About suffering they were never wrong, 

关于苦难他们从来不犯错误，

The Old Masters: how well, they understood 

这些古代的大师们：他们何其理解苦难

Its human position; how it takes place 

在人间的地位；以及苦难发生时

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

另外的人们在吃喝，或者打开一扇窗户

How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting 

或者只是木然地走动；

For the miraculous birth, there always must be 

当老人们虔诚地等待奇迹的降临，

Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating 

内心激动不已

On a pond at the edge of the wood: 

但总有一群孩子，心里反对奇迹的发生，

They never forgot 

他们滑冰

That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course 

在树林边缘的池塘上：

Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot 

大师们从未忘记

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

即使是令人畏惧的殉难也必悄悄进行

Scratches its innocent behind on a tree. 

在某一个角落，那些肮脏的地点

狗群依然顾我过着狗的生活，而拷问者的马

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

在树干上蹭破它无辜的臀部。

Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may 

Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, 

比如在《伊卡洛斯》中，布鲁盖尔描写到：每件事物

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

如何从灾难中

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

从容不迫地转身，耕田的农夫

Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen 

或许

Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky, 

听到了溅落声，以及被抛弃的哭喊，

Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

但对他来说，这不是致命的失败；太阳

一如往常地

照耀一双白腿消失在

蓝色的

海水，那艘豪华精美的客轮一定

目睹了

令人惊异的事情：一个少年跌落出天外，

轮船自有它的目的地，所以继续平静地驶向远方。