奥登：摇篮曲

             王立秋 试译

放下你瞌睡的头吧，我的爱，

我失却信仰的手臂上的人儿：

时间和狂热烧去了

有思想的孩子身上的

个体的美丽，而坟墓

则证明了孩提的易逝：

但在我怀里，在拂晓之前

且让这生者静躺吧，

她必死，有罪，但对我来说

却是完全的美丽。

灵魂和身体没有边界：

对躺在她宽容、着魔的

山坡上的恋人来说

在他们平凡的痴迷中，

铭刻着维纳斯发送的，

超自然的同情、普世的爱

和希望的异象；

而一种抽象的洞见，则在

冰川和岩石间唤醒了

隐士肉体的狂喜。

确信，忠诚

在午夜时消逝

像钟的颤音

时髦的疯人开始

迂腐无聊地叫唤：

一切代价，

可怕的卡牌预示的一切，

都要偿还，但今夜

一声耳语、一个思绪，

一个吻或眼神都不会失去。

美、午夜、异象死去：

让在你做梦的小脑袋周围

温柔拂动的晨风——

如此怡人的一天——展示

眼和敲门的心可以祝福，

发现我们必死的世界已足够；

让焦躁的正午发现你已被

一些无意识的力量满足，

让侵袭的夜放你，在

一切人爱的注视下通过。

Lullaby

W. H. Auden, 1907 - 1973

 Lay your sleeping head, my love,

Human on my faithless arm;

Time and fevers burn away

Individual beauty from

Thoughtful children, and the grave

Proves the child ephemeral:

But in my arms till break of day

Let the living creature lie,

Mortal, guilty, but to me

The entirely beautiful.

Soul and body have no bounds:

To lovers as they lie upon

Her tolerant enchanted slope

In their ordinary swoon,

Grave the vision Venus sends

Of supernatural sympathy,

Universal love and hope;

While an abstract insight wakes

Among the glaciers and the rocks

The hermit’s carnal ecstasy.

Certainty, fidelity

On the stroke of midnight pass

Like vibrations of a bell,

And fashionable madmen raise

Their pedantic boring cry:

Every farthing of the cost,

All the dreaded cards foretell,

Shall be paid, but from this night

Not a whisper, not a thought,

Not a kiss nor look be lost.

Beauty, midnight, vision dies:

Let the winds of dawn that blow

Softly round your dreaming head

Such a day of welcome show

Eye and knocking heart may bless,

Find the mortal world enough;

Noons of dryness find you fed

By the involuntary powers,

Nights of insult let you pass

Watched by every human love.

From Another Time by W. H. Auden, published by Random House. Copyright © 1940 W. H. Auden, renewed by the Estate of W. H. Auden. Used by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.