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

在传说的一个版本中塞壬不能歌唱了。

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

只在一个水手的故事里她们能。

So Odysseus, lashed to the mast, was harrowed

于是，奥德修斯，被绑在桅杆上，蹂躏

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

被一种他听不到的音乐———海的跳突，

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

完全的风，海鸟们离岸的饥饿———

And the mute women gathering kelp for garden mulch,

还有沉默的妇女在为护盖菜园收集巨藻，

Seeing him strain against the cordage, seeing

看着他绷紧地对抗索具，看着

the awful longing in his eyes, are changed forever

他眼中可怕的渴望，被永远交换

On their rocky waste of island by their imagination

在海岛多石的废弃的土地上，她们想象

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

在他的想象中她们没唱的歌。