Snow is sometimes a she, a soft one.

雪有时是个她，一个轻柔的人。

Her kiss on your cheek, her finger on your sleeve

   她的吻落上你的脸颊，手指抚过你的衣袖

In early December, on a warm evening,

在十二月初，在一个温暖的夜晚，

And you turn to meet her, saying ‘It’s snowing!’

   你一转身遇见了她，喊道“下雪了!”

But it is not. And nobody’s there.

        但是没有下。那里无人。

Empty and calm is the air.

        天空中空寂、幽静。

Sometimes the snow is a he, a sly one.

雪有时是个他，一个偷偷摸摸的家伙。

Weakly he signs the dry stone with a damp spot.

   用一个潮湿的斑点他在干冷的石头上微弱地标下印记。

Waifish he floats and touches the pond and is not.

无家可归，他飘荡，落进池塘，消失不见。

Treacherous-beggarly he falters, and taps at the window.

   陷在危险的赤贫中，他踉跄着轻叩窗户。

A little longer he clings to the grass-blade tip

      他附着于草尖，稍许长久些

Getting his grip.

      抓住他的握杆。

Then how she leans, how furry foxwrap she nestles

而她多么依人，多像条毛茸茸的狐狸皮围巾

The sky with her warm, and the earth with her softness.

   用其温暖环抱天空，用柔软依偎大地。

How her lit crowding fairytales sink through the space-silence

她那些闪亮、扎堆的童话是怎样地沉陷空间的静寂

To build her palace, till it twinkles in starlight –

   建起她的宫殿，直到它闪烁出星光——

Too frail for a foot

      地基则太过脆弱

Or a crumb of soot.

      或者说不过是一点煤烟。

Then how his muffled armies move in all night

他无声的军团是怎样地整夜行进

And we wake and every road is blockaded

   等我们醒来，所有道路已被封锁

Every hill taken and every farm occupied

每座山头都被攻取，全部农场均被占领

And the white glare of his tents is on the ceiling.

   他营帐的耀眼白光反射在天花板上。

And all that dull blue day and on into the gloaming

        沉闷忧郁的一整天，直到暮色如斯

We have to watch more coming.

        我们只能看着更多的雪来到。

Then everything in the rubbish-heaped world

而在堆满垃圾的世界里，万物

Is a bridesmaid at her miracle.

   在她施行的奇迹下都是伴娘。

Dunghills and crumbly dark old barns are bowed in the chapel

粪堆和暗黑发脆的旧谷仓在她光彩的礼拜堂里弯腰行礼，

of her sparkle,

   树林中阴森的潮湿地窖

The gruesome boggy cellars of the wood

       是一场正在进行的

Are a wedding of lace

       婚礼，遍布蕾丝。

Now taking place.