,

当列车启动的时候，旅客们安顿下来

That time is no healer: the patient is no longer here.

开始品尝水果、翻阅书刊和公务函件

When the train starts, and the passengers are settled

（前来给他们送行的人们也离开了月台），

To fruit, periodicals and business letters

随着漫长时刻催人欲睡的节奏

(And those who saw them off have left the platform)

他们的脸色从悲痛舒展为轻松。

Their faces relax from grief into relief,

旅人们，向前行进吧！在不是从过去

To the sleepy rhythm of a hundred hours.

逃往不同的生活，也不是逃往任何未来；

Fare forward, travellers! not escaping from the past

你们不是刚才离开那个车站的人群

Into different lives, or into any future;

也不是行将到达终点的人们，

You are not the same people who left that station

当渐行渐窄的铁轨在你们后面并成一线；

Or who will arrive at any terminus,

当你们的机声隆隆的轮船甲板上

While the narrowing rails slide together behind you;

谛视着船首劈开的波浪在你们后面扩展开去，

And on the deck of the drumming liner

你们不会想到“往者已矣”

Watching the furrow that widens behind you,

或者“来者可追”。

You shall not think 'the past is finished'

夜阑时分，在帆缆和天线里

Or 'the future is before us'.

有歌声在反复吟唱（虽然在低声细语的时间弦琴

At nightfall, in the rigging and the aerial,

既非为耳朵而弹奏，也未形之于任何语言）：

Is a voice descanting (though not to the ear,

“向前行进吧，你们这些自以为在航海旅行的人；

The murmuring shell of time, and not in any language)

你们不是那望见港湾渐渐消失的人们，

'Fare forward, you who think that you are voyaging;

也不是行将离船上岸的人们。

You are not those who saw the harbour

这里，在海岸这边和更远的海岸之间，

Receding, or those who will disembark.

当时间已经隐退，请用平等的心怀

Here between the hither and the farther shore

思考过去和未来。

While time is withdrawn, consider the future

在这既不是行动也不是无所行动的瞬间

And the past with an equal mind.

你们不妨听取这句忠告：‘在死亡的时刻

At the moment which is not of action or inaction

一个人不论他的意志专注什么样的

You can receive this: "on whatever sphere of being

生存地位’——那是一次行动

The mind of a man may be intent

（而死亡的时刻则是每一瞬间），

At the time of death"—that is the one action

它必将在别人的生命中开花结果：

(And the time of death is every moment)

因此不必考虑行动的成果。

Which shall fructify in the lives of others:

想前行进吧。

And do not think of the fruit of action.

　　　　　啊航海的旅人们，啊海员们

Fare forward.

你们来到港口的人们，你们的身体将经受

                      O voyagers, O seamen,

大海的考验和判决或者不论遭到

You who came to port, and you whose bodies

什么事故的人们，这里就是你们真正的目的地。”

Will suffer the trial and judgement of the sea,

克里希纳就这样在战场上

Or whatever event, this is your real destination.'

劝告阿尔朱纳。

So Krishna, as when he admonished Arjuna

　　　　　　不是永别，

On the field of battle.

而是扬帆前行，航海的旅人们。

                                  Not fare well,

But fare forward, voyagers.

四

IV

圣母啊，您的神殿屹立在海岬之上，

请您为所有船上的人们，

Lady, whose shrine stands on the promontory,

为那些以渔业为生涯的人们，

Pray for all those who are in ships, those

也为那些与一切合法的海上交通有关

Whose business has to do with fish, and

以及指挥他们的人们祈祷吧。

Those concerned with every lawful traffic

And those who conduct them.

请您也为那些送别了儿子或丈夫

启程出海，他们还没有回家的女人们

    Repeat a prayer also on behalf of

再作一次祈祷吧：

Women who have seen their sons or husbands

Figlia del tuo figlio，

Setting forth, and not returning:

天国之后。

Figlia del tuo figlio,

Queen of Heaven.

也为那些曾在船上，却在沙滩上，在大海的嘴唇里

或在那来者不拒的黑暗的喉咙里

    Also pray for those who were in ships, and

或不论何处，只要是永恒的天使敲响

Ended their voyage on the sand, in the sea's lips

大海的钟声传不到他们的地方

Or in the dark throat which will not reject them

最后终止了航行的人们祈祷吧。

Or wherever cannot reach them the sound of the sea bell's

Perpetual angelus.

五

V

跟火星通话，与神灵交谈，

报告海妖的行为，

To communicate with Mars, converse with spirits,

观测天象预卜未来，查看祭牲的内脏以释神谕，

To report the behaviour of the sea monster,

或从水晶球中观察幻象，

Describe the horoscope, haruspicate or scry,

从签名的笔迹看出病症，从手掌的纹路

Observe disease in signatures, evoke

追溯身世经历和从手指想起悲惨不幸；

Biography from the wrinkles of the palm

用签卜或茶叶祛除凶兆，用纸牌解释

And tragedy from fingers; release omens

不可避免的事故，揣摩五角星形的图象

By sortilege, or tea leaves, riddle the inevitable

或靠服巴比妥酸打发日子，或把反复出现的想象

With playing cards, fiddle with pentagrams

解析为前意识的各种恐惧——

Or barbituric acids, or dissect

由此探索出生、死亡或梦境；所有这些

The recurrent image into pre-conscious terrors—

都是平素的消遣和药物、报刊的特写报道，

To explore the womb, or tomb, or dreams; all these are usual

而且也将永远如此，其中有些尤其如此，

Pastimes and drugs, and features of the press:

当国家陷入危难和困惑不决的时候，

And always will be, some of them especially

不论是在亚洲的海岸还是在艾琪韦尔大街。

When there is distress of nations and perplexity

人们的好奇心总爱探究过去和未来，

Whether on the shores of Asia, or in the Edgware Road.

而且在这方面锲而不舍。但是领悟

Men's curiosity searches past and future

那无始无终与时间的交叉点，却是圣者的职业——

And clings to that dimension. But to apprehend

也不是职业，而是他们为了爱、热忱、无私和自我屈从

The point of intersection of the timeless

而殉道的一生中的一种给予和取受。

With time, is an occupation for the saint—

就我们多数人来说，我们有的不过是被我们虚度的

No occupation either, but something given

瞬间，在时间之内和时间之外的瞬间，

And taken, in a lifetime's death in love,

不过是一次消失在一道阳光之中的心烦意乱，

Ardour and selflessness and self-surrender.

没有被人赏识的野百合花香，或是冬天的闪电

For most of us, there is only the unattended

或是飞溅的瀑布，或是听得过于深切

Moment, the moment in and out of time,

而一无所闻的音乐，但是只要乐曲余音未绝，

The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,

你就是音乐。这些不过是暗示和猜测，

The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning

暗示后面跟着猜测；其余就是

Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply

祈求，遵奉，修持，思索和行动。

That it is not heard at all, but you are the music

猜出一半的暗示，懂得一半的赠予，是基督化为人身。

While the music lasts. These are only hints and guesses,

这里，各种生存地位不可能取得一致

Hints followed by guesses; and the rest

是确实无疑的，

Is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action.

这里，过去和未来

The hint half guessed, the gift half understood, is Incarnation.

已被征服，并且获得和解，

Here the impossible union

在这里行动不过是目前被驱动的事物的另一种运动，

Of spheres of existence is actual,

运动的始源并不在于它本身之内——

Here the past and future

而是受魔鬼的力量，地下的

Are conquered, and reconciled,

力量的推动。而正当的行动

Where action were otherwise movement

也不受过去与未来的约束。

Of that which is only moved

对我们多数人来说，这是决不可能

And has in it no source of movement—

在这里实现的目标；

Driven by daemonic, chthonic

我们仅仅是没有被击败而已，

Powers. And right action is freedom

因为我们还在继续尝试；

From past and future also.

如果我们的暂时返归本源能滋育

For most of us, this is the aim

（离紫杉树并不太远）

Never here to be realised;

那意义深长的土地的生命，

Who are only undefeated

我们，终将感到心满意足。

Because we have gone on trying;

We, content at the last

If our temporal reversion nourish

(Not too far from the yew-tree)

The life of significant soil.