罗马诗人维吉尔，你歌唱

Roman Virgil, thou that singest

伊利昂巍峨的神殿烟燎火摧；

Ilion's lofty temples robed in fire,

唱伊利昂覆灭、罗马崛起，

Ilion falling, Rome arising,

还唱征伐、孝心和狄多的柴堆；

wars, and filial faith, and Dido's pyre;

你热爱美景又主宰文辞，

Landscape-lover, lord of language

《工作与时日》的作者比不上你；

more than he that sang the 'Works and Days,'

你所有那些精铸的想象

All the chosen coin of fancy

让多少黄金般词句烁烁闪熠；

flashing out from many a golden phrase;

你赞颂麦浪、林地和农田，

Thou that singest wheat and woodland,

赞颂马、牛群、葡萄园和蜂房；

tilth and vineyard, hive and horse and herd;

一位位缪斯的全部魅力

All the charm of all the Muses

常凭你的一个字而鲜花怒放；

often flowering in a lonely word;

你歌唱欢乐的蒂狄卢斯，

Poet of the happy Tityrus

唱他在山毛榉的荫下吹牧笛；

piping underneath his beechen bowers;

你歌唱善歌的森林之神——

Poet of the poet-satyr

欢笑的牧人用鲜花将他捆起；

whom the laughing shepherd bound with flowers;

你讴歌波琉，你为再一次

Chanter of the Pollio, glorying

享受极乐的岁月而满怀豪情，

in the blissful years again to be,

也为夏日没有蛇的草地、

Summers of the snakeless meadow,

未耕的原野、无船的海而欢欣；

unlaborious earth and oarless sea;

你呀，看到天地间的万物

Thou that seest Universal

都在天意的安排下一一行动；

Nature moved by Universal Mind;

你那种忧伤更显得崇高——

Thou majestic in thy sadness

是为人类难测的命运而悲痛；

at the doubtful doom of human kind;

你是已逝年代中的灯盏，

Light among the vanish'd ages;

是太阳仍为这缥缈人世镀金辉；

star that gildest yet this phantom shore;

你是那冥界里的金树枝——

Golden branch amid the shadows,

君主和王国一去那里就永不回；

kings and realms that pass to rise no more;

如今你广场上不再喧响，

Now thy Forum roars no longer,

所有紫袍恺撒的穹顶已塌落——

fallen every purple Cæsar's dome —

尽管你翻江倒海的韵律

Tho' thine ocean-roll of rhythm

永远让人们追想到罗马帝国——

sound forever of Imperial Rome —

如今奴隶制的罗马已消亡，

Now the Rome of slaves hath perish'd,

自由人的罗马已经站稳了脚；

and the Rome of freemen holds her place,

我虽属于这北方，这一度

I, from out the Northern Island

同全体人类分离的北国之岛，

sunder'd once from all the human race,

要向你这曼图亚人致敬，

I salute thee, Mantovano,

因为在语言所铸成的韵律里，

I that loved thee since my day began,

数你运用的最高雅雄健——

Wielder of the stateliest measure

我从幼年起就已深深热爱你。

ever moulded by the lips of man.