I

一．

Midwinter spring is its own season

隆冬里的春天是它自己的季节

Sempiternal though sodden towards sundown,

恒久，虽然在日落前湿透，

Suspended in time, between pole and tropic.

它停止在时间里，在两极与回归线之间。

When the short day is brightest, with frost and fire,

短暂的白天变得最光亮时，因为霜和火——

The brief sun flames the ice, on pond and ditches,

匆忙的日光点燃了沟渠和池塘里的冰，

In windless cold that is the heart's heat,

在无风的严寒中，那是心脏的热量，

Reflecting in a watery mirror

在水淋淋的镜面反射出

A glare that is blindness in the early afternoon.

一道炫目的、夺人视力的光，在晌午之后。

And glow more intense than blaze of branch, or brazier,

这光比柴火或火盆里的更强烈，更刺目，

Stirs the dumb spirit: no wind, but pentecostal fire

它激起哑默的灵魂：没有风，只有圣灵降临节的火，

In the dark time of the year. Between melting and freezing

——在一年里的黑暗时节。在融化和冰冻之间，

The soul's sap quivers. There is no earth smell

灵魂颤抖着。没有泥土的气息，

Or smell of living thing. This is the spring time

没有生命的气息。这是春天的时日，

But not in time's covenant. Now the hedgerow

但不在时间的契约里。现在矮木篱笆

Is blanched for an hour with transitory blossom

被暂时开放的雪花染白了一个小时，

Of snow, a bloom more sudden

雪花——一次比夏日花朵更突然的开放，

Than that of summer, neither budding nor fading,

不经过花苞，也不会凋零，

Not in the scheme of generation.

也不会落入世代繁衍的计划。

Where is the summer, the unimaginable

夏天在哪里，那不可想象的

Zero summer?

零度的夏天？

              If you came this way,

如果你前来这里，

Taking the route you would be likely to take

走你最可能走的路线，

From the place you would be likely to come from,

从那你最可能出发的地方，

If you came this way in may time, you would find the hedges

如果你是在五月到来，你应该发现

White again, in May, with voluptuary sweetness.

树篱再次变白，带着放纵的甜蜜，在五月。

It would be the same at the end of the journey,

在旅程的终点，可能结果都一样，

If you came at night like a broken king,

如果你像一个困顿的国外连夜赶来，

If you came by day not knowing what you came for,

如果你在白天赶来却不知为何而来，

It would be the same, when you leave the rough road

结果可能都一样，——当你离开那粗粝的小路

And turn behind the pig-sty to the dull facade

由猪栏后面转向阴暗的正面和一旁的

And the tombstone. And what you thought you came for

墓碑。此时，你心中原有的目的

Is only a shell, a husk of meaning

只是真实意义之外的一层壳，或一只荚，

From which the purpose breaks only when it is fulfilled

真正的目的，只有实现之时才会破壳而出。

If at all. Either you had no purpose

也许你并没有目的，

Or the purpose is beyond the end you figured

或者你无法描绘自己的目的，

And is altered in fulfilment. There are other places

它在实现时发生改变。另有一些地方，

Which also are the world's end, some at the sea jaws,

也是世界的尽头，有的在大海的入口，

Or over a dark lake, in a desert or a city—

或者一个黑暗的湖泊上空，一片沙漠或城市中。

But this is the nearest, in place and time,

但这里是最近的，不论时间还是空间，

Now and in England.

现在，在英格兰。

              If you came this way,

如果你前来这里，

Taking any route, starting from anywhere,

走任何线路，从任何地方出发，

At any time or at any season,

在任何时间，或任何季节，

It would always be the same: you would have to put off

结果永远都将一样：你必须抛开

Sense and notion. You are not here to verify,

自我的感受和主张。你来此不是为了

Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity

证明什么，教导自己，或满足好奇

Or carry report. You are here to kneel

或传送报告。你到这里——祷告总会应验的地方

Where prayer has been valid. And prayer is more

——跪下。而且祷告不只是

Than an order of words, the conscious occupation

一连串的话语，或祷词对大脑的占据，

Of the praying mind, or the sound of the voice praying.

也不只是诵念祷词的声音。

And what the dead had no speech for, when living,

逝者生前无法告诉你的

They can tell you, being dead: the communication

现在，作为死者，可以告诉你：死后的世界，

Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.

通过火焰的语言沟通——超越生者的语言。

Here, the intersection of the timeless moment

这里，所有无始无终的时刻在此交汇，

Is England and nowhere. Never and always.

在英格兰而非他处。从不、永远。

II

二．

Ash on an old man's sleeve

一个老人衣袖上的灰烬

Is all the ash the burnt roses leave.

是玫瑰燃烧后留下的所有灰烬。

Dust in the air suspended

尘土，在空气中悬浮，

Marks the place where a story ended.

标示出故事结束的地方。

Dust inbreathed was a house—

进入呼吸的尘土曾是，一栋房屋——

The walls, the wainscot and the mouse,

墙，护壁板和老鼠，

The death of hope and despair,

希望和绝望的消亡，

       This is the death of air.

　　　　　　　　这是空气的死亡。

There are flood and drouth

有洪水和干旱，

Over the eyes and in the mouth,

在眼前，在口中，

Dead water and dead sand

死水和死沙

Contending for the upper hand.

挣着要占据上风。

The parched eviscerate soil

龟裂、贫瘠的土壤

Gapes at the vanity of toil,

茫然地注视着人们徒然的辛劳，

Laughs without mirth.

笑声里没有欢乐，

       This is the death of earth.

　　　　　　　　这是土地的死亡。

Water and fire succeed

水与火接管了

The town, the pasture and the weed.

城市，牧场和野草。

Water and fire deride

水与火嘲弄

The sacrifice that we denied.

我们拒绝供奉的牺牲。

Water and fire shall rot

水与火也将腐化为

The marred foundations we forgot,

那我们已经忘记的毁坏的

Of sanctuary and choir.

圣殿和唱诗班。

       This is the death of water and fire.

　　　　　　　　这是水与火的死亡。

In the uncertain hour before the morning

在黎明前某个不可确知的时辰，

     Near the ending of interminable night

漫漫长夜行将结束，

     At the recurrent end of the unending

在它反复出现的永不终结的终点，

After the dark dove with the flickering tongue

一只归途中的黑鸽子，携着明灭的叫声，

     Had passed below the horizon of his homing

掠过地平线，

     While the dead leaves still rattled on like tin

此时枯死的树叶像风中的锡片一样嘎嘎作响，

Over the asphalt where no other sound was

除此之外，沥青路上再无其它声音，

     Between three districts whence the smoke arose

在冒烟的三个街区之间，

     I met one walking, loitering and hurried

我遇上一个行色匆匆的游荡者，

As if blown towards me like the metal leaves

似一片张大的金属叶子迎面而来，

     Before the urban dawn wind unresisting.

迎着一阵无力的都市晨风。

     And as I fixed upon the down-turned face

我定睛观察他垂转下来的面孔，

That pointed scrutiny with which we challenge

就像在暗淡的暮色中审视

     The first-met stranger in the waning dusk

一个初次邂逅的陌生人，

     I caught the sudden look of some dead master

我突然发现一张大师的脸，

Whom I had known, forgotten, half recalled

我曾熟识，后又忘记，现在又恍惚忆起，

     Both one and many; in the brown baked features

既是一个，又是多个；在那张烟熏火烤般的褐色的脸上，

     The eyes of a familiar compound ghost

是一双熟悉的复合灵魂的眼睛，

Both intimate and unidentifiable.

既亲切，又模糊难辨。

     So I assumed a double part, and cried

于是，我似乎变成了两个部分，喊道

     And heard another's voice cry: 'What! are you here?'

——同时听到另一个声音喊道：“怎么！您在这里！”

Although we were not. I was still the same,

虽然我知道这是幻觉。我仍然是一个，

     Knowing myself yet being someone other—

但已经变成了另外一个人。

     And he a face still forming; yet the words sufficed

他的脸还在变化中；但我的话已足够

To compel the recognition they preceded.

让他们现出以前的身份。

     And so, compliant to the common wind,

于是，顺从于同一阵风的吹拂，

     Too strange to each other for misunderstanding,

我们相会在这个和谐的时间交叉点上

In concord at this intersection time

相遇，不在任何地方，无前也无后，

     Of meeting nowhere, no before and after,

并由于太过陌生而不会彼此误解，

     We trod the pavement in a dead patrol.

我们踩在路面上，开始一次死亡巡视。

I said: 'The wonder that I feel is easy,

我说道：“我心中的疑惑并不难解，

     Yet ease is cause of wonder. Therefore speak:

是松懈产生了这些疑惑。所以说：

     I may not comprehend, may not remember.'

我可能未曾领会，也不曾记住。”

And he: 'I am not eager to rehearse

他说：“我并不准备去复述

     My thoughts and theory which you have forgotten.

我那些已被你忘记的思想和理论。

     These things have served their purpose: let them be.

他们已经完成了自己的任务：就让他们去吧。

So with your own, and pray they be forgiven

你自己的也是如此，祈求它们被他人宽免吧，

     By others, as I pray you to forgive

就像我祈求你宽免一样，

     Both bad and good. Last season's fruit is eaten

不论好的坏的。当季的果实被吃光后，

And the fullfed beast shall kick the empty pail.

喂饱的牲畜就会把空桶踢开。

     For last year's words belong to last year's language

去年说的话属于去年的语言，

     And next year's words await another voice.

明年的话在等待另一种语音。

But, as the passage now presents no hindrance

但是，就像现在路上没有障碍一样，

     To the spirit unappeased and peregrine

对于一个来自异域的未得安息的灵魂，

     Between two worlds become much like each other,

——它已在两个世界间变得非常相像，

So I find words I never thought to speak

当我把肉体留在远方的海岸上，

     In streets I never thought I should revisit

在我从未想过要再次造访的街道上，

     When I left my body on a distant shore.

我找到了我从未想说的话。

Since our concern was speech, and speech impelled us

既然我们关心的是言说，言说又驱策我们

     To purify the dialect of the tribe

净化族人的语言，

     And urge the mind to aftersight and foresight,

并促使我们瞻前也顾后，

Let me disclose the gifts reserved for age

就让我打开岁月的礼物

     To set a crown upon your lifetime's effort.

来为你一生的努力加冕。

     First, the cold friction of expiring sense

首先，当人的感受力丧失生命的魔力，行将熄灭，

Without enchantment, offering no promise

它自身的任何冷漠的冲突，都不会提供任何承诺，

     But bitter tastelessness of shadow fruit

而只是苦涩无味的幻影一般的果实，

     As body and soul begin to fall asunder.

就像身体和灵魂开始分离成碎片。

Second, the conscious impotence of rage

其次，狂怒暴露了无能——人类的

     At human folly, and the laceration

愚蠢，而放浪的笑声，

     Of laughter at what ceases to amuse.

则再难以取悦他人。

And last, the rending pain of re-enactment

最后，对自己所是和所做之物的重新评价

     Of all that you have done, and been; the shame

和定位，会让人感受到撕裂之痛；

     Of motives late revealed, and the awareness

你曾试图从中践习美德的，是你

Of things ill done and done to others' harm

做错和伤害他人的事物带来的耻辱，

     Which once you took for exercise of virtue.

傻瓜们的拥护给人刺痛；他们的赞美给人玷污。

     Then fools' approval stings, and honour stains.

激愤的灵魂从错误到错误中前行，

From wrong to wrong the exasperated spirit

——就像一个舞者一样前行，直到

     Proceeds, unless restored by that refining fire

在炼狱之火的洗礼中重塑自己。”

     Where you must move in measure, like a dancer.'

天色破晓，在这条遭损毁的街道上，

The day was breaking. In the disfigured street

他离开了我，念着一种告别词，

     He left me, with a kind of valediction,

隐身在一阵号角的长鸣中。

     And faded on the blowing of the horn.

三．

III

有三种情况经常看起来相似，

There are three conditions which often look alike

实则完全不同，它们就像盛开在同一片树篱之中：

Yet differ completely, flourish in the same hedgerow:

对自身，对事物和对他人的迷恋，

Attachment to self and to things and to persons, detachment

对人与事物的冷漠和疏远；以及生长于两者之间的，对人与事物的淡然处之，

From self and from things and from persons; and, growing between them, indifference

后者之于前两者，就像死亡之于生命，

Which resembles the others as death resembles life,

处于两种生命状态之间——无花无果，处于

Being between two lives—unflowering, between

生之烦恼和死之烦恼之间。这是记忆的价值：

The live and the dead nettle. This is the use of memory:

解脱——不是减少爱，而是超越了

For liberation—not less of love but expanding

欲望的爱在增长，因此也将从未来和

Of love beyond desire, and so liberation

过去中获得解脱。所以，对国家之爱

From the future as well as the past. Thus, love of a country

始于对我们自己行动之地的迷恋，

Begins as attachment to our own field of action

然后发现行动本身并非爱的关键，

And comes to find that action of little importance

虽然这行动从来就不是无关紧要的。历史可能是束缚，

Though never indifferent. History may be servitude,

历史也可能是自由。看，现在它们消失了，

History may be freedom. See, now they vanish,

那一张张面孔和一个个地点，同自我一起——如它可以的那样爱着它们，

The faces and places, with the self which, as it could, loved them,

而后，又在另一种方式中更新，变化。

To become renewed, transfigured, in another pattern.

罪是一种必要，但

Sin is Behovely, but

一切终将变好，并且

All shall be well, and

一切事务都将各安其位。

All manner of thing shall be well.

如果我，再次，想起这个地方

If I think, again, of this place,

和这个地方的人们——他们并非全然值得称赞，

And of people, not wholly commendable,

我想到的不是那些直系家族，或某些慈行善举，

Of no immediate kin or kindness,

而是某些特别的天才，

But of some peculiar genius,

受到同一种天意的感召，

All touched by a common genius,

在那让他们分裂的斗争中归于一体；

United in the strife which divided them;

如果我想起夜幕中的国王，

If I think of a king at nightfall,

想到三个人，或更多，在断头台上，

Of three men, and more, on the scaffold

以及那些死在别处——此地或异域——

And a few who died forgotten

已被人遗忘的人，

In other places, here and abroad,

或是想起一个在失明与宁静中逝去的人，

And of one who died blind and quiet

为什么要纪念他们

Why should we celebrate

胜于纪念那如今正在死去的人们？

These dead men more than the dying?

这不是去敲昔日的钟，

It is not to ring the bell backward

也不是去召唤

Nor is it an incantation

一枝玫瑰的幽灵的咒语。

To summon the spectre of a Rose.

我们不能重组昔日的派系，

We cannot revive old factions

也不能恢复往昔的律条，

We cannot restore old policies

或跟上那些旧日的鼓点。

Or follow an antique drum.

这些人和那些反对他们的人们，

These men, and those who opposed them

以及那些他们反对的人们，

And those whom they opposed

接受了那沉默的法则，

Accept the constitution of silence

并最终归于一体。

And are folded in a single party.

不论我们从幸运者那里继承什么

Whatever we inherit from the fortunate

或从失败者那里得到什么，

We have taken from the defeated

他们终将留给我们的是——一种象征：

What they had to leave us—a symbol:

一种在死亡中归于圆满的象征。

A symbol perfected in death.

一切都将变好，

And all shall be well and

一切事物都将各安其位，

All manner of thing shall be well

凭着对内心的救赎，

By the purification of the motive

在我们热切恳求的土地上。

In the ground of our beseeching.

四．

IV

携着炽热的恐怖火焰，

The dove descending breaks the air

鸽子俯冲而下，划破夜空，

With flame of incandescent terror

它以烈焰的火舌宣告

Of which the tongues declare

赦免人们的罪愆和过错。

The one discharge from sin and error.

唯一的希望，或者绝望

The only hope, or else despair

存在于从柴堆到柴堆的选择——

     Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre—

从火焰到火焰中获得救赎。

     To be redeemed from fire by fire.

是谁安排了这磨难？爱。

Who then devised the torment? Love.

爱是个不为人熟知的名字，

Love is the unfamiliar Name

它躲在那双编织火焰之衫的手的后面，

Behind the hands that wove

这火衫给人以无法承受的煎熬

The intolerable shirt of flame

却不能为人力所去除。

Which human power cannot remove.

我们只有生活着，叹息着，

     We only live, only suspire

被吞灭在火焰与火焰之中。

     Consumed by either fire or fire.

五．

V

我们称之为开始的往往是结束，

What we call the beginning is often the end

所以来到终点，也就是来到起点。

And to make an end is to make a beginning.

终点是我们开始的地方。而每个准确的

The end is where we start from. And every phrase

词汇和语句（字在其中各得其所，

And sentence that is right (where every word is at home,

各安其位并互相照应，

Taking its place to support the others,

文字既不自卑也不卖弄，

The word neither diffident nor ostentatious,

它是古老与现代的轻松交流，

An easy commerce of the old and the new,

朴实的文字准确而不粗俗，

The common word exact without vulgarity,

规范的文字精确而不迂腐，

The formal word precise but not pedantic,

犹如天造地设的一对翩翩起舞）

The complete consort dancing together)

每个词汇每个句子都是一次结束也是一个开始，

Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning,

每首诗都是一篇墓志铭。任何一次行动

Every poem an epitaph. And any action

都是朝向泥土的一步，朝向火焰，朝向大海的喉咙，

Is a step to the block, to the fire, down the sea's throat

或者朝向一块字迹难辨的墓碑：这同样是我们开始的地方。

Or to an illegible stone: and that is where we start.

我们与垂死者一起死去：

We die with the dying:

看，他们离去，我们与之同行。

See, they depart, and we go with them.

我们伴着死者出生：

We are born with the dead:

看，他们转世，携我们一起返回。

See, they return, and bring us with them.

玫瑰的时刻，紫杉的时刻

The moment of the rose and the moment of the yew-tree

同样持久。一个没有历史的民族

Are of equal duration. A people without history

不会从时间中获得救赎，因为历史

Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern

是每个永恒瞬间的存在形式。因此，在一个光线渐淡的

Of timeless moments. So, while the light fails

冬日下午，在一间僻静的小礼拜堂内，

On a winter's afternoon, in a secluded chapel

历史就是现在，就是英格兰。

History is now and England.

由于这爱的图像和这召唤的声音，

With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this

我们不应停止探寻，

     Calling

在探寻的终点，

我们将抵达我们的出发地，

We shall not cease from exploration

并第一次真正了解这个地方。

And the end of all our exploring

通过那未知的，未进入记忆的大门，

Will be to arrive where we started

只剩下最后一片土地尚待发现，

And know the place for the first time.

当时，那就是曾经的起点；

Through the unknown, remembered gate

在最长的河流的源头，

When the last of earth left to discover

隐藏的瀑布的声响，

Is that which was the beginning;

和苹果树上的孩子们，

At the source of the longest river

不为人知，因为无人找寻，

The voice of the hidden waterfall

只是被听见，隐约听见，在寂静中

And the children in the apple-tree

在大海的两排波浪之间。

Not known, because not looked for

就是此刻，这里，此刻，永远。

But heard, half-heard, in the stillness

一种完全单纯的状态，

Between two waves of the sea.

（但要付出的不比任何事物少）

Quick now, here, now, always—

一切都将安好，

A condition of complete simplicity

一切事物都将各安其位，

(Costing not less than everything)

当火焰之舌折卷着

And all shall be well and

进入一尊火之皇冠，

All manner of thing shall be well

火与玫瑰合而为一。

When the tongues of flame are in-folded

Into the crowned knot of fire

And the fire and the rose are one.