As I Step Over A Puddle At The End Of Winter, I Think Of An Ancient Chinese Governor詹姆斯·赖特

在冬末跨过一个水坑，我想起一位古代中国的地方官厄土译

And how can I, born in evil days
And fresh from failure, ask a kindness of Fate?
-- Written A.D. 819

Po Chu-i, balding old politician,

白居易，开始谢顶的老政客，

What's the use?

有何用？

I think of you,

我想起你

Uneasily entering the gorges of the Yang-Tze,

不安地进入长江峡谷，

When you were being towed up the rapids

被拖曳着穿越激流而上

Toward some political job or other

为了官职或其他

In the city of Chungshou.

去忠州城。

You made it, I guess,

你到达时，我猜

By dark.

天都黑了。

But it is 1960, it is almost spring again,

但现在是1960年，又将是春天了，

And the tall rocks of Minneapolis

明尼阿波利斯高耸的岩石，

Build me my own black twilight

堆垒起我自己的

Of bamboo ropes and waters.

竹索和水的昏黑暮色。

Where is Yuan Chen, the friend you loved?

元稹在哪里，这位你钟爱的朋友？

Where is the sea, that once solved the whole loneliness

大海在哪里，那曾终结中西部所有孤独的

Of the Midwest?Where is Minneapolis? I can see nothing

大海？明尼阿波利斯在哪里？我什么都看不见

But the great terrible oak tree darkening with winter.

除了这棵随冬天变黑的可怕的橡树。

Did you find the city of isolated men beyond mountains?

你是否找到了群山之外隔绝尘世的人们的城池？

Or have you been holding the end of a frayed rope

或者说，你已把这根磨损的残绳的一端

For a thousand years?

紧握了一千年？