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

你们俩坐在桌边，很晚了，不时地

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

转动那将空的酒杯，看最后一抹酒红

Liquid climb up the crystalline spin to the last moment when

汁液爬上水晶的螺旋，直到最后一刻

Centrifugality fails: with nothing now said.

离心力颓然：此时只是无言。

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

还有什么可说，当最后的原木萎缩、熄灭？

The dark outside is streaked with the casual snowflake

屋外的黑暗被散漫的雪花，冬天的遗赠

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

画上条纹，客人都早已回家，而你们

Of others who never again can come to partake

想着那些人，再也不能来分享

Of food, wine, laughter, and philosophy--

食物，酒，笑声，和哲学——

Though tonight one guest has quoted a killing phrase we owe

尽管今晚一个客人引用了一句绝妙的话语

To a lost one whose grin, in eternal atrophy,

出自一个逝去的人，他咧嘴的笑在永久地消缩，

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

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

现在，一把椅子，突然，蹭着瓷砖，你们中的一个

Moves soundless, as in hypnotic certainty,

无声地移动，像是在一种催眠般的确实里，

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

从桌子这头到那头。站了一会儿，或许略久，

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

又坐下来，伸出一只手，敞开的，空空的。

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

大约有多久，一只手找到放在那里的那只手，

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

而灰烬，仍在闪烁，粉碎，寂静

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

是灰飞烟灭可听可见。现在，衰老的心

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

不提虚无，最后的牵挂，今夜，

Had been of the absent children, whose bright gaze

是不在的孩子，他们明亮的凝视

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

在未来的地平线上撑起拱廊，在你们祈祷的迷雾中。

The last log is black, while ash beneath displays

最后的原木是黑的，而其下的灰烬不再闪耀

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

最后的火光。你吹熄蜡烛。不久，老旧的楼梯

Will creak with your grave and synchronized tread as each mounts

将随你们沉重的、同步的踩踏吱吱作响

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

每抬一步都走向一瞬的光明，然后是黑暗真正的重量，然后

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

是那心的昏冥，欢喜悲伤都无足轻重。

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

如此，一只手还去摸索着另一只手，又一次。