This is the earth? Then

这是尘世吗？那么

I don't belong here.

我不属于这儿。

Who are you in the lighted window,

你是谁，在这亮灯的窗子里，

shadowed now by the flickering leaves

在此刻桤叶荚蒾树摇曳的

of the wayfarer tree?

树叶的浓荫里？

Can you survive where I won't last

你能活下去吗，在我熬不过

beyond the first summer?

第一个夏天的地方？

All night the slender branches of the tree

纤细的树枝整晚

shift and rustle at the bright window.

都在明亮的窗前摇摆，飒飒作响。

Explain my life to me, you who make no sign,

请向我解释我的生命，你毫无动静,

though I call out to you in the night:

尽管在夜里我向你呼喊：

I am not like you, I have only

与你不同，我只有

my body for a voice; I can’t

将我的身体当作声音：我不能

disappear into silence—

消失在沉默里——

And in the cold morning

而在寒冷的清晨，

over the dark surface of the earth

在尘世暗沉的大地上，

echoes of my voice drift,

我的声音回声飘荡，

whiteness steadily absorbed into darkness

我的白被平稳地吸入幽暗，

as though you were making a sign after all

仿佛你终于做出回应，

to convince me you too couldn’t survive here

为了让我相信你也无法在这儿生存，

or to show me you are not the light I called to

或者为了告诉我你不是我呼唤的光芒，

but the blackness behind it.

只是那光芒后面的黑暗。