頌詩譯選(四)
Poems & Hymns IV
築橋的人 Will Allen Dromgoole
一個老人，走過一條道路孤單，
日落黃昏，陰冷而且灰暗，
到了一個河谷，又大，又深，又寬，
高漲的水，湧流在中間。
老人不擔心那漲溢的河流，
因他在黃昏已經過到對岸；
他回來要築一道跨河的橋，
雖然他已安全到了那邊。
有個同路的旅人來對他說：
“老人，你何必浪費氣力修建；
你不需要再經過這條路，
你的行程要終結在將完今天；
你已經渡過了這廣闊的深淵，
何必要築橋在天色已晚？”
築橋者抬起他白髮蒼蒼的頭說：
“朋友，我走過了這條道路，
今天有個跟隨我的少年人，
他的腳步也要經過這旅途。
這深淵對過來人已不算甚麼，
對那少年卻可能使他失足。
好朋友，我是為了來人修築，
因為他也要經過在昏暗的日暮。”
The Bridge Builder
An old man, going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fear for him;
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And build a bridge to span the tide.
"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim, near,
"You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again must pass this way;
You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide—
Why build you the bridge at the eventide?"
The builder lifted his old gray head:
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me to-day
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him."
Will Allen Dromgoole
黑人的傾訴 Sojourner Truth
我為我的人民傾訴，
一個可憐被蹂躪的種族，
在號稱自由的地土，
卻沒有自己的住處。
我為我的人民傾訴，
要還給他們應得的權利；
因為他們長久勞苦，
卻沒有收取到利益。
他們被迫耕作莊稼，
卻不能夠得田裏的收成，
雖然從早工作到晚，
在土地上勞苦不停。
我的身上經常帶著
許多次受過鞭打的傷痕，
我為我的人民傾訴
他們仍在鞭下呻吟。
真理寄居者（Sojourner Truth, 1797?-1883） 是一名不識字的黑人女講演家，生而為奴，被賣了五次，後得到自由。他憑記憶學習聖經，致力提倡廢除奴役，並爭取婦女權利。這是她自編自唱的詩歌，經他人代為錄寫。
A Negro's Plea
I am pleading for my people,
A poor downtrodden race,
Who dwell in freedom's boasted land,
With no abiding place.
I am plead that my people
May have their rights restored;
For they have long been toiling,
And yet have no reward.
They are forced the crops to culture,
But not for them they yield,
Although both late and early
They labor in the field.
Whilst I bear upon my body
The scars of many a gash,
I am pleading for my people
Who groan beneath the lash.
Sojourner Truth （1797?-1883）
瘟疫之歌 Ulrich Zwingli
主啊，幫助我，
我的力量和磐石；
聽，就在門外，有
死亡叩門的聲音。
伸出你的臂膀，
曾經為我受過傷，
也征服過死亡，
求使我自由。
不過，如果你的聲音，
在這生命的中天，
要呼召我的靈魂，
我也順從甘願。
以信心和盼望
我不再戀此塵世，
天堂確實屬我，
因為我已屬於你。
我的病痛加深；
快來安慰施恩；
因為危難和懼怕
攫取我身體靈魂。
死亡已在身邊，
我的感覺失靈；
我的舌頭麻痹無聲；
現在，基督，你得勝。
看哪，撒但在用力
來奪取它的擄物；
我覺得它的抓緊；
我豈能任它去？
它不能傷害我，
我不為損失懼怕，
因為我躺臥在
你的十字架下。
我的神！我的主！
你的手施行醫治，
在這地面上
我再次得以站起。
不能再讓罪惡
掌權在我身上；
我的口舌只要
完全為你歌唱。
我的時間將到
雖然現在遲延，
也許，還要經過
更深長的幽暗。
但是，讓它來吧；
我要歡樂上升，
並且負我的軛
一直到達天庭。
Ulrich Zwingli （1484-1531） 瑞士宗教改革家。1519年，任蘇黎克大教堂（Grossmunster）首牧時，八月，蘇黎克發生黑死病。多人離城逃疫。他正因工作過勞，健康虛弱，在礦泉區休養。聞訊趕回“赴疫”，並且躬親“服疫”，看顧勉勵病患，撫恤死者留下的孤兒寡婦。結果，自己也染上瘟疫，臥病三個月，瀕臨死亡，而終於漸漸康復。他寫了此詩：前四節是患病時；中間五至八節是病危時；末四節是作於康復後。
Plague Hymn
Help me, O Lord,
My strength and rock;
Lo, at the door
I hear death's knock.
Uplift thine arm,
Once pierced for me,
That conquered death,
And set me free.
Yet, if thy voice,
In life's midday,
Recalls my soul,
Then I obey.
In faith and hope
Earth I resign,
Secure of heaven,
For I am Thine.
My pains increase;
Haste to console;
For fear and woe
Seize body and soul.
Death is at hand,
My senses fail,
My tongue is dumb;
Now, Christ, prevail.
Lo! Satan strains
To snatch his prey;
I feel his grasp;
Must I give way?
He harms me not,
I fear no loss,
For here I lie
Beneath thy cross.
My God! My Lord!
Healed by thy hand,
Upon the earth
Once more I stand.
Let sin no more
Rule over me;
My mouth shall sing
Alone to thee.
Though now delayed
My hour will come,
Involved, perchance,
In deeper gloom.
But, let it come;
With joy I'll rise,
And bear my yoke
Straight to the skies.
Ulrich Zwingli （1484-1531）
十四行詩 之一 莎士比亞
我們願意美好的人物更加增益，
這樣，完全的美容將永存不死，
雖然更成熟的將隨著時間減少，
他幼年的後代好承繼他的記憶。
但你只定睛在鏡裏光亮的眸子，
像火焰燃燒僅是在消耗自己，
有豐盛存留卻去盡造作饑荒，
你可愛的自我竟成為你的仇敵。
你現在是世界上鮮明的裝飾
不過在將進入那青春的絢麗，
在你的蓓蕾裏可埋葬你的後繼
你的吝惜不捨將成為浪擲惋惜。
憐憫這世界吧，或任由貪食，
埋沒世界該有的，是墳墓和你。
Sonnet I
From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty’s rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decrease,
His tender heir might bear his memory.
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed’st thy light’s flame with self-substantial fuel,
Make a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou that art now the world’s fresh ornament
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content
And, render churl, makest waste in niggarding.
Pity thy world, or else this gluton be,
To eat the world’s due, by the grave and thee.
十四行詩 之二
當四十年的歲月壓在你的眉頭
在你的美容的土地挖下深溝，
你少年可傲的華服現在看來，
將成為不值錢的衣衫殘舊。
如果問起你所有的美顏哪裏去了，
哪裏是你光輝的日子財富存留，
在你自己沈陷的眼睛裏說出
無益的稱讚成為吞噬一切的慚羞。
你的美顏再配得多少的稱讚
如果你可回答：“這是我可愛的孩子
到我老年時可以安然交帳無憂”，
就證明你的美顏能夠繼承傳流。
這樣你雖覺寒冷仍然有熱血，
能看見新生在你衰老的時候。
Sonnet II
When forth winters shall besiege thy brow,
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s field,
Thy youth’s proud livery so gazed on now,
Will be tattered weed, of small worth held.
Then being asked where all thy beauty lies,
Where all the treasure of thy lusty days,
To say within thine own deep-sunken eyes
Were an all-eating shame and thriftless praise.
How much more praise deserved thy beauty’s use
If thou couldst answer, “This fair child of mine
Shall sum my count and make my old excuse,”
Proving his beauty by succession thine!
This were to be new-made when thou art old,
And see thy blood warm when thou feel’st cold.
十四行詩 之三十七
像殘暮的父親心裏面滿足歡怡
看著他活潑的孩子作幼兒嬉戲，
我雖躄腳受幸運最殘忍的敵忌，
卻滿得安慰因你的成就和真理。
凡是任何美麗出身財富才智，
不論那樣，所有這些，或更多，
只要是屬於你所擁有誇口的，
都是我願深愛分享和堅定連繫。
當這影子有這樣具體的成績，
如此我不是躄腳貧窮或受藐視，
我活在你所有的光榮的一部分
在你的豐滿中我得稱心滿意。
看，甚麼是最好的祝最的歸你，
我有此願望就得以十倍的歡喜。
Sonnet XXXVII
As a decrepit father takes delight
To see his active child do deeds of youth,
So I, made lame by fortune’s dearest spite,
Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth.
For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit,
Of any of these all, or all, or more,
Entitled in thy parts do crowned sit,
I make my love engrafted to this store.
So then I am not lame, poor, nor despised
While that this shadow doth such substance give
That I in thy abundance am sufficed
And by a part of all thy glory live.
Look, what is best, that best I wish in thee,
This wish I have, then ten times happy me!
William Shakespeare（1564-1616）
聖誕之家 G.K. Chesterton
有一位母親被旅舍拒絕
在路途中流浪迤邐前行；
在那個地方她無家可歸
所有別的人都安居家中。
附近有一座不堪的牛棚，
梁柱將搖墜，沙土鬆動，
竟然可成為託身的處所
勝過了羅馬的彫梁畫棟。
在日光下有異鄉人流離，
有的人在本家病苦不安，
他們在一天的工作完畢，
都能有枕頭處倒身安眠。
我們有戰爭和眼中火焰，
有時機和意外爭得榮顯，
但我們家在奇妙穹蒼下，
聖誕的故事就如此開展。
一個嬰孩在污穢的馬槽，
牲畜在吃草，口涎橫斜；
當你和我都在家中安居，
只有祂竟然是飄零無家。
頭腦有知識手也有巧技，
但我們有多久心靈失喪！
沒有海圖或船隻能遠航
那穹蒼下不可知的地方。
這世界荒謬像老婦幻言，
淺白的事變成怪誕不經，
足夠的大地足夠的天空，
作我們希奇和我們戰爭；
我們的安息如火蛇搖擺，
我們的和平列為不可能，
環繞著一個奇妙的星球，
階級和衝突在飛翔不停。
世上的人應當都奔向那
在夜晚仍然是開放的家，
到那地方更古老過伊甸，
那城鎮更雄巍高越羅馬。
跟定那隱現迂迴的明星，
到那不可能竟成的事情：
在那裏神卻是成為無家，
所有的人都可回到家中。
The House of Christmas
There fared a mother driven forth
Out of an inn to roam;
In the place where she was homeless
All men are at home.
The crazy stable close at hand,
With shaking timber and shifting sand,
Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand
Than the square stone of Rome.
For men homesick in their homes,
And strangers under the sun,
And they lay their heads in a foreign land
Whenever the day is done.
Here we have battle and blazing eyes,
And chance and honour and high surprise,
But our homes are under miraculous skies
Where the yule tale was begun.
A Child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home;
We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost—how long ago!
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky’s dome.
This world is wild as an old wive’s tale,
And strange the plain things are,
The earth is enough and the air is enough
For our wonder and our war;
But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings
And our peace is put in impossible things
Where classed and thundered unthinkable wings
Round an incredible star.
To an open house in the evening
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place that God was homeless
And all men are at home.
G.K. Chesterton （1874-1936）
我站立在錫安山 Charles Swain
我站立在錫安山，
看我閃耀的冠冕；
地上沒有權勢能動搖我的盼望，
地獄的力量也不能摧殘。
許多山嶺和樓房，
舉起他們的頭高昂，
都要被拆毀低到塵埃，－
他們的名字也要滅亡。
耶和華手所造的，
那在上的穹蒼也將廢棄，
但我救恩的磐石更為穩固
必定永遠堅立。
I STAND ON ZION'S MOUNT
I stand on Zion's mount,
And view my starry crown;
No power on earth my hope can shake,
Nor hell can thrust me down.
The lofty hills and towers,
That lift their heads on high,
Shall all be levelled low in dust,—
Their very name shall die.
The vaulted heavens shall fall,
Built by Jehovah’s hands;
But firmer than the heavens the Rock
Of my salvation stands.
Charles Swain （1803- ）
主為我預備草場 Joseph Addison
詩篇第二十三篇
主為我預備草場，
是我的牧人看顧牧養；
祂同在供應我的需要，
關顧的眼睛常在我身上；
當午的游行祂照顧我，
夜間保護我不至受傷。
當我昏暈在灼熱的荒野，
當我在山嶺間乾渴喘息，
祂引領我疲倦無定的腳步，
到肥美的谷甘露的草地，
在那裏豐綠的原野上，
平靜的河水緩緩不止。
雖然我踏過死亡的路徑，
悲慘和恐怖四圍伸展，
我的心堅定全無懼怕，
主啊，因為你仍然在我身邊；
你慈愛的彎杖給我幫助，
引領我經過可怖的黑暗。
在荒涼崎嶇的路上，
我迷失在曠野孤單迢遙，
你的豐盛化解我的痛苦；
不毛的瘠土生發微笑，
忽然有綠洲和美好的牧草，
潺潺的溪流四面環繞。
THE LORD MY PASTURE SHALL PREPARE
Psalm xxiii
The Lord my pasture shall prepare,
And feed me with a shepherd’s care;
His presence shall my wants supply,
And guard me with a watchfull eye;
My noonday walks he shall attend,
And all my midnight hours defend.
When in the sultry glebe I faint,
Or on the thirsty mountains pants,
To fertile vales and dewy meads,
My weary, wandering steps he leads,
Where peaceful rivers soft and slow
Amid the verdant landscape flow.
Though in the path of death I tread,
With gloomy horrors overspread,
My steadfast heart shall fear no ill;
For thou, O Lord, art with me still:
Thy friendly crook shall give me aid,
And guide me through the dreadful shade.
Though in a bare and rugged way,
Through devious lonely wilds I stray,
Thy bounty shall my pains beguile;
The barren wilderness shall smile,
With sudden greens and herbage crowned,
And streams shall murmur all around.
Joseph Addison （1672-1719）
讚美神 John Greenleaf Whittier
成功了！
鐘聲鳴起砲聲響
好消息傳遍各方。
銅鐘搖擺又震盪！
巨砲鳴放又鳴放，
把歡樂傳到各城各鄉！
鳴，鐘啊！
每一聲都在傳揚
那時刻把罪惡埋葬。
嘹亮而悠長，讓每人聽到
使能聽的耳朵分享
時間和永恆的歡狂！
我們要跪下：
那裏傳的是神自己的聲息，
此地就是聖地。
主啊，赦免我們！我們算甚麼，
我們的眼竟看見這樣的榮耀，
這聲音傳進我們的耳朵裏！
因為主
乘駕著旋風；
祂在地震中發聲；
祂用祂的雷電
打碎了銅門，
使鐵牆分崩！
嘹亮而悠長
如同那古老的歌聲激揚；
同米利暗在紅海邊歡唱：
祂打到大能的軍長；
把馬和騎士淹沒埋葬；
祂得到榮耀的勝利！
我們何敢
在我們悲痛中如此禱告
祂所作的超過我們所求所想？
祂大能的右手
在任何時間或地上
在日光下伸出像今天一樣？
今天的神蹟，
使古時的神話歌謠或傳說，
比來都黯淡無光；
當戰爭殘忍的杖
公義的律法白花綻放，
人的烈怒竟成為頌揚！
塗抹掉！
所有外面和所有內裏
讓新的生命再開始過；
宇宙呼吸得更自由
當沉重的咒詛軋過死亡
也埋葬了罪惡。
成功了！
當太陽環繞
帶著這聲音。
它要使憂傷歡欣，
它要使啞口者有聲音，
使歡樂圍繞全地傳聞！
揮搖鳴響，
歡樂的鐘聲！清晨的翅膀
把讚美歌聲帶到遠方！
那聲音是斷開鎖鍊，
宣告萬國上主掌權，
唯有祂是主是神！
LAUS DEO!
[On hearing the bells ring on the passage of the Constitutional Amendment abolishing slavery.]
It is done!
Clang to bell and roar of gun
Send the tidings up and down.
How the belfries rock and reel!
How the great guns, peal on peal,
Fling the joy from town to town!
Ring, O bells!
Every stroke exulting tells
Of the burial hour of crime.
Loud and long, that all may hear,
Ring for every listening ear
Of Eternity and Time!
Let us kneel:
God’s own voice is in that peal,
And this spot is holy ground.
Lord, forgive us! What are we,
That our eyes this glory see,
That our ears heard the sound!
For the Lord
On the whirlwind is abroad;
In the earthquake He has spoken;
He has smitten with His thunder
The iron wall asunder,
And the gates of brass are broken!
Loud and long
Lift the old exulting song;
Sing with Miriam by the sea:
He has cast the mighty down;
Horse and rider sink and drown;
He has triumphed gloriously!
Did we dare,
In our agony of prayer,
Ask for more than He has done?
When was ever His right hand
Over any time or land
Stretched as now beneath the sun?
How they pale,
Ancient myth and song and tale,
In this wonder of our days,
When the cruel rod of war
Blossoms white with righteous law,
And the wrath of man is praise!
Blotted out!
All within and all about
Shall a fresher life begin;
Freer breathe the universe
As it rolls its heavy curse
On the dead and buried sin.
It is done!
In the circuit of the sun
Shall the sound thereof go forth.
It shall bid the sad rejoice,
It shall give the dumb a voice
It shall belt with joy the earth!
Ring and swing,
Bells of joy! On morning’s wing
Send the song of praise abroad!
With a sound of broken chains,
Tell the nations that He reigns,
Who alone is Lord and God!
John Greenleaf Whittier
神的兒女疲倦又緩慢 John Bowdler
神的兒女疲倦又緩慢，
在朝聖的旅途上向前，
不論強壯或軟弱，喜樂或痛苦，
對神上面的呼召忠誠不變！－
你們為甚麼走的這樣勉強，
像疑慮悲哀的集團？
為甚麼疲乏的低垂著頭？
為甚麼手無力疲倦？
啊，軟弱不知道救主的能力，
不感覺天父的護理！
短暫的勞苦，快過的陣雨，
是你們共有的悲戚。
雖然天空的陰雲
一時掩蔽當午的太陽，
他更可愛的美容微笑
在日暮時更加輝煌，－
衝破幽暗的包圍，
企圖阻止他的能力，
光明榮耀的驅除每片陰雲，
勝利的歸回安息。
基督徒啊，擦乾你的眼淚，
除去不信的疑慮，
終將從罪疚和懼怕中得贖，
啊，你的心甦醒愛主！
CHILDREN OF GOD WHO FAINT AND SLOW
Children of God, who, faint and slow,
Your pilgrim-path pursue,
In strength and weakness, joy and woe,
To God’s calling true!—
Why move ye thus, with lingering tread,
A doubting, mournful band?
Why faintly hangs the drooping head?
Why fails the feeble hand?
O, weak to know a Saviour’s power,
To feel a Father’s care!
A moment’s toil, a passing shower,
Is all the grief ye share.
The orb of light, though clouds awhile
May hide his noontide ray,
Shall soon in lovelier beauty smile
To gild the closing day,—
And, busting through the dusky shroud
That dared his power invest,
Ride throned in light, o’er every cloud,
Triumphant to his rest.
Then, Christian, dry the falling tear,
The faithless doubt remove;
Redeemed at last from guilt and fear,
O, wake thy heart to love.
John Bowdler
黑森林 Dante Alighieri
在我們行程的中途
我發現自己在黑森林中間，
迷失了向前的正路。
啊呀！那真是難以形容
這森林是那麼蠻荒，艱險，可怖，
一想到就使我害怕。
那樣的難受，比死好不了多少；
不過，敘述我在那裏所看到的，
另外的事也會有些好處。
我不清楚記得怎地進到那裏。
因為當時我十分困倦，
以至於失去了正路。
但我到了一個山腳之後，
山谷就終止於此，
所受的驚恐刺破我的心，
向上望去，我看到了山肩，
已經在那星光之下，
照引著每條道路。
我的心湖稍微平靜了些
忍受著整夜的懼怕
我那麼悽慘的經過，
就像人喘息掙扎著，
從海裏爬上了岸，
迴望那危險的波浪，
我的靈魂，仍然向上飛翔，
迴顧所經過的
從沒有活人如此經歷。
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 英譯
In The Dark Wood
Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
Ah me! How hard a thing it is to say
What was this savage, rough, and stern,
Which in the very thought renewed my fear.
So bitter is it, death is little more:
But of the good to treat, which there I found,
Speak will I of the other things I saw there.
I cannot well repeat how there I entered,
So full was I of slumber at the moment
In which I had abandoned the true way.
But after I had reached a mountain’s foot,
At that point where the valley terminated,
Which had with consternation pierced my heart,
Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders,
Vested already with the planet’s rays
Which leadeth others right by every road.
Then was the fear a little quieted
That in my heart’s lake had endured throughout
The night, which I passed so piteously,
And even as he, who, with distressful breath,
Forth issued from the sea upon the shore,
Turns to the water perilous and gazes,
So did my soul, that still was fleeing onward,
Turn itself back to re-behold the pass
Which never yet a living person left.
Dante Alighieri （1265-1321）, The Inferno canto I
Trans. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
第二次來臨 William Butler Yeats
盤旋復盤旋圈子越來越大
鷹不再受蓄鷹者的馭使；
事務散盤了；中心失去控制；
成為只是亂民的世界，
貧血的潮流氾濫，到處
對清白的尊重被淹沒了；
最好的人全然缺乏信念，但最壞的
卻滿有強烈的熱情。
定然是某種啟示臨近了；
定然是第二次來臨近了。
第二次來臨！這句話剛完
就有一個巨大的形象靈感
出現使我不安：在某地荒漠散沙中間
一個獅身人首的模樣，
像太陽漠然無憐憫的注視，
它的腿緩慢的移動，在它的周圍
是沙漠群鳥畏縮的影子。
黑暗又降臨；但現在我知道
二十個世紀的沉睡
苦惱的被搖籃搖成噩夢，
那麼粗暴的獸，它的時刻終於來臨，
懶散的走向伯利恆出生。
葉慈（1865-1939）是愛爾蘭詩人，劇作家，並國會議員，
獲1923年諾貝爾文學獎。
The Second Coming William Butler Yeats
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot bear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
1921
William Butler Yeats （1865-1939） Irish poet, dramatist, and senator, winner of Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.