About suffering they were never wrong, 

关于灾难，他们不会错，

The Old Masters: how well, they understood 

古典大师们：绝佳地理解

Its human position; how it takes place 

它在人心的位置，它产生的时辰

While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along; 

某人正在吃饭或开启一扇窗或阴沉地走过；

How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting 

理解吧，当老者虔敬地，热情地恭候

For the miraculous birth, there always must be 

奇迹不可思议的出现，会有一些

Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating 

孩子勉强地希望这事发生，而且溜冰

On a pond at the edge of the wood: 

在森林边缘的池塘上：

They never forgot 

他们从未忘记

That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course 

可怖的殉道各走其路

Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot 

无论一个角落，还是邋遢的污地

Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer’s horse 

狗们继续其狗狗生涯，施刑者的马

Scratches its innocent behind on a tree. 

倚着一棵树蹭自己无辜的屁股。

In Breughel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away 

在勃吕盖尔《伊卡洛斯》中：每样事物转首

Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may 

在大灾大难里悠闲自得；耕田者能够

Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, 

听见溅水声，被抛弃的哭声，

But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone 

但对他而言这不是重要的失败；太阳朗照

As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green 

他白皙的大腿湮没于碧绿的

Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen 

水面；奢华的兰舟必然目睹了

Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky, 

一些事物的惊诧，一个男孩自天而坠

Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

他有处可去，在那里能平静地航行。