In one version of the legend the sirens couldn't sing.

在传说的一个版本里塞壬不会唱歌。

It was only a sailor's story that they could.

只是在一个水手的故事里她们会。

So Odysseus, lashed to the mast, was harrowed

那么，奥德修斯，被绑在桅杆上，被听不见的

By a music that he didn't hear -- plungings of the sea,

音乐所折磨——跌荡的大海，

Wind-sheer, the off-shore hunger of the birds –

陡峭的风，鸟儿们离岸的饥饿——

And the mute women gathering kelp for garden mulch,

而沉默的女人们为护盖花园收集海藻，

Seeing him strain against the cordage, seeing

看着他竭力要挣脱缆绳，看着

the awful longing in his eyes, are changed forever

他眼里可怕的渴念，在岩石

On their rocky waste of island by their imagination

林立的荒岛上，被她们想象的

Of his imagination of the song they didn't sing.

他对未唱之歌的想象，永远改变。