关于苦难，他们从未有错，

About suffering they were never wrong, 

这些古典大师们：他们有多了解

The Old Masters: how well, they understood 

它的人性态度；它如何产生

Its human position; how it takes place 

当其他人在吃饭或打开窗或正沿路无趣地散步；

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

何以，当老人，虔诚地，充满激情地等待

How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting 

神迹的诞生，总会有

For the miraculous birth, there always must be 

一些孩子不特别想要它发生，在树林

Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating 

边的一个池塘里溜冰：

On a pond at the edge of the wood: 

他们从没有忘记

They never forgot 

即使可怕的殉道也必须顺其自然

That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course 

于无论怎样的一个角落，一些凌乱之所

Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot 

狗儿继续它们的狗营生而刑拷者的马

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

在一棵树上摩擦无辜的后臀。

Scratches its innocent behind on a tree. 

例如，在布鲁盖尔的《伊卡洛斯》中：一切如何

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

自灾难中很从容地避开；农夫可能

Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may 

听到溅落的声音，被抛弃的哭喊，

Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, 

但对他来说，这并非一个重大的失败；太阳闪耀

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

好像它必须随白色的腿消失于绿色

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

的水中；还有那艘昂贵而精美的船一定看到

Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen 

一些令人惊叹的事，一个男孩从天上坠落，

Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky, 

而它有某个地方要去，继续平静地航行。

Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.