你们俩坐在桌边，很晚了，不时地

You two sit at the table late, each, now and then,

转动那将空的酒杯，看最后一抹酒红

Twirling a near-empty wine glass to watch the last red

汁液爬上水晶的螺旋，直到最后一刻

Liquid climb up the crystalline spin to the last moment when

离心力颓然：此时只是无言。

Centrifugality fails: with nothing now said.

还有什么可说，当最后的原木萎缩、熄灭？

What is left to say when the last logs sag and wink?

屋外的黑暗被散漫的雪花，冬天的遗赠

The dark outside is streaked with the casual snowflake

画上条纹，客人都早已回家，而你们

Of winter's demise, all guests long gone home, and you think

想着那些人，再也不能来分享

Of others who never again can come to partake

食物，酒，笑声，和哲学——

Of food, wine, laughter, and philosophy--

尽管今晚一个客人引用了一句绝妙的话语

Though tonight one guest has quoted a killing phrase we owe

出自一个逝去的人，他咧嘴的笑在永久地消缩，

To a lost one whose grin, in eternal atrophy,

此刻在黑暗中，他欣喜最后那未言的俏皮话，无人能够知晓。

Now in dark celebrates some last unworded jest none can know.

现在，一把椅子，突然，蹭着瓷砖，你们中的一个

Now a chair scrapes, sudden, on tiles, and one of you

无声地移动，像是在一种催眠般的确实里，

Moves soundless, as in hypnotic certainty,

从桌子这头到那头。站了一会儿，或许略久，

The length of the table. Stands there a moment or two,

又坐下来，伸出一只手，敞开的，空空的。

Then sits, reaches out a hand, open and empty.

大约有多久，一只手找到放在那里的那只手，

How long it seems till a hand finds that hand there laid,

而灰烬，仍在闪烁，粉碎，寂静

While ash, still glowing, crumbles, and silence is such

是灰飞烟灭可听可见。现在，衰老的心

That the crumbling of ash is audible. Now naught's left unsaid

不提虚无，最后的牵挂，今夜，

Of the old heart-concerns, the last, tonight, which

是不在的孩子，他们明亮的凝视

Had been of the absent children, whose bright gaze

在未来的地平线上撑起拱廊，在你们祈祷的迷雾中。

Over-arches the future's horizon, in the mist of your prayers.

最后的原木是黑的，而其下的灰烬不再闪耀

The last log is black, while ash beneath displays

最后的火光。你吹熄蜡烛。不久，老旧的楼梯

No last glow. You snuff candles. Soon the old stairs

将随你们沉重的、同步的踩踏吱吱作响

Will creak with your grave and synchronized tread as each mounts

每抬一步都走向一瞬的光明，然后是黑暗真正的重量，然后

To a briefness of light, then true weight of darkness, and then

是那心的昏冥，欢喜悲伤都无足轻重。

That heart-dimness in which neither joy nor sorrow counts.

如此，一只手还去摸索着另一只手，又一次。

Even so, one hand gropes out for another, again.