叶芝诗10首
Would I could cast a sail on the water
And alight at the comely trees and the lawn,
The playing upon pipes and the dancing,
And learn that the best thing is
To change my loves while dancing
And pay but a kiss for a kiss.
I would find by the edge of that water
Worn thin by the lapping of water,
And pierce it through with a gimlet and stare
At the old bitter world where they marry in churches,
And laugh over the untroubled water
Through the white thin bone of a hare.
Lines Written in Dejection
When have I last looked on
The round green eyes and the long wavering bodies
Of the dark leopards of the moon?
All the wild witches, those most noble ladies,
For all their broom-sticks and their tears,
Their angry tears, are gone.
The holy centaurs of the hills are vanished;
I have nothing but the embittered sun;
Banished heroic mother moon and vanished,
And now that I have come to fifty years
I must endure the timid sun.
与她们飞翔的扫把、愤怒的泪水一同消失。
山峦的圣兽也不见了;
除了苦闷的太阳我一无所有;
英雄的月亮母亲遭到放逐,
如今,我已是知命之年,
不得不忍受着那怯懦的太阳。
Memory
One had a lovely face,
And two or three had charm,
But charm and face were in vain
Because the mountain grass
Cannot but keep the form
Where the mountain hare has lain.
A Deep-Sworn Vow
Others because you did not keep
That deep-sworn vow have been friends of mine;
Yet always when I look death in the face,
When I clamber to the heights of sleep,
Or when I grow excited with wine,
Suddenly I meet your face.
The Balloon of the Mind
Hands, do what you're bid:
Bring the balloon of the mind
That bellies and drags in the wind
Into its narrow shed.
To a Squirrel at Kyle-Na-No
Come play with me;
Why should you run
Through the shaking tree
As though I'd a gun
To strike you dead?
When all I would do
Is to scratch your head
And let you go.
The Cat and the Moon
The cat went here and there
And the moon spun round like a top,
And the nearest kin of the moon,
The creeping cat, looked up.
Black Minnaloushe stared at the moon,
For, wander and wail as he would,
The pure cold light in the sky
Troubled his animal blood.
Minnaloushe runs in the grass
Lifting his delicate feet.
Do you dance, Minnaloushe, do you dance?
When two close kindred meet,
What better than call a dance?
Maybe the moon may learn,
Tired of that courtly fashion,
A new dance turn.
Minnaloushe creeps through the grass
From moonlit place to place,
The sacred moon overhead
Has taken a new phase.
Does Minnaloushe know that his pupils
Will pass from change to change,
And that from round to crescent,
From crescent to round they range?
Minnaloushe creeps through the grass
Alone, important and wise,
And lifts to the changing moon
His changing eyes.
随意地走动,叫着,
天上清纯的冷光
搅扰它野性的血液。
敏纳娄什在雪地上跑着,
抬起它轻巧的爪儿。
跳舞吗,敏纳娄什,跳舞吗?
当你与月亮相遇,
有什么比邀舞更好?
也许月亮早厌倦了宫廷的舞步,
学会了一种新的旋舞?
敏纳娄什在草丛里玩着,
到月光照亮的地方,这里,那里,
而头顶的圣洁的月亮
正不断变换着月相。
敏纳娄什可知道吗,
它的瞳孔也在这样变化,
由缺而圆,由圆而缺?
敏纳娄什在草丛里潜行,
孤独,矜持,聪明,
对天上那轮变幻着的月亮
抬起它变幻着的眼睛。
Easter,1916
I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
That woman's days were spent
In ignorant good-will,
Her nights in argument
Until her voice grew shrill.
What voice more sweet than hers
When, young and beautiful,
She rode to harriers?
This man had kept a school
And rode our winged horse;
This other his helper and friend
Was coming into his force;
He might have won fame in the end,
So sensitive his nature seemed,
So daring and sweet his thought.
This other man I had dreamed
A drunken, vainglorious lout.
He had done most bitter wrong
To some who are near my heart,
Yet I number him in the song;
He, too, has resigned his part
In the casual comedy;
He, too, has been changed in his turn,
Transformed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
Hearts with one purpose alone
Through summer and winter seem
Enchanted to a stone
To trouble the living stream.
The horse that comes from the road,
The rider, the birds that range
From cloud to tumbling cloud,
Minute by minute they change;
A shadow of cloud on the stream
Changes minute by minute;
A horse-hoof slides on the brim,
And a horse plashes within it;
The long-legged moor-hens dive,
And hens to moor-cocks call;
Minute by minute they live:
The stone's in the midst of all.
Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?
That is Heaven's part, our part
To murmur name upon name,
As a mother names her child
When sleep at last has come
On limbs that had run wild.
What is it but nightfall?
No, no, not night but death;
Was it needless death after all?
For England may keep faith
For all that is done and said.
We know their dream;enough
To know they dreamed and are dead;
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse—
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse.
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
或是耽搁片刻,交谈
纯粹出于礼貌。
而话未说完的时候
我突然想起一则趣闻,
可在俱乐部的炉火旁边
给朋友讲来开心,
因我确信,他们和我
无非如丑角一般生活:
而一切都变了,彻底变了,
一种可怕的美已经诞生。
那女人把白天都耗费在
无知的善意里面,
夜晚则与人争辩,
直到嗓音发尖。
而她也曾有年轻美丽的时候,
骑马、打猎,
语声是动人的甜。
这男人曾经办过学校,
曾经和我们共乘天马;
那一位是他的朋友,
将助他仔细谋划;
他有颗敏锐的心,
还有着大胆而崭新的思想,
最终他也许能赢得名望。
我还想到一个人,
那个虚荣的粗野的酒鬼,
他曾对我最爱的女人
做过最刻薄的事情,
而我,却仍在诗中提到他的名字;
他已辞去了在那场即兴喜剧中
所扮演的角色;
改变了,在他上场的时候
被深刻地改变了,
一种可怕的美已经诞生。
所有人目标一致,
夏天与冬天过后,
似乎被魔法变成顽石
要阻拦活泼的溪流。
大路上,奔驰的马
还有骑马的人,还有
飞翔在云层之间的鸟儿,
不住地变幻;
溪流上,云影变幻,
不住地变幻;
一只马蹄陷在溪流边上,
一匹马溅起了溪水,
雉鸟跃进了溪水,
雌鸡呼唤着雄鸡;
不住变幻的它们的生活,
那顽石在这一切中间。
一场牺牲奉献也太久了,
久得足以把心灵变成顽石。
何时才能结束呢?
那是天意决定,而我们
只需低唤一个又一个名字,
像母亲在呼唤她的孩子
——当沉沉的睡意终于降临在
跑累的肢体上的时候。
若不是夜色那会是什么?
不,不是夜色,是死亡,
而那死亡是否值得?
因为,对于所做和所说的一切
英国可能守信。
我们知道他们的梦,
知道他们梦过,并已身死,
这就足够;若过度的爱
迷惑他们至死又如何?
我用诗笔记下一切——
麦克多纳和麦克布莱德,
康诺利和皮尔斯等人,
无论现在、将来,
只要有地方佩带绿色,
他们都会改变,彻底改变,
一种可怕的美已经诞生。
To be Carved on a Stone at Thoor Ballylee
I, the poet William Yeats,
With old mill boards and sea-green slates,
And smithy work from the Gort forge,
Restored this tower for my wife George;
And may these characters remain
When all is ruin once again.
While on that old grey stone I sat
Under the old wind-broken tree,
推荐阅读: