《西罗普郡一少年》
LI
第五十一首
我心不在焉地观望
Loitering with a Vacant Eye
英国 A. E. 豪斯曼原著
Alfred Edward Housman (1859 – 1936)
徐家祯翻译
Loitering with a vacant eye
Along the Grecian gallery,
And brooding on my heavy ill,
I met a statue standing still.
Still in marble stone stood he,
And stedfastly he looked at me.
„Well met,” I thought the look would say,
„We both were fashioned far away;
We neither knew, when we were young,
These Londoners we live among.”
Still he stood and eyed me hard,
An earnest and a grave regard:
„What, lad, drooping with your lot?
I too would be where I am not.
I too survey that endless line
Of men whose thoughts are not as mine.
Years, ere you stood up from rest,
On my neck the collar prest;
Years, when you lay down your ill,
I shall stand and bear it still.
Courage, lad, ’tis not for long:
Stand, quit you like stone, be strong.”
So I thought his look would say;
And light on me my trouble lay,
And I stept out in flesh and bone
Manful like the man of stone.
我心不在焉地观望,
漫步于古希腊罗马的画廊,
为我深重的不幸沉思默想,
忽见一座一动不动的雕像。
他大理石的身躯稳定沉静,
盯着我看目不转睛。
我想看上去像对我说:“幸会了!
我俩的打扮都像是个外乡佬;
我们年轻的时候都没听闻,
现在与我们住在一起的伦敦人。”
他站着纹丝不动紧朝我瞅,
向我致以诚挚而严肃的问候:
“孩子呀,你为何垂头丧气?
我也希望我不在这里。
我仔细观察来往不绝的人流,
他们的性情没一个与我相投。
你还远远没有出生世上,
衣领已经压迫在我的颈项;
等你放下你的烦恼以后很多年,
我还会站在此地忍受我的苦难。
要有勇气,少年,时间不会很长:
坚强地挺立,就像岩石一样。”
这就是我觉得他对我说的话,
我轻轻松松地把我的负担放下,
我的血肉之躯跨出了门槛,
犹如一座石雕的男子汉。
二0二二年六月十九日