I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
我本应是一双粗粝的爪子
急匆匆的掠过寂静的海底。
And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!
Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep ... tired ... or it malingers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.
Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet — and here’s no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.
还有午后,黄昏,睡得那么安静!
长长的手指轻抚着,
困了......倦了......或者装病,
张开身体躺在地板上,就在你我身旁。
饮过茶,吃过蛋糕和冰淇淋,
难道我就能有力量把这微妙的时刻一语道破?
尽管我哭过也斋戒过、哭过也祈祷过,
尽管我看到过我微秃的头,被在盘子里端进来过,
但我不是先知——这也没什么大不了的;
我看到了我的伟大瞬间忽隐忽现的闪烁,
我看见永恒的仆人拿着我的外套,暗自窃笑,
简而言之,我很害怕。
And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it towards some overwhelming question,
To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”—
If one, settling a pillow by her head
Should say: “That is not what I meant at all;
That is not it, at all.”
而这一切,真值得吗
在举杯,喝茶,吃过果酱后,
在杯盘之间,在你我的交谈中,
是不是还值得
将矛盾一笑而过
把宇宙捏成一个球
然后让它滚向某个压倒一切的问题
说:“我是拉撒路,从死里复活,
回来给你们报信,我将把一切告诉你们”——
要是有人把枕头塞到头下
轻轻的说:“那根本不是我的意思;
根本不是这样。”
And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—
And this, and so much more?—
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen: