Once i am sure there's nothing going on

有一回，我确信里面没什么动静，

I step inside letting the door thud shut.

便走进去，让大门砰的一声关严实。

Another church: matting seats and stone

又是座教堂：石板，草垫，长凳；

and little books; sprawlings of flowers cut

小本《圣经》；凌乱的花束，摘来是

For Sunday brownish now; some brass and stuff

为了做礼拜，已蔫了；有铜器等物

Up at the holy end; the small neat organ;

置在圣堂的一端；小风琴挺整齐；

And a tense musty unignorable silence

那紧张的、发霉的、不可忽视的静寂，

Brewed God knows how long. Hatless I take off

天晓得酝酿多久了。没戴帽，我摘除

My cylce-clips in awkward revrence

骑车裤腿夹，尴尬地表示敬意。

Move forward run my hand around the font.

向前走，绕着圣水盂用手摸了摸。

From where i stand the roof looks almost new--

站着看上面，那像是新的天花板──

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

打扫过？修复的？有人会知道：除了我。

Mounting the lectern I peruse a few

我登上读经台，翻阅了少许圣诗篇，

hectoring large-scale verses and pronouce

字大得怕人，念出了“到此结束”，

Here endeth much more loudly than I'd meant

声音比自己原来想发的大得多。

The echoes snigger briefly. Back at the door

短促的回声在窃笑。我回到大门口，

I sign the book donate an Irish sixpence

签了名，捐了爱尔兰六便士硬币，

Reflect the place was not worth stopping for.

回想这地方实在不值得逗留。

Yet stop I did: in fact I often do

我却停了步：其实我常常停步，

And always end much at a loss like this

每回都像这一次，感到挺困惑，

Wondering what to look for; wondering too

想知道该寻求什么；也想弄清楚：

When churches fall completely out of use

当教堂沦落到全无用处的时刻，

What we shall turn them into if we shall keep

该把这转变成什么，可否长期

A few cathedrals chronically on show

开放几座大教堂，在上锁的柜子里

Their parchment plate and pyx in locked cases

展出羊皮纸文件，圣餐盒，银盘子；

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

其余的教堂就交给风雨和羊蹄？

Shall we avoid them as unlucky places?

该不该躲开它，当作不详之地？

Or after dark will dubious women come

或许，天黑后，有可疑的妇人进来，

To make their children touvh a particular stone;

叫她的孩子们摸一块特别的石头；

Pick simples for a cancer; or on some

或是采集致癌的药草；或是在

Advised night see walking a dead one?

知情的某晚来观看死人行走？

Power of some sort or other will go on

这种或那种力量总会在游戏或

In games in riddles seemingly at random;

谜语中起作用，这似乎纯属偶然；

But superstition like belief must die

但迷信，正如信仰，必须消灭掉，

And what remains when disbelief has gone?

等到不相信也没了，还剩下什么？

Grass weedy pavement brambles butress sky.

野草，荒径，荆榛，扶垛，苍昊。

A shape less recognisable each week

一周又一周，形状越来越难认，

A purpose more obscure. I wonder who

用途越来越不明。我不知道，

Will be the last the very last to seek

最后，到了最后，谁会来探寻

This place for whta it was; one of the crew

教堂的原址？有人来这里敲一敲、

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

记一笔，什么是十字架圣坛可知道？

Some ruin-bibber randy for antique

是哪个贪求古物的、废墟狂恋者？

Or Christmas-addict counting on a whiff

或者是个圣诞迷，打算在这里

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

找些牧师的服饰、管风琴或没药

Or will he be my representative

或者，这个人能否代表我自己，

Bored uninformed knowing the ghostly silt

感到烦，不知情，知道鬼魂的沉积

Dispersed yet tending to this cross of ground

已消散，却还要穿过灌木林市郊

Through suburb scrub because it held unspilt

来到这十字形地方，因为长期地

So long and equably what since is found

保持着平稳，只能在分离中找到──

Only in separation--marriage and birth

结婚，生育，死亡和对此的沉思──

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

当初正是为了这些而建造

This special shell? For though I've no idea

这具特殊的外壳的？我心里不明白

What this accoutred frowsty barn is worth

这个发霉的大仓库有什么价值，

It pleases me to stand in silence here;

我倒喜欢在这里静静地呆一呆；

A serious house on serious earth it is

它是严肃的大地上严肃的房屋，

In whose blent air all our compulsions meet

我们被强制聚在它交融的空气里，

Are recognisd and robed as destinies.

被承认，被当做命运而身穿袍服。

And that much never can be obsolete

这一点永远绝对不会被废弃，

Since someone will forever be surprising

因为有的人总会意外地发现

A hunger in himself to be more serious

他自身有一种饥饿，更加严肃；

And gravitating with it to this ground

他会被吸引到这里来，带着饥饿；

Which he once heard was proper to grow wise in

他听说这是个使人变聪明的地点，

If only that so many dead lie round.

也许只因为四周有许多死者。