在我们不可避免的丧失之前，你的精神

THY spirit ere our fatal loss

      的确不断地从高处升向更高处；

    Did ever rise from high to higher;

      如同朝向天空的爱的火焰，

    As mounts the heavenward altar-fire,

如更轻盈者飞越芸芸众生。

As flies the lighter thro' the gross.

但你被转向一些陌生的事物，

But thou art turn'd to something strange,

      而我已失去那些联结你变化的

    And I have lost the links that bound

      纽带；我只能在此，在大地之上，

    Thy changes; here upon the ground,

无法再参与你的变化。

No more partaker of thy change.

多么荒唐！然而可能就是这样——

Deep folly! yet that this could be —

      我曾尽力鼓舞起意志

    That I could wing my will with might

      去跃过生命与光的等级，

    To leap the grades of life and light,

飞闪到你身边，我的朋友。

And flash at once, my friend, to thee.

因为尽管我的天性很少会屈服于

For tho' my nature rarely yields

      蕴藏在死亡里的不确定的恐惧；

    To that vague fear implied in death;

      也不会临渊战栗于

    Nor shudders at the gulfs beneath,

那从忘川传来的嚎叫和哭泣；

The howlings from forgotten fields;

然而很多时候，当落日环绕荒野，

Yet oft when sundown skirts the moor

      我审视内心的烦恼，发觉

    An inner trouble I behold,

      我将不再是你的友伴，

    A spectral doubt which makes me cold,

这种幽灵似的疑虑使我寒冷，

That I shall be thy mate no more,

纵使我，以上升的心智

Tho' following with an upward mind

      跟随那些降临在你身上的奇迹，

    The wonders that have come to thee,

      不停穿越所有的来世，

    Thro' all the secular to-be,

也始终无法赶上你，无法一起生活。

But evermore a life behind.