Among the more irritating minor ideas

洪堡先生到康科德（隐含意为“和谐”），

Of Mr. Homburg during his visits home

事物的边缘，深入寻访，

To Concord, at the edge of things, was this:

更恼人的不足道的想法如是：

To think away the grass, the trees, the clouds,

空掉这草、这树、这云，

Not to transform them into other things,

不把它们转换为相异的事物，

Is only what the sun does every day,

仅仅为太阳每日所为，

Until we say to ourselves that there may be

直至我们对自己说，也许

A pensive nature, a mechanical

存在一种深思的自然，

And slightly detestable operandum, free

一种机械的稍嫌可憎的操作对象，

From man’s ghost, larger and yet a little like,

脱出人的幽灵，虽然更巨大并有点相像，

Without his literature and without his gods . . .

却没有他的文学、他的上帝……

No doubt we live beyond ourselves in air,

无疑我们活在自身外的大气里，

In an element that does not do for us,

一种不是为我们存在的元素，

so well, that which we do for ourselves, too big,

如此相宜，我们为自身所为的大业，

A thing not planned for imagery or belief,

不是为了成就意象或信仰，

Not one of the masculine myths we used to make,

不是我们习惯制造的雄性神话之一，

A transparency through which the swallow weaves,

一种燕子穿梭其中的透明体，

Without any form or any sense of form,

没有任何形式或形式感，

What we know in what we see, what we feel in what

所知在所见中，所感在所闻中，

We hear, what we are, beyond mystic disputation,

所是超出神秘的论辩，

In the tumult of integrations out of the sky,

源于天空整合的骚动，

And what we think, a breathing like the wind,

所思，为一种风之呼吸，

A moving part of a motion, a discovery

动中之动，变中之变，

Part of a discovery, a change part of a change,

发现中之发现，

A sharing of color and being part of it.

分享着其角色的色彩和存在。

The afternoon is visibly a source,

这个午后是一个清晰的源泉，

Too wide, too irised, to be more than calm,

辽阔，高远，超出了平静，

Too much like thinking to be less than thought,

太像思想，而不是没有思想，

Obscurest parent, obscurest patriarch,

最隐蔽的父，最隐蔽的始祖，

A daily majesty of meditation,

一个每日冥想的主，

That comes and goes in silences of its own.

来去于其自身的缄默。

We think, then as the sun shines or does not.

因而，我们思，如太阳照耀或不照耀。

We think as wind skitters on a pond in a field

我们思，如风掠过田野的池塘

Or we put mantles on our words because

或把斗蓬披到词语上，因为

The same wind, rising and rising, makes a sound

同样的风不断掠起，产生一种声音

Like the last muting of winter as it ends.

就像冬天末尾最后的哑声。

A new scholar replacing an older one reflects

一个取代老学者的新学者

A moment on this fantasia. He seeks

映出这幻想曲上的一刻。

For a human that can be accounted for.

他探求一个可被解释的人。

The spirit comes from the body of the world,

精神源于世界的躯体，

Or so Mr. Homburg thought: the body of a world

或洪堡先生如是想：一个世界的躯体，

Whose blunt laws make an affectation of mind,

其迟钝的规律产生一种意志倾向，，

The mannerism of nature caught in a glass

于是这自然习性被摄入一面镜子，

And there become a spirit’s mannerism,

在那里变成一种精神习性，

A glass aswarm with things going as far as they can.

这是一面充满行进在其可能之远的事物的镜子。