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

这个传说有个版本说海上女妖不会歌唱。

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

说她们会纯出自水手掰的一个故事。

So Odysseus, lashed to the mast, was harrowed

于是奥德赛，被绑在桅杆上，饱受

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

一种他未曾听见的音乐之苦——海的腾跃，

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

风的透明织物，海鸟离岸后的饥饿——

And the mute women gathering kelp for garden mulch,

而那些采集巨藻做花园护根的喑哑女子，

Seeing him strain against the cordage, seeing

看到他奋力挣脱绳索，看到

the awful longing in his eyes, are changed forever

他眼中骇人的渴望，她们在岛上多岩的荒地

On their rocky waste of island by their imagination

被自己的想象永远改了样：她们想象

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

他想象着那首她们不曾唱过的歌。