I sit in one of the dives

我坐在第五十二大街

On Fifty-second Street

其中一个下等酒吧

Uncertain and afraid

疑虑又害怕

As the clever hopes expire

当聪明的希望已到期，

Of a low dishonest decade:

低俗而不诚实的十年失效：

Waves of anger and fear

愤怒和恐惧的电波

Circulate over the bright

在地球上那些明亮

And darkened lands of the earth,

和暗淡的土地循环，

Obsessing our private lives;

侵扰我们的私生活；

The unmentionable odour of death

那不宜提及的死亡味

Offends the September night.

冒犯着这九月的夜晚。

Accurate scholarship can

准确的学问可以

Unearth the whole offence

发掘这整个冒犯，

From Luther until now

从路德直到现在

That has driven a culture mad,

它驱使一个文化疯狂，

Find what occurred at Linz

看一看林茨出了什么事

What huge imago made

是什么巨大的心像制造

A psychopathic god:

一个精神变态的神祗：

I and the public know

我和公众都知道

What all schoolchildren learn,

学童们都学了些什么，

Those to whom evil is done

他们被邪恶侵袭，

Do evil in return.

就用邪恶来回报。

Exiled Thucydides knew

流放的修昔底德知道

All that a speech can say

一篇演讲能说的一切，

About Democracy,

关于民主政体，

And what dictators do,

以及独裁者们的作为，

The elderly rubbish they talk

他们对一座冷漠的坟墓

To an apathetic grave;

倾吐老年的垃圾；

Analysed all in his book,

他在书中分析过的一切，

The enlightenment driven away,

那被赶走的启蒙，

The habit-forming pain,

那成了瘾的痛苦，

Mismanagement and grief:

管理不善和悲伤：

We must suffer them all again.

我们全都要再遭受一次。

Into this neutral air

盲目的擎天大厦利用

Where blind skyscrapers use

它们充分的高度宣告

Their full height to proclaim

集体人的力量，

The strength of Collective Man,

每一种语言都争相

Each language pours its vain

把徒劳的托词

Competitive excuse:

倒进这中立的空气：

But who can live for long

但谁能活得长久

In an euphoric dream;

在欣快症的梦里；

Out of the mirror they stare,

望着镜子他们看到

Imperialism's face

帝国主义的面孔

And the international wrong.

和国际坏事。

Faces along the bar

酒吧里一张张面孔

Cling to their average day:

紧挨它们划一的日子：

The lights must never go out,

灯光一定不可熄灭，

The music must always play,

音乐一定要永远响着，

All the conventions conspire

所有的习俗都共谋

To make this fort assume

将这个堡垒当成

The furniture of home;

家中的摆设；

Lest we should see where we are,

免得我们看出自己在哪里，

Lost in a haunted wood,

迷失在闹鬼的树林，

Children afraid of the night

害怕夜晚的儿童

Who have never been happy or good.

从未有过快乐或满意。

The windiest militant trash

重要人物喊出

Important Persons shout

最浮夸的好战废话

Is not so crude as our wish:

仍不如我们的愿望粗俗：

What mad Nijinsky wrote

疯子尼任斯基写到

About Diaghilev

佳吉列夫，

Is true of the normal heart;

道出常人的真实心态；

For the error bred in the bone

因为错误繁殖于

Of each woman and each man

每个男人和女人的骨子里，

Craves what it cannot have,

渴望它不能拥有的东西，

Not universal love

不是爱大家

But to be loved alone.

而是被独爱。

From the conservative dark

从保守的黑暗

Into the ethical life

进入道德的生活

The dense commuters come,

走来密集的上班乘客，

Repeating their morning vow;

重复他们早晨的誓言，

'I will be true to the wife,

“我要对妻子忠实，

I'll concentrate more on my work,'

我要更专心地工作”，

And helpless governors wake

而无助的管治者醒来

To resume their compulsory game:

继续他们强迫性的游戏：

Who can release them now,

谁可以解救他们，

Who can reach the deaf,

谁可以接触聋人，

Who can speak for the dumb?

谁可以替哑吧说话。

All I have is a voice

我只有一个声音

To undo the folded lie,

去拆开摺起的谎言；

The romantic lie in the brain

耽于酒色的普通人

Of the sensual man-in-the-street

脑中罗曼蒂克的谎言；

And the lie of Authority

和使大楼摸到高空的

Whose buildings grope the sky:

当权者的谎言：

There is no such thing as the State

没有国家这回事

And no one exists alone;

也没有人独存；

Hunger allows no choice

饥饿不允许选择

To the citizen or the police;

无论公民还是警察；

We must love one another or die.

我们必须相爱或者死亡。

Defenceless under the night

在夜空下一筹莫展

Our world in stupor lies;

我们的世界躺在昏迷中；

Yet, dotted everywhere,

然而，偏布于各处，

Ironic points of light

总有讽刺的光点

Flash out wherever the Just

闪现于正义

Exchange their messages:

交流讯息的地方：

May I, composed like them

但愿我，虽然跟他们一样

Of Eros and of dust,

由厄洛斯和尘土构成，

Beleaguered by the same

被同样的消极

Negation and despair,

和绝望围困，能呈上

Show an affirming flame.

一柱肯定的火焰。