日子

王敖

Days  

By  Philip Larkin

What are days for?
Days are where we live.
They come, they wake us
Time and time over.
They are to be happy in:
Where can we live but days?

Ah, solving that question
Brings the priest and the doctor
In their long coats
Running over the fields.

日子

日子有什么用？
日子是我们活着的地方。
它们来临，它们唤醒我们
一遍一遍又一遍。
它们是要人活得开心的地方：
除了在日子里，我们还能活在哪里？

啊，这个问题的解决
带来的是穿着长袍
奔跑在田野上的
神甫和医生。

莨

They are to be happy in:

它们告诉我们乐在其中

王敖

好， 不过告诉有点过，不如就“它们要我们乐在其中“。

日子

日子有什么用？
日子是我们活着的地方。
它们来临，它们唤醒我们
一遍一遍又一遍。
它们要我们乐在其中：
除了在日子里，我们还能活在哪里？

啊，这个问题的解决
带来的是穿着长袍
奔跑在田野上的
神甫和医生。

王敖

不过，“它们是要人活得开心的地方“更口语化，我比较喜欢这里的“活得开心” 。

粘利文

Morning song of Senlin
Conrad Aiken

It is morning, Senlin says, and in the morning
When the light drips through the shutters like the dew,
I arise, I face the sunrise,
And do the things my fathers learned to do.
Stars in the purple dusk above the rooftops
Pale in a saffron mist and seem to die,
And I myself on a swiftly tilting planet
Stand before a glass and tie my tie.
Vine leaves tap my window,
Dew-drops sing to the garden stones,
The robin chips in the chinaberry tree
Repeating three clear tones.

It is morning. I stand by the mirror
And tie my tie once more.
While waves far off in a pale rose twilight
Crash on a white sand shore.
I stand by a mirror and comb my hair:
How small and white my face!—
The green earth tilts through a sphere of air
And bathes in a flame of space.
There are houses hanging above the stars
And stars hung under a sea. . .
And a sun far off in a shell of silence
Dapples my walls for me. . .

It is morning, Senlin says, and in the morning
Should I not pause in the light to remember God?
Upright and firm I stand on a star unstable,
He is immense and lonely as a cloud.
I will dedicate this moment before my mirror
To him alone, and for him I will comb my hair.
Accept these humble offerings, cloud of silence!
I will think of you as I descend the stair.
Vine leaves tap my window,
The snail-track shines on the stones,
Dew-drops flash from the chinaberry tree
Repeating two clear tones.

It is morning, I awake from a bed of silence,
Shining I rise from the starless waters of sleep.
The walls are about me still as in the evening,
I am the same, and the same name still I keep.
The earth revolves with me, yet makes no motion,
The stars pale silently in a coral sky.
In a whistling void I stand before my mirror,
Unconcerned, I tie my tie.
There are horses neighing on far-off hills
Tossing their long white manes,
And mountains flash in the rose-white dusk,
Their shoulders black with rains. . .

It is morning. I stand by the mirror
And suprise my soul once more;
The blue air rushes above my ceiling,
There are suns beneath my floor. . .

. . . It is morning, Senlin says, I ascend from darkness
And depart on the winds of space for I know not where,
My watch is wound, a key is in my pocket,
And the sky is darkened as I descend the stair.
There are shadows across the windows, clouds in heaven,
And a god among the stars; and I will go
Thinking of him as I might think of daybreak
And humming a tune I know. . .
Vine-leaves tap at the window,
Dew-drops sing to the garden stones,
The robin chirps in the chinaberry tree
Repeating three clear tones.

[此贴子已经被作者于2005-4-25 11:53:47编辑过]

莨

原来的也没有什么不好。我之所以用告诉觉得冒号后面是一种延释和体会。如果是“要”就显得比较被动。我不擅长翻译，但非常喜欢他的这句话。Happiness也是一种锻炼和学习。

陈舸

活的开心好些。看过拉金国内的中译本，很多地方不尽人意。