不断旋转着，猎鹰转的圈子越来越大，

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

它再不能听到放鹰人的声音；

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

万物已崩溃，中心不再掌控；

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;

人世间只有混乱在弥漫，

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

血色模糊的大潮泛滥失度，

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

所到之处将纯真典礼淹没；

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

优秀的人信念全动摇不定，

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

恶劣者则满腔十足的狂热。

Are full of passionate intensity.

诚然某种启示即将到来；

Surely some revelation is at hand;

诚然第二次降临即将到来。

Surely the Second Coming is at hand:

第二次降临！几乎在话脱口之际，

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

一个巨像自灵魂体中升起

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

扰乱我的视线：沙漠中的某处

Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert

一个狮身人首的东西，

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

目光空洞且烈日般无情，

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

正缓缓移动步伐，它的四周

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

飞旋着怨愤的沙漠鸟的阴影。

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

黑暗再度笼罩；但此时我明白，

The darkness drops again; but now I know

这沉睡如石的两千年，

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

被那摇动的摇篮所激而成梦魇，

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

而何等恶兽，它的时限终于等到，

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

懒懒地走向伯利恒去转世投生？

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?