I

一

Midwinter spring is its own season

仲东的春天是它自己的季节

Sempiternal though sodden towards sundown,

漫漫永昼而到日落却一片湿润，

Suspended in time, between pole and tropic.

悬在时间中，在极圈和回归线之间。

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

当短暂的白昼因为寒霜和火成为最明亮的时刻，

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

匆促的太阳点燃了地上和沟里的冰，

In windless cold that is the heart's heat,

在无风的冷冽中那是心的热，

Reflecting in a watery mirror

在一面似水的镜子里

A glare that is blindness in the early afternoon.

映照出一道刺目的强光，

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

在就是晌午时分之所以令人眩目而一无所见。

Stirs the dumb spirit: no wind, but pentecostal fire

灼热的光比柴枝的火更烈比火盆更旺，

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

激起麻木的精神：没有风，只有圣灵降临节的火

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

在这一年的黑暗时节。在融化和结冰之间

Or smell of living thing. This is the spring time

灵魂的活力在颤抖。没有大地的气息

But not in time's covenant. Now the hedgerow

或者有生命之物的气息。这是春天季节

Is blanched for an hour with transitory blossom

但不是在约定的时间之内。现在树篱

Of snow, a bloom more sudden

因为雪花短暂开放而一时满身素白，

Than that of summer, neither budding nor fading,

一次比夏花绽放更突然的花开，

Not in the scheme of generation.

既未含葩待放也不会凋零谢落，

Where is the summer, the unimaginable

不在世代蕃衍的计划之内。

Zero summer?

夏天在哪里？那不可想象的

零度的夏天？

              If you came this way,

Taking the route you would be likely to take

　　　　　如果你到这里来，

From the place you would be likely to come from,

选择你可能选择的路线

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

从你可能出那里来的地方来，

White again, in May, with voluptuary sweetness.

如果你在山楂花开的时候到这里来，

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

你会发现五月里，树篱又变白了，

If you came at night like a broken king,

飘散这迷人的甜香。

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

到旅程的终点都一样，

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

如果你像一位困顿的国王夤夜而来，

And turn behind the pig-sty to the dull facade

如果你白天来又不知道你为何而来，

And the tombstone. And what you thought you came for

那都一样，当你离开崎岖的小径

Is only a shell, a husk of meaning

在猪栏后面拐向那阴暗的前庭和墓碑的时候。

From which the purpose breaks only when it is fulfilled

你原先以为是你此行的目的

If at all. Either you had no purpose

现在不过是意义的一层贝壳，一层荚

Or the purpose is beyond the end you figured

只要有什么目的能实现的话，目的才破壳而出。

And is altered in fulfilment. There are other places

或者是你原先根本没有目的

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

或者是目的在于你是想象的终点之外

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

而在实现的过程中已经改变。另有一些地方

But this is the nearest, in place and time,

也是世界的终点，有的在海的入口

Now and in England.

或者在一片黑暗的湖上，在沙漠中

或者在一座城市里——

              If you came this way,

但是在地点和时间上，这里是最近的地方，

Taking any route, starting from anywhere,

现在和在英格兰。

At any time or at any season,

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

　　　　　　　如果你到这里来，

Sense and notion. You are not here to verify,

不论走哪条路，从哪里出发，

Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity

在哪个地方或哪个季节，

Or carry report. You are here to kneel

那都是一样：你必须抛开

Where prayer has been valid. And prayer is more

感觉和思想。你到这里来不是为了证明什么，

Than an order of words, the conscious occupation

教诲自己，或者告诉什么新奇的事物

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

或者传送报告。你到这里来

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

是到祈祷一向是正当的地方来

They can tell you, being dead: the communication

俯首下跪。祈祷不只是

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

一种话语，祈祷者头脑的

Here, the intersection of the timeless moment

清醒的活动，或者是祈求呼告的声音。

Is England and nowhere. Never and always.

死者活着的时候，无法以言词表达的，

他们作为死者能告诉你：死者的交流思想

超乎生者的语言之外是用火表达的。

II

这里，无始无终的瞬间的交叉点是英格兰，

而不是任何其他地方。决不而且永远。

Ash on an old man's sleeve

Is all the ash the burnt roses leave.

Dust in the air suspended

二

Marks the place where a story ended.

Dust inbreathed was a house—

一个老人衣袖上的灰

The walls, the wainscot and the mouse,

是焚烧的玫瑰留下的全部尘灰。

The death of hope and despair,

尘灰悬在空中

       This is the death of air.

标志着一个故事在这里告终。

你吸入的尘灰曾经是一座宅邸——

There are flood and drouth

墙、护壁板和耗子。

Over the eyes and in the mouth,

希望和希望的死亡，

Dead water and dead sand

　这是空气的死亡。

Contending for the upper hand.

The parched eviscerate soil

在眼睛之上，在嘴巴里

Gapes at the vanity of toil,

有洪水和干旱，

Laughs without mirth.

止水和死沙

       This is the death of earth.

在争斗着谁占上风。

坼裂的失去元气的泥土

Water and fire succeed

张目结舌地望着徒然无益的劳动，

The town, the pasture and the weed.

放声大笑而没有欢乐。

Water and fire deride

　这是土的死亡。

The sacrifice that we denied.

Water and fire shall rot

水和火取代

The marred foundations we forgot,

城镇、牧场和野草。

Of sanctuary and choir.

水和火嘲弄

       This is the death of water and fire.

我们拒绝奉献的牺牲。

水和火也必将腐蚀

In the uncertain hour before the morning

我们遗忘的圣殿和唱诗席的

     Near the ending of interminable night

已经毁坏的基础。

     At the recurrent end of the unending

　这是水和火的死亡。

After the dark dove with the flickering tongue

     Had passed below the horizon of his homing

在黎明来临前无法确知的时刻

     While the dead leaves still rattled on like tin

　漫漫长夜行将结束

Over the asphalt where no other sound was

　永无终止又到了终点

     Between three districts whence the smoke arose

当黑黝黝的鸽子喷吐着忽隐忽现的火舌

     I met one walking, loitering and hurried

　在地平线下掠飞归去以后

As if blown towards me like the metal leaves

　在硝烟升腾的三个地区之间

     Before the urban dawn wind unresisting.

再没有别的声息只有枯叶像白铁皮一般

     And as I fixed upon the down-turned face

　嘎嘎作响地扫过沥青路面

That pointed scrutiny with which we challenge

　这时我遇见一个在街上闲荡的行人

     The first-met stranger in the waning dusk

像被不可阻挡的城市晨风吹卷的

     I caught the sudden look of some dead master

　金属薄片急匆匆地向我走来。

Whom I had known, forgotten, half recalled

　当我用锐利而审视的目光

     Both one and many; in the brown baked features

打量他那张低垂的脸庞

     The eyes of a familiar compound ghost

　就像我们盘问初次遇见的陌生人那样

Both intimate and unidentifiable.

　在即将消逝的暮色中

     So I assumed a double part, and cried

我瞧见一位曾经相识、但已淡忘的已故的大师

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

　突然显现的面容，我恍惚记得

Although we were not. I was still the same,

　他既是一个又是许多个；晒黒的脸上

     Knowing myself yet being someone other—

一个熟识的复合的灵魂的眼睛

     And he a face still forming; yet the words sufficed

　既亲密又不可辨认。

To compel the recognition they preceded.

　因此我反复了一个双重角色，一面喊叫

     And so, compliant to the common wind,

一面又听另一个人喊叫：“啊！你在这里？”

     Too strange to each other for misunderstanding,

　尽管我们都不是。我还是我，

In concord at this intersection time

　但我知道我自己已经成了另一个人——

     Of meeting nowhere, no before and after,

而他只是一张还在形成的脸；但语言已足够

     We trod the pavement in a dead patrol.

　强迫他们承认曾经相识。

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

　因此，按照一般的风尚，

     Yet ease is cause of wonder. Therefore speak:

双方既然素昧平生也就不可能产生误会，

     I may not comprehend, may not remember.'

　我们在这千载难逢，没有以前也没有以后的

And he: 'I am not eager to rehearse

　交叉时刻和谐地漫步在行人道上作一次死亡的巡逻。

     My thoughts and theory which you have forgotten.

我说：“我感到惊异是那么轻松安适，

     These things have served their purpose: let them be.

　然而轻松正是惊异的原因。所以说，

So with your own, and pray they be forgiven

　我也许并不理解，也许不复记忆。”

     By others, as I pray you to forgive

他却说：“我的思想和原则已被你遗忘，

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

　我不想再一次详细申诉。

And the fullfed beast shall kick the empty pail.

　这些东西已经满足了它们的需要：由它们去吧。

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

你自己的也是这样，祈求别人宽恕它们吧，

     And next year's words await another voice.

　就像我祈求你宽恕善与恶一样。上季的果子

But, as the passage now presents no hindrance

　已经吃过，喂饱了的野兽也一定会把空桶踢开。

     To the spirit unappeased and peregrine

因为去年的话属于去年的语言

     Between two worlds become much like each other,

　而来年的话还在等待另一种语调。

So I find words I never thought to speak

　但是，对于来自异域没有得到抚慰的灵魂，

     In streets I never thought I should revisit

在两个已变得非常相像的世界之间

     When I left my body on a distant shore.

　现在道路已畅通无阻，

Since our concern was speech, and speech impelled us

　所以当我把我的躯体

     To purify the dialect of the tribe

委弃在遥远的岸边以后

     And urge the mind to aftersight and foresight,

　我在我从未想到会重访的街巷

Let me disclose the gifts reserved for age

　找到了我从未想说的话。

     To set a crown upon your lifetime's effort.

既然我们关心的是说话，而说话又驱使我们

     First, the cold friction of expiring sense

　去纯洁部族的方言

Without enchantment, offering no promise

　并怂恿我们瞻前顾后，

     But bitter tastelessness of shadow fruit

那么就让我打开长久保存的礼物

     As body and soul begin to fall asunder.

　褒美你一生的成就。

Second, the conscious impotence of rage

　首先，当肉体与灵魂开始分离时，

     At human folly, and the laceration

即将熄灭的感觉失去了魅力

     Of laughter at what ceases to amuse.

　它那冷漠的摩擦不能给你提供任何许诺

And last, the rending pain of re-enactment

　而只能是虚妄的果子的苦涩无味。

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

第二，是对人间的愚行自知表示愤怒的

     Of motives late revealed, and the awareness

　软弱无力，以及对那不再引人发笑的一切

Of things ill done and done to others' harm

　你的笑声受到的伤害。

     Which once you took for exercise of virtue.

最后，在重演你一生的作为和扮演的角色时

     Then fools' approval stings, and honour stains.

　那撕裂心肺的痛苦；日后败露的动机所带来的羞愧，

From wrong to wrong the exasperated spirit

　还有你一度一位是行善之举，

     Proceeds, unless restored by that refining fire

如今觉察过去种种全是恶行

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

　全是对别人的伤害而产生的内疚。

The day was breaking. In the disfigured street

　于是愚人的赞扬刺痛你，世间的荣誉玷污你。

     He left me, with a kind of valediction,

激怒的灵魂从错误走向错误

     And faded on the blowing of the horn.

　除非得到炼火的匡救，因为像一个舞蹈家

　你必然要随着节拍向那儿跳去。”

天色即将破晓。在这条毁损的街上

III

　他带着永别的神情离开了我，

　消失在汽笛的长鸣声中。

There are three conditions which often look alike

Yet differ completely, flourish in the same hedgerow:

Attachment to self and to things and to persons, detachment

三

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

Which resembles the others as death resembles life,

有三种情况发生在这同一片树篱，

Being between two lives—unflowering, between

往往貌似想像其实截然不同：

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

对自身、对物和人们的依附，

For liberation—not less of love but expanding

从自身、从物和人们的分离；以及在这两者之间

Of love beyond desire, and so liberation

产生的冷漠，它与前两种相似，犹如死与生相似，

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

处于两种生涯之间——不绽开花朵，处于

Begins as attachment to our own field of action

生的和死的苦恼之间。这正是记忆的用处：

And comes to find that action of little importance

为了解脱——不是因为爱得不够

Though never indifferent. History may be servitude,

而是爱超乎欲望之外的扩展，于是不仅从过去

History may be freedom. See, now they vanish,

也从未来得到解脱。这样，对一个地方的爱恋

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

始于我们对自己的活动场所的依附

To become renewed, transfigured, in another pattern.

终于发现这种活动没多大意义

虽然决不是冷漠。历史也许是奴役，

Sin is Behovely, but

历史也许是自由。瞧，那一张张脸一处处地方

All shall be well, and

随着那尽其是能爱过它们的自我

All manner of thing shall be well.

一起，现在它们都消失了，

If I think, again, of this place,

而在另一种模式下更新，变化。

And of people, not wholly commendable,

Of no immediate kin or kindness,

罪是不可避免的，但是

But of some peculiar genius,

一切终将安然无恙，而且

All touched by a common genius,

时间万物也终将安然无恙。

United in the strife which divided them;

如果我又一次想起这个地方，

If I think of a king at nightfall,

又一次想起那些人，他们并非全都值得称道，

Of three men, and more, on the scaffold

既非直系亲属也非性情和善之辈，

And a few who died forgotten

却是一些具有特殊才能的人，

In other places, here and abroad,

他们都受了一种共同的思潮的感召，

And of one who died blind and quiet

而联合在把他们分裂为营垒的斗争中；

Why should we celebrate

如果我在黄昏时分想起一位国王，

These dead men more than the dying?

想起三个和更多的人被处决在绞刑架上

It is not to ring the bell backward

还有一些死后默默无闻的人

Nor is it an incantation

在其他地方，在这里和国外，

To summon the spectre of a Rose.

我也想起一个双目失明悄然死去的人，

We cannot revive old factions

为什么我们纪念这些死去的人

We cannot restore old policies

就该胜于纪念那些濒临死亡的人呢？

Or follow an antique drum.

这不是重新去敲响往昔的钟声

These men, and those who opposed them

也不是召唤一朵玫瑰的幽灵的咒语。

And those whom they opposed

我们无法复活那些古老的派别

Accept the constitution of silence

我们无法恢复那些古老的政策

And are folded in a single party.

或者跟上一面古老的皮鼓敲击的鼓点。

Whatever we inherit from the fortunate

这些人，和反对他们的那些人

We have taken from the defeated

和那些他们反对的人

What they had to leave us—a symbol:

如今都接受了无声的命令

A symbol perfected in death.

归入一个单一的团体。

And all shall be well and

不管我们重幸运的人们继承到什么

All manner of thing shall be well

我们已经从失败的人们取得了

By the purification of the motive

他们不得不留给我们的一切——一种象征：

In the ground of our beseeching.

一种在死亡中得到完善的象征。

因此，通过动机的纯化

凭着我们祈求的理由

IV

一切终将安然无恙，而且

时间万物也终将安然无恙。

The dove descending breaks the air

With flame of incandescent terror

Of which the tongues declare

四

The one discharge from sin and error.

The only hope, or else despair

鸽子喷吐着炽烈的恐怖的火焰

     Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre—

划破夜空，掠飞而下

     To be redeemed from fire by fire.

烈焰的火舌昭吿世间

它免除了死者的过错和罪愆。

Who then devised the torment? Love.

那仅有的希望，要不就是失望

Love is the unfamiliar Name

　在于你对焚尸柴堆的选择或者就在于柴堆——

Behind the hands that wove

　通过烈火从烈火中得到涤罪。

The intolerable shirt of flame

Which human power cannot remove.

是谁想出这种折磨的呢？是爱。

     We only live, only suspire

爱是不熟悉的名字

     Consumed by either fire or fire.

它在编织火焰之衫的那双手后面，

火焰使人无法忍耐

那衣衫绝非人力所能解开。

V

我们只是活着，只是悲叹

不是让这种火就是让那种火把我们的生命耗完。

What we call the beginning is often the end

And to make an end is to make a beginning.

The end is where we start from. And every phrase

五

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

Taking its place to support the others,

我们叫做开始的往往就是结束

The word neither diffident nor ostentatious,

而宣告结束也就是着手开始。

An easy commerce of the old and the new,

终点是我们出发的地方。每个短语

The common word exact without vulgarity,

和每个句子只要安排妥帖（每个词都各得其所，

The formal word precise but not pedantic,

从它所处的位置支持其他的词，

The complete consort dancing together)

文字既不羞怯也不炫耀，

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

新与旧之间的一种轻松的交流，

Every poem an epitaph. And any action

普通的文字确切而不鄙俗，

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

规范的文字准确而不迂腐，

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

融洽无间地在一起舞蹈）

We die with the dying:

那么每个短语每个句子都是一个结束和一个开始，

See, they depart, and we go with them.

每首诗都是一篇墓志铭。而任何一个行动

We are born with the dead:

都是走向断头台，走向烈火，落入大海

See, they return, and bring us with them.

或走向一块你无法辨认的石碑的一步：

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

而这就是我们出发的地方，

Are of equal duration. A people without history

我们与濒临死亡的人们偕亡：

Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern

瞧，他们离去了，我们与他们同行。

Of timeless moments. So, while the light fails

我们与死者同生：

On a winter's afternoon, in a secluded chapel

瞧，他们回来了，携我们与他们俱来。

History is now and England.

玫瑰飘香和紫杉扶疏的时令

经历的时间一样短长。一个没有历史的民族

With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this

不能从时间得到拯救，因为历史

     Calling

是无始无终的瞬间的一种模式，所以，当一个冬天的下午

天色渐渐暗淡的时候，在一座僻静的教堂里

We shall not cease from exploration

历史就是现在和英格兰。

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

由于这种爱和召唤声的吸引

And know the place for the first time.

Through the unknown, remembered gate

我们将不停止探索

When the last of earth left to discover

而我们一切探索的终点

Is that which was the beginning;

将是到达我们出发的地方

At the source of the longest river

并且是生平第一遭知道这地方。

The voice of the hidden waterfall

当时间的终极犹待我们去发现的时候

And the children in the apple-tree

穿过那未认识的，忆起的大门

Not known, because not looked for

就是过去曾经是我们的起点；

But heard, half-heard, in the stillness

在最漫长的大河的源头

Between two waves of the sea.

有深藏的瀑布的飞湍声

Quick now, here, now, always—

在苹果林中有孩子们的欢笑声，

A condition of complete simplicity

这些你都不知道，因为你

(Costing not less than everything)

并没有去寻找

And all shall be well and

而只是听到，隐约听到，

All manner of thing shall be well

在大海两次潮汐之间的寂静里。

When the tongues of flame are in-folded

倏忽易逝的现在，这里，现在，永远——

Into the crowned knot of fire

一种极其简单的状态

And the fire and the rose are one.

（要求付出的代价却不比任何东西少）

而一切终将安然无恙，

时间万物也终将安然无恙

当火舌最后交织成牢固的火焰

烈火与玫瑰化为一体的时候。