关于苦难他们从来不犯错误，

About suffering they were never wrong, 

这些古代的大师们：他们何其理解苦难

The Old Masters: how well, they understood 

在人间的地位；以及苦难发生时

Its human position; how it takes place 

另外的人们在吃喝，或者打开一扇窗户

While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along; 

或者只是木然地走动；

How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting 

当老人们虔诚地等待奇迹的降临，

For the miraculous birth, there always must be 

内心激动不已

Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating 

但总有一群孩子，心里反对奇迹的发生，

On a pond at the edge of the wood: 

他们滑冰

They never forgot 

在树林边缘的池塘上：

That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course 

大师们从未忘记

Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot 

即使是令人畏惧的殉难也必悄悄进行

Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer’s horse 

在某一个角落，那些肮脏的地点

Scratches its innocent behind on a tree. 

狗群依然顾我过着狗的生活，而拷问者的马

在树干上蹭破它无辜的臀部。

In Breughel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away 

Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may 

比如在《伊卡洛斯》中，布鲁盖尔描写到：每件事物

Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, 

如何从灾难中

But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone 

从容不迫地转身，耕田的农夫

As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green 

或许

Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen 

听到了溅落声，以及被抛弃的哭喊，

Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky, 

但对他来说，这不是致命的失败；太阳

Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

一如往常地

照耀一双白腿消失在

蓝色的

海水，那艘豪华精美的客轮一定

目睹了

令人惊异的事情：一个少年跌落出天外，

轮船自有它的目的地，所以继续平静地驶向远方。