葉芝關(guān)于死亡的經(jīng)典詩歌：Sailing to Byzantium 駛向拜占庭
駛向拜占庭 ---- 葉芝
查良錚譯
THAT is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees
- Those dying generations - at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.
O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.
Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
那不是老年人的國度。青年人
在互相擁抱;那垂死的世代，
樹上的鳥，正從事他們的歌唱;
魚的瀑布，青花魚充塞的大海，
魚、獸或鳥，一整個夏天在贊揚(yáng)
凡是誕生和死亡的一切存在。
沉溺于那感官的音樂，個個都疏忽
萬古長青的理性的紀(jì)念物。
一個衰頹的老人只是個廢物，
是件破外衣支在一根木棍上，
除非靈魂拍手作歌，為了它的
皮囊的每個裂綻唱得更響亮;
可是沒有教唱的學(xué)校，而只有
研究紀(jì)念物上記載的它的輝煌，
因此我就遠(yuǎn)渡重洋而來到
拜占庭的神圣的城堡。
哦，智者們!立于上帝的神火中，
好像是壁畫上嵌金的雕飾，
從神火中走出來吧，旋轉(zhuǎn)當(dāng)空，
請為我的靈魂作歌唱的教師。
把我的心燒盡，它被綁在一個
垂死的肉身上，為欲望所腐蝕，
已不知它原來是什么了;請盡快
把我采集進(jìn)永恒的藝術(shù)安排。
一旦脫離自然界，我就不再從
任何自然物體取得我的形狀，
而只要希臘的金匠用金釉
和錘打的金子所制作的式樣，
供給瞌睡的皇帝保持清醒;
或者就鑲在金樹枝上歌唱
一切過去、現(xiàn)在和未來的事情
給拜占庭的貴族和夫人聽。
