这天，确信里面没有仪式进行，

Once i am sure there's nothing going on

我走了进去．让大门砰然关拢。

I step inside letting the door thud shut.

又一个教堂；席垫、座位、石座。

Another church: matting seats and stone

小圣书、为礼拜日摘的花束

and little books; sprawlings of flowers cut

已变得枯黄；圣堂上挂着些

For Sunday brownish now; some brass and stuff

铜器什物；整洁的小风琴；

Up at the holy end; the small neat organ;

一阵浓密逼人的寂静发着霉味，

And a tense musty unignorable silence

天晓得已酿制了多久；无帽可脱，

Brewed God knows how long. Hatless I take off

我摘下自行车夹勉强表表敬意。

My cylce-clips in awkward revrence

我走向前，把圣木盆摸了一圈。

Move forward run my hand around the font.

抬头四望，屋顶看上去还挺新——

From where i stand the roof looks almost new--

重刷还是修复过？别人知道我却不晓。

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

我登上讲经台，诵读了几行

Mounting the lectern I peruse a few

长得吓人的诗行，读出了：

hectoring large-scale verses and pronouce

“结束于此”，发觉嗓门比预料大得多。

Here endeth much more loudly than I'd meant

回声似乎在把我暗笑。退回门后

The echoes snigger briefly. Back at the door

我捐了六便士，在本上签了名，

I sign the book donate an Irish sixpence

心想这地方值不得多停留。

Reflect the place was not worth stopping for.

然而我又留下：我常常如此，

Yet stop I did: in fact I often do

总是在最后陷入了这般迷惘，

And always end much at a loss like this

惊奇着我寻找什么，还惊奇着

Wondering what to look for; wondering too

一旦教堂完全废弃无用，我仍

When churches fall completely out of use

该把它们改成什么，也许要长期保留

What we shall turn them into if we shall keep

几座大教堂，在上锁的玻璃柜中展出

A few cathedrals chronically on show

教会的文稿、捐款盘、还有圣饼盒，

Their parchment plate and pyx in locked cases

其余数堂任凭淋雨和放羊，

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

或许人们会视为不祥物远远躲开？

Shall we avoid them as unlucky places?

或许，天黑后，会有狐疑的女人

进来让孩子摸一块特别的石头；

Or after dark will dubious women come

来采摘治癌的草药；或在某个

To make their children touvh a particular stone;

约定的夜晚，来看亡灵显形？

Pick simples for a cancer; or on some

总会有某种魔力在这儿持续，

Advised night see walking a dead one?

在游戏中、猜谜时碰巧得到应验，

Power of some sort or other will go on

但迷信恰似信仰，准会消失无踪。

In games in riddles seemingly at random;

当不信仰也消失时，还有什么留存？

But superstition like belief must die

杂草、荒径、荆棘、残垣、天空，

And what remains when disbelief has gone?

Grass weedy pavement brambles butress sky.

日复一日难以辩明的形骸，

日复一日难以弄懂的用处。我惊异

A shape less recognisable each week

谁将是最后一位，来寻觅探访

A purpose more obscure. I wonder who

这昔日的教堂？那敲打、记录着，而正懂得

Will be the last the very last to seek

这十字架楼厢是什么的人们之一？

This place for whta it was; one of the crew

某个热衷废墟、贪求古董的人？

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

或是个圣诞迷，指望在这里找到

Some ruin-bibber randy for antique

长袍绣带、管风琴和没药的气息，

Or Christmas-addict counting on a whiff

或许他将是个代表我的人，

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

Or will he be my representative

烦恼而少见寡闻，明知鬼魂的积尘

长期保存着原来只在分割状况下

Bored uninformed knowing the ghostly silt

见到的事物——结婚、生育、死亡，

Dispersed yet tending to this cross of ground

及其引起的思绪一—或许是为他建的

Through suburb scrub because it held unspilt

这只独特的贝壳？虽然我弄不请

So long and equably what since is found

这种装备完善的霉臭谷仓值几文，

Only in separation--marriage and birth

但它却使我乐意流连在这寂静里；

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

This special shell? For though I've no idea

这是肃穆的地球上一座肃穆的房子，

What this accoutred frowsty barn is worth

在它混和的气氛中，我们的一切强制义务

It pleases me to stand in silence here;

汇合，得到承认，并披上了命运之衣，

而这一切永远不会被人摒弃，

A serious house on serious earth it is

因为永远会有人突然间发现

In whose blent air all our compulsions meet

自己渴望变得更加严肃

Are recognisd and robed as destinies.

他与这种渴望同被这块土地吸引，

And that much never can be obsolete

他听说在这地方人会变得聪明，

Since someone will forever be surprising

哪怕只因为周围躺着那么多死者。

A hunger in himself to be more serious

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.