这样一个无云的夜晚

A cloudless night like this

可以让灵魂翱翔：

Can set the spirit soaring:

疲劳的一天之后

After a tiring day

时钟以它十八世纪

The clockwork spectacle is

多少令人厌烦的习惯

Impressive in a slightly boring

给你留下深刻的印象。

Eighteenth-century way.

它安慰青春期

It soothed adolescence a lot

去会见如此恬不知耻的凝视；

To meet so shameless a stare;

我做的事情不会

The things I did could not

像他们说的那样骇人听闻，

Be so shocking as they said

那些事情依然存在

If that would still be there

震撼之后是死亡

After the shocked were dead

现在，还没做好死的准备

Now, unready to die

但是已经出现在了舞台

But already at the stage

当一个人开始怨恨青年，

When one starts to resent the young,

我乐于那些天空中的点

I am glad those points in the sky

在中年的造物之中

May also be counted among

也可以被计数。

The creatures of middle-age.

这是让人舒服的思想

It's cosier thinking of night

想象夜晚是一所老年人之家

As more an Old People's Home

而不是完美机器的窝棚，

Than a shed for a faultless machine,

前寒武纪的红光

That the red pre-Cambrian light

消失于下午五点

Is gone like Imperial Rome

像我一个人的罗马帝国。

Or myself at seventeen.

然而或许我们更符合

Yet however much we may like

坚忍者的风格，古典

The stoic manner in which

作家们就是这样写作，

The classical authors wrote,

只有年轻富有的人

Only the young and rich

才有勇气或身份去撞击

Have the nerve or the figure to strike

悲伤神奇的笔记。

The lacrimae rerum note.

因为当代的支撑者远远

比不上从前，而它的错误

For the present stalks abroad

再度呜咽并且被忽视，

Like the past and its wronged again

真理不能被遮蔽；

Whimper and are ignored,

有人选择了他们的痛苦，

And the truth cannot be hid;

那些不必发生的事情发生了。

Somebody chose their pain,

What needn't have happened did.

恰在这个夜晚发生的一切

没有既定的准则可循，

Occurring this very night

许多事件也许已经推翻了

By no established rule,

它在法律的正确性中

Some event may already have hurled

最初的小数字，我们答应去教育

Its first little No at the right

我们后洪荒时代的世界：

Of the laws we accept to school

Our post-diluvian world:

但是星辰在头顶燃烧，

没有意识到最后的结局，

But the stars burn on overhead,

当我步行回家，躺到床上，

Unconscious of final ends,

我问自己怎样的判决在等待

As I walk home to bed,

我的儿子，和我所有的朋友们，

Asking what judgment waits

以及美利坚合众国。

My person, all my friends,

And these United States.