Once i am sure there's nothing going on

这天，确信里面没有仪式进行，

I step inside letting the door thud shut.

我走了进去．让大门砰然关拢。

Another church: matting seats and stone

又一个教堂；席垫、座位、石座。

and little books; sprawlings of flowers cut

小圣书、为礼拜日摘的花束

For Sunday brownish now; some brass and stuff

已变得枯黄；圣堂上挂着些

Up at the holy end; the small neat organ;

铜器什物；整洁的小风琴；

And a tense musty unignorable silence

一阵浓密逼人的寂静发着霉味，

Brewed God knows how long. Hatless I take off

天晓得已酿制了多久；无帽可脱，

My cylce-clips in awkward revrence

我摘下自行车夹勉强表表敬意。

Move forward run my hand around the font.

我走向前，把圣木盆摸了一圈。

From where i stand the roof looks almost new--

抬头四望，屋顶看上去还挺新——

Cleaned or restored? someone would know: I don't.

重刷还是修复过？别人知道我却不晓。

Mounting the lectern I peruse a few

我登上讲经台，诵读了几行

hectoring large-scale verses and pronouce

长得吓人的诗行，读出了：

Here endeth much more loudly than I'd meant

“结束于此”，发觉嗓门比预料大得多。

The echoes snigger briefly. Back at the door

回声似乎在把我暗笑。退回门后

I sign the book donate an Irish sixpence

我捐了六便士，在本上签了名，

Reflect the place was not worth stopping for.

心想这地方值不得多停留。

Yet stop I did: in fact I often do

然而我又留下：我常常如此，

And always end much at a loss like this

总是在最后陷入了这般迷惘，

Wondering what to look for; wondering too

惊奇着我寻找什么，还惊奇着

When churches fall completely out of use

一旦教堂完全废弃无用，我仍

What we shall turn them into if we shall keep

该把它们改成什么，也许要长期保留

A few cathedrals chronically on show

几座大教堂，在上锁的玻璃柜中展出

Their parchment plate and pyx in locked cases

教会的文稿、捐款盘、还有圣饼盒，

And let the rest rent-free to rain and sheep.

其余数堂任凭淋雨和放羊，

Shall we avoid them as unlucky places?

或许人们会视为不祥物远远躲开？

或许，天黑后，会有狐疑的女人

Or after dark will dubious women come

进来让孩子摸一块特别的石头；

To make their children touvh a particular stone;

来采摘治癌的草药；或在某个

Pick simples for a cancer; or on some

约定的夜晚，来看亡灵显形？

Advised night see walking a dead one?

总会有某种魔力在这儿持续，

Power of some sort or other will go on

在游戏中、猜谜时碰巧得到应验，

In games in riddles seemingly at random;

但迷信恰似信仰，准会消失无踪。

But superstition like belief must die

当不信仰也消失时，还有什么留存？

And what remains when disbelief has gone?

杂草、荒径、荆棘、残垣、天空，

Grass weedy pavement brambles butress sky.

日复一日难以辩明的形骸，

A shape less recognisable each week

日复一日难以弄懂的用处。我惊异

A purpose more obscure. I wonder who

谁将是最后一位，来寻觅探访

Will be the last the very last to seek

这昔日的教堂？那敲打、记录着，而正懂得

This place for whta it was; one of the crew

这十字架楼厢是什么的人们之一？

That tap and jot and know what rood-lofts were?

某个热衷废墟、贪求古董的人？

Some ruin-bibber randy for antique

或是个圣诞迷，指望在这里找到

Or Christmas-addict counting on a whiff

长袍绣带、管风琴和没药的气息，

Of grown-and-bands and organ-pipes and myrrh?

或许他将是个代表我的人，

Or will he be my representative

烦恼而少见寡闻，明知鬼魂的积尘

Bored uninformed knowing the ghostly silt

长期保存着原来只在分割状况下

Dispersed yet tending to this cross of ground

见到的事物——结婚、生育、死亡，

Through suburb scrub because it held unspilt

及其引起的思绪一—或许是为他建的

So long and equably what since is found

这只独特的贝壳？虽然我弄不请

Only in separation--marriage and birth

这种装备完善的霉臭谷仓值几文，

And death and thoughts of these--for which was built

但它却使我乐意流连在这寂静里；

This special shell? For though I've no idea

What this accoutred frowsty barn is worth

这是肃穆的地球上一座肃穆的房子，

It pleases me to stand in silence here;

在它混和的气氛中，我们的一切强制义务

汇合，得到承认，并披上了命运之衣，

A serious house on serious earth it is

而这一切永远不会被人摒弃，

In whose blent air all our compulsions meet

因为永远会有人突然间发现

Are recognisd and robed as destinies.

自己渴望变得更加严肃

And that much never can be obsolete

他与这种渴望同被这块土地吸引，

Since someone will forever be surprising

他听说在这地方人会变得聪明，

A hunger in himself to be more serious

哪怕只因为周围躺着那么多死者。

And gravitating with it to this ground

Which he once heard was proper to grow wise in

If only that so many dead lie round.