在冬末跨过一个水坑，我想起一位古代中国的地方官厄土译

As I Step Over A Puddle At The End Of Winter, I Think Of An Ancient Chinese Governor詹姆斯·赖特

And how can I, born in evil days
And fresh from failure, ask a kindness of Fate?
-- Written A.D. 819

白居易，开始谢顶的老政客，

Po Chu-i, balding old politician,

有何用？

What's the use?

我想起你

I think of you,

不安地进入长江峡谷，

Uneasily entering the gorges of the Yang-Tze,

被拖曳着穿越激流而上

When you were being towed up the rapids

为了官职或其他

Toward some political job or other

去忠州城。

In the city of Chungshou.

你到达时，我猜

You made it, I guess,

天都黑了。

By dark.

但现在是1960年，又将是春天了，

But it is 1960, it is almost spring again,

明尼阿波利斯高耸的岩石，

And the tall rocks of Minneapolis

堆垒起我自己的

Build me my own black twilight

竹索和水的昏黑暮色。

Of bamboo ropes and waters.

元稹在哪里，这位你钟爱的朋友？

Where is Yuan Chen, the friend you loved?

大海在哪里，那曾终结中西部所有孤独的

Where is the sea, that once solved the whole loneliness

大海？明尼阿波利斯在哪里？我什么都看不见

Of the Midwest?Where is Minneapolis? I can see nothing

除了这棵随冬天变黑的可怕的橡树。

But the great terrible oak tree darkening with winter.

你是否找到了群山之外隔绝尘世的人们的城池？

Did you find the city of isolated men beyond mountains?

或者说，你已把这根磨损的残绳的一端

Or have you been holding the end of a frayed rope

紧握了一千年？

For a thousand years?