William Empson - To An Old Lady 汉译

To An Old Lady

Ripeness is all; her in her cooling planet
Revere; do not presume to think her wasted.
Project her no projectile, plan nor man it:
Gods cool in turn, by the sun long outlasted.
 
Our earth alone given no name of god
Gives, too, no hold for such a leap to aid her;
Landing, you break some palace and seem odd;
Bees sting their need, the keeper’s queen invader.
 
No, to your telescope; spy out the land;
Watch while her ritual is still to see,
Still stand her temples emptying in the sand
Whose waves o’erthrew their crumbled tracery;
 
Still stand uncalled-on her soul’s appanage:
Much social detail whose successor fades.
Wit used to run a house and to play Bridge,
And tragic fervor, to dismiss her maids.
 
Years her precession do not throw from gear.
She reads a compass certain of her pole;
Confident, finds no confines on her sphere,
Whose failing crops are in her sole control.
 
Stars how much further from me fill my night.
Strange that she too should be inaccessible,
Who shares my sun. He curtains her from sight,
And but in darkness is she visible.
                                                           
1935

周珏良 译:

赠老媪
威廉·燕卜荪
 
圆满就是了；顶礼她于那
凉爽的行星；别妄以为她在荒芜，
别发射发射物，别移民也别计划：
天神个个凉下来，太阳则不。
 
我们的星球独不托名天神
也不提供阶梯使人登上去帮助；
登月，你破坏了宫殿又似奇闻；
蜂群刺杀蜂王，把养蜂人好意辜负。
 
别啦，还是用你的望远镜；窥探下这疆域；
看看它的祀典别等它消失，
她的寺院寂静屹立流沙，逐渐空却；
流沙似潮水遮盖了它们剥落的雕饰；
 
她灵魂的领域寂静无人过问它；
例儿真多但后继无闻，
诙谐曾定居并把桥牌来打，
悲剧强烈的是，开除了她的女佣人。
 
这多年她巡行丝毫无误。
看着指南针她弄得准轴心方向，
有信心，在她的范围里没有限制，
它的歉收只她能处理得当。
 
离得更远的群星充满我的夜空。
怪的是她也竟这样无法接近，
虽与我共享太阳。他把她遮蒙
要风她只在黑暗中才可找寻。
                                         
1935