一

 Time present and time past

Are both perhaps present in time future,

现在的时间和过去的时间

And time future contained in time past.

也许都存在于未来的时间，

If all time is eternally present

而未来的时间又包容于过去的时间。

All time is unredeemable.

假若全部时间永远存在

What might have been is an abstraction

全部时间就再也都无法挽回。

Remaining a perpetual possibility

过去可能存在的是一种抽象

Only in a world of speculation.

只是在一个猜测的世界中，

What might have been and what has been

保持着一种恒久的可能性。

Point to one end, which is always present.

过去可能存在和已经存在的

Footfalls echo in the memory

都指向一个始终存在的终点。

Down the passage which we did not take

足音在记忆中回响

Towards the door we never opened

沿着那条我们从未走过的甬道

Into the rose-garden. My words echo

飘向那重我们从未打开的门

Thus, in your mind.

进入玫瑰园。我的话就和这样

                              But to what purpose

在你的心中回响。

Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves

　　　　　　　但是为了什么

I do not know.

更在一缸玫瑰花瓣上搅起尘埃

                        Other echoes

我却不知道。

Inhabit the garden. Shall we follow?

　　　　　还有一些回声

Quick, said the bird, find them, find them,

栖身在花园里。我们要不要去追蹑？

Round the corner. Through the first gate,

快，鸟儿说，快去寻找它们，去寻找它们

Into our first world, shall we follow

在花园角落里。穿过第一道门，

The deception of the thrush? Into our first world.

走进我们的第一个世界，我们要不要听从

There they were, dignified, invisible,

画眉的欺骗？进入我们的第一个世界。

Moving without pressure, over the dead leaves,

它们就在那儿，神态庄严而不可窥见，

In the autumn heat, through the vibrant air,

在秋天的燠热里，穿过颤动的空气，

And the bird called, in response to

从容不迫地越过满地枯叶，

The unheard music hidden in the shrubbery,

鸟儿在呼唤，于那隐藏在灌木丛中

And the unseen eyebeam crossed, for the roses

不可闻见的音乐相应和，

Had the look of flowers that are looked at.

那没有被人看见的眼光转过去了，因为玫瑰

There they were as our guests, accepted and accepting.

露出了花容美姿已被人窥见的神色。

So we moved, and they, in a formal pattern,

它们在那儿仿佛是我们的客人

Along the empty alley, into the box circle,

受到我们的接待也在接待我们。

To look down into the drained pool.

它们彬彬有礼地伫立在空寂的小径旁。

Dry the pool, dry concrete, brown edged,

于是我们继续前行，走进黄杨木的圆形树丛，

And the pool was filled with water out of sunlight,

俯身观看那干涸的水池。

And the lotos rose, quietly, quietly,

干涸的水池、干涸的混凝土、围着褐色的边，

The surface glittered out of heart of light,

水池里注满了阳光变幻的水，

And they were behind us, reflected in the pool.

荷花升起了，悄悄地，悄悄地，

Then a cloud passed, and the pool was empty.

池面从光芒的中心闪现，

Go, said the bird, for the leaves were full of children,

而它们在我们身后，映照在池中。

Hidden excitedly, containing laughter.

接着云朵飘过，水池又变为空虚。

Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind

去吧，鸟儿说，因为树叶丛中躲满了孩子

Cannot bear very much reality.

他们兴冲冲地藏在那儿，忍住了笑声。

Time past and time future

去吧，去吧，去吧，鸟儿说：人类

What might have been and what has been

忍受不了太多的现实。

Point to one end, which is always present.

过去的时间和未来的时间

过去可能存在的和已经存在的

都指向一个始终存在在终点。

II

Garlic and sapphires in the mud

二

Clot the bedded axle-tree.

The trilling wire in the blood

大蒜和蓝宝石陷在泥里

Sings below inveterate scars

阻塞了装嵌的轮轴。

Appeasing long forgotten wars.

血液中发着颤音的弦

The dance along the artery

在永不消失的伤疤下歌唱

The circulation of the lymph

安抚那早已忘却的战争。

Are figured in the drift of stars

动脉里的舞蹈

Ascend to summer in the tree

淋巴液的环流

We move above the moving tree

都表现为星辰的流驶

In light upon the figured leaf

在树梢中升向夏天

And hear upon the sodden floor

我们在摇动的树枝上空

Below, the boarhound and the boar

在那斑驳的树叶上闪耀的光华中

Pursue their pattern as before

移步前行，耳听得下面湿润的土地上

But reconciled among the stars.

捕捉野猪的猎犬和野猪一如既往

在继续他们追逐的模式

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;

但在群星中又归于和解。

Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,

But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,

在转动不息的世界的静止点上，既无生灵也无精魂；

Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,

但是不止也无动。在这静止点上，只有舞蹈，

Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,

不停止也不移动。可别把它叫做固定不移。

There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.

过去和未来就在这里回合。无去无从，

I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where.

无升无降。只有这个点，这个静止点，

And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time.

这里原不会有舞蹈，但这里有的只是舞蹈。

The inner freedom from the practical desire,

我只能说，我们曾在那儿呆过，但我说不出是哪儿。

The release from action and suffering, release from the inner

我也说不出呆了多久，因为这样就把它纳入时间。

And the outer compulsion, yet surrounded

By a grace of sense, a white light still and moving,

内心超脱了显示的欲求，

Erhebung without motion, concentration

解脱了行动和苦痛，也解脱了内心

Without elimination, both a new world

和身外的逼迫，而被围拥在

And the old made explicit, understood

一种恩宠之感，一道静静的白光之中，

In the completion of its partial ecstasy,

徐徐上升而有凝然不动，集中

The resolution of its partial horror.

在它部分的狂喜

Yet the enchainment of past and future

达到圆满的过程中，才领悟到

Woven in the weakness of the changing body,

它那部分的恐惧已经消失。

Protects mankind from heaven and damnation

但是过去和未来的羁绊

Which flesh cannot endure.

交织在变化着的软弱的躯体中，

                                          Time past and time future

卫护着人类既不飞升天国也不堕入地狱

Allow but a little consciousness.

这两者都非血肉之躯所能忍受。

To be conscious is not to be in time

　　　　　　　　　　　　　过去的时间和未来的时间

But only in time can the moment in the rose-garden,

只容许有少许的意识。

The moment in the arbour where the rain beat,

能意识到就不在时间之内

The moment in the draughty church at smokefall

但是只有在时间之内，那在玫瑰园中的瞬间，

Be remembered; involved with past and future.

那雨声沥沥的凉亭里的瞬间，

Only through time time is conquered.

当烟雾降落在通风的教堂里的瞬间，

才能忆起；才能与过去和未来相及。

只有通过时间才被征服时间。

III

Here is a place of disaffection

三

Time before and time after

In a dim light: neither daylight

这是愤怼不满的地方

Investing form with lucid stillness

以前的时间和以后的时间

Turning shadow into transient beauty

都沉浸于一片朦胧的光影里：既没有日光

With slow rotation suggesting permanence

赋予形体以明澈和静穆

Nor darkness to purify the soul

把暗淡的阴影化为疏忽易逝的美

Emptying the sensual with deprivation

以暖地旋转暗示人生悠悠，

Cleansing affection from the temporal.

也没有黑暗使灵魂净化

Neither plenitude nor vacancy. Only a flicker

剥夺一切去消感官的享乐

Over the strained time-ridden faces

洗涤情感以摈绝尘世短暂的情爱。

Distracted from distraction by distraction

既非充实也非空虚。只有一抹微光

Filled with fancies and empty of meaning

闪摇在一张张紧张的饱经忧患的脸上

Tumid apathy with no concentration

都因为心烦意乱而毫无意义

Men and bits of paper, whirled by the cold wind

神情无所专注而极度冷漠

That blows before and after time,

冷风劲吹在时间之前和时间之后

Wind in and out of unwholesome lungs

人和纸片都在风中回旋，

Time before and time after.

孱弱的肺叶呼吸出入

Eructation of unhealthy souls

不健康的灵魂把嗳出的麻木

Into the faded air, the torpid

吐入枯萎的空气，被风卷带着掠过

Driven on the wind that sweeps the gloomy hills of London,

伦敦的阴沉的山岗，掠过汉姆斯蒂德

Hampstead and Clerkenwell, Campden and Putney,

和克拉肯韦尔、坎普顿和普特尼，

Highgate, Primrose and Ludgate. Not here

海盖特、普林姆罗斯和拉德格特。

Not here the darkness, in this twittering world.

不是这里，不是这里的黑暗一片

不在这颤抖的世界里。

    Descend lower, descend only

Into the world of perpetual solitude,

再往下去，只是往下进入

World not world, but that which is not world,

永远与外世隔绝的世界，

Internal darkness, deprivation

是世界又非世界，非世界的世界，

And destitution of all property,

内部黑暗，剥夺了一切

Desiccation of the world of sense,

赤贫如洗，一无所有，

Evacuation of the world of fancy,

感觉已枯竭的世界，

Inoperancy of the world of spirit;

幻想已远走高飞的世界，

This is the one way, and the other

精神已失去作用的世界；

Is the same, not in movement

这是一条路，另外一条路

But abstention from movement; while the world moves

也是一样，不在运动之中

In appetency, on its metalled ways

而是避开运动；但是世界却怀着渴望

Of time past and time future.

在过去的时间和未来的时间的

碎石路上前进。

IV

四

Time and the bell have buried the day,

The black cloud carries the sun away.

时间和晚钟埋葬了白天，

Will the sunflower turn to us, will the clematis

乌云卷走了太阳。

Stray down, bend to us; tendril and spray

向日葵会转向我们吗，铁线莲？

Clutch and cling?

会纷披下来俯向我们吗；卷须的小花枝头

会抓住我们，缠住我们吗？

    Chill

冷冽的

Fingers of yew be curled

紫杉的手指会弯到

Down on us? After the kingfisher's wing

我们身上吗？当翠鸟的翅膀

Has answered light to light, and is silent, the light is still

以光明回答光明以后

At the still point of the turning world.

现在已悄然无声，光明凝然不动

在这转动不息的世界的静止点上。

V

五

Words move, music moves

Only in time; but that which is only living

语言，音乐，都只能

Can only die. Words, after speech, reach

在时间中行进；但是唯有生者

Into the silence. Only by the form, the pattern,

才能死灭。语言，一旦说过，就归于

Can words or music reach

静寂。只有通过形式，模式，

The stillness, as a Chinese jar still

语言或音乐才能达到

Moves perpetually in its stillness.

静止，正如一只中国的瓷瓶

Not the stillness of the violin, while the note lasts,

静止不动而仍然在时间中不断前进。

Not that only, but the co-existence,

当乐曲余音袅袅，那不是提琴的静止，

Or say that the end precedes the beginning,

不只如此，而是两者共存，

And the end and the beginning were always there

或者说结束于开始，

Before the beginning and after the end.

结束和开始永远在那儿

And all is always now. Words strain,

在开始之前和结束之后。

Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,

万物永远存在于现在。语言

Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,

在重负之下，损伤，迸裂，有时甚至破碎，

Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,

而在压力之下，要跌落，溜走，消失，

Will not stay still. Shrieking voices

或者因为措辞不当而腐朽，不会在原处停留，

Scolding, mocking, or merely chattering,

不会停留不动。尖厉刺耳的声音

Always assail them. The Word in the desert

叱责、嘲笑或者只是絮叨

Is most attacked by voices of temptation,

受到的攻击总是试探的声音，

The crying shadow in the funeral dance,

是葬仪舞蹈中哀声哭喊的影子，

The loud lament of the disconsolate chimera.

是郁郁不乐的凯米艾拉的高声悲号。

    The detail of the pattern is movement,

模式的细节是运动，

As in the figure of the ten stairs.

正如以十级阶梯的形状表现的那样。

Desire itself is movement

欲望本身就是运动

Not in itself desirable;

而不在与它值得想望的本身，

Love is itself unmoving,

爱本身是静止不动的，

Only the cause and end of movement,

只是运动的原因和目的，

Timeless, and undesiring

无始无终，也无所企求

Except in the aspect of time

除非在时间方面

Caught in the form of limitation

被纳入了限制的形式

Between un-being and being.

介于存在和不存在之间。

Sudden in a shaft of sunlight

猛然间，在一道阳光中

Even while the dust moves

即使此时有尘灰飞扬

There rises the hidden laughter

在绿叶丛中扬起了

Of children in the foliage

孩子们吃吃的笑声

Quick now, here, now, always—

迅疾的现在，这里，现在，永远——

Ridiculous the waste sad time

荒唐可笑的是那虚度的悲苦的时间

Stretching before and after.

伸展在这之前和之后。