英漢對照|托馬斯詩選：永不觸及那忘卻的黑暗

Never to reach the oblivious dark

Never to reach the oblivious dark

And not to know

Any man's troubles nor your own—

Negatives impress negation,

Empty of light and find the darkness lit—

Never is nightmare,

Never flows out from the wound of sleep

Staining the broken brain

With knowledge that no use and nothing worth

Still's vain to argue after death;

No use to run your head against the wall

To find a sweet blankness in the blood and shell,

This pus runs deep.

There's poison in your red wine, drinker,

Which spreads down to the dregs

Leaving a corrupted vein of colour,

Sawdust beneath the skirts;

On every hand the evil's positive

For dead or live,

Froth or a moment's movement

All hold the sum, nothing to nothing,

Even the words are nothing

While the sun's turned to salt,

Can be but vanity, such an old cry,

Nothing never, nothing older

Though we're consumed by lovers and doubts.

I love and doubt, it's vain, it's vain,

Loving and doubting like one who is to die

Planning what's good, though it's but winter,

When spring is come,

The jonquil and the trumpet.

永不觸及那忘卻的黑暗

永不觸及那忘卻的黑暗

也別去了解

任何他人或自己的煩惱——

否定銘記否定，

光的空白處，發(fā)現黑暗被點燃——

夢魘不再，

不再從睡夢的傷口流淌，

知識沾染破損的大腦，

一文不值，毫無點滴作用，

縱然徒勞爭辯死后之事;

即便頭撞南墻也無濟于事

即便血液與軀殼找到甜美的空白，

這點膿藏得太深。

酒徒，你的紅酒里有毒，

散開來，沉積到渣滓

留下一抹腐敗的色澤，

裙沿下的鋸末屑;

每一只手上必有邪惡

活著或死去，

泡沫或片刻的移動

所有掌握的一切，從無到無，

甚至連文字也是無

即便太陽轉向鹽，

一聲古老的哭喊，也只是虛無，

無未曾改變，無更為古老

縱然愛與困惑耗盡了你和我。

我愛又困惑，徒勞，徒勞，

愛與困惑，仿佛一位垂死之人

設想美好的一切，盡管只是冬天，

但當春天來臨，

黃水仙和喇叭花盛開。