在一個昏暗時刻穿行於這座城鎮

Walk through this town at a gray hour

當憂傷隱藏在陰沉的大門裏

when sorrow hides in shady gates

而兒童玩著風箏般飄蕩

and children play with great balls

在庭院有毒水井上空的大球，

that float like kites above

而安寧、帶懷疑的最後黑鳥歌唱。

the poisoned wells of courtyards,

and, quiet, doubting, the last blackbird sings.

想想你那繼續著的生活，

儘管它已維持太久了。

Think about your life which goes on,

though it’s already lasted so long.

你能否表達整體中最小碎片的聲音。

Could you voice the smallest fragment of the whole.

你能否在見到卑鄙時直呼其名。

Could you name baseness when you saw it.

如果你遇見某個真正生活著的人

你會知道嗎？

If you met someone truly living

would you know it?

你是否濫用華麗的辭藻？

Did you abuse high words?

你原可以成為什麽樣的人，誰知道。

你愛沉默，而你只精通

Whom should you have been, who knows.

沉默，傾聽文字、音樂，而且安靜：

You love silence, and you’ve mastered

為什麽你開始說話，誰知道。

only silence, listening to words, music, and quiet:

why did you begin to speak, who knows.

為什麽在這個年代，在一個

還未誕生的國家，誰知道。

Why in this age, why in a country

為什麽躋身於流亡者中間，在一套曾經是德國人的

that wasn’t born yet, who knows.

公寓，周圍是悲傷和哀痛

Why among exiles, in a flat that had been

和徒勞想重獲一個神話的希望。

German, amid grief and mourning

and vain hopes of a regained myth.

為什麽童年蒙上采礦架

而不是森林的黑暗的陰影，

Why a childhood shadowed

在一條溪流邊，那裏一隻安靜的蜻蜓繼續看守

by mining towers and not a forest’s dark,

世界的秘密整體

near a stream where a quiet dragonfly keeps watch

over the world’s secret wholeness

──誰知道。

—who knows.

還有你的愛，它失而復得；

還有你的神，祂不幫助那些

And your love, which you lost and found,

尋找祂的人，

and your God, who won’t help those

並躲在擁有學位的

who seek him,

神學家中間。

and hides among theologians

with degrees.

為什麽只是這座昏暗時刻的城鎮，

這乾燥的舌頭，這麻痹的嘴唇，

Why just this town at a gray hour,

和如此多的問題，在你離開

this dry tongue, these numb lips,

回你的王國之前，那王國

and so many questions before you leave

曾經是沉默、狂喜和風的

and go home to the kingdom

发源地。

from which silence, rapture, and the wind

once came.