I passed by the school where I studied as a boy

我经过童年时的母校

and said in my heart: here I learned certain things

心里说：我在这儿学到了一些东西

and didn't learn others. All my life I have loved in vain

也有一些没有学到。我一生中白白爱着

the things I didn't learn. I am filled with knowledge,

那些没有学到的东西。我学识饱满，

I know all about the flowering of the tree of knowledge,

我清楚知识树上开花的全部细节，

the shape of its leaves, the function of its root system, its pests and parasites.

它叶子的形状，它根系的功能，它的害虫和寄生者。

I'm an expert on the botany of good and evil,

我是一位善与恶植物学的专家，

I'm still studying it, I'll go on studying till the day I die.

我仍在钻研它，我将钻研它直到死。

I stood near the school building and looked in. This is the room

我站在学校建筑旁向里望去，这是我们曾经

where we sat and learned. The windows of a classroom always open

就座与学习的房间。教室的窗户总是

to the future, but in our innocence we thought it was only landscape

向未来打开，但在无知的年纪我们只是把

we were seeing from the window.

从窗口见到的当做风景。

The schoolyard was narrow, paved with large stones.

校园狭小，铺着巨大的石块。

I remember the brief tumult of the two of us

我记得我们俩那短暂的眩晕

near the rickety steps, the tumult

在摇摇欲坠的楼梯旁边，那眩晕

that was the beginning of a first great love.

是一次多么美好初恋的开端。

Now it outlives us, as if in a museum,

如今它脱离我们而活着，仿佛在一座博物馆，

like everything else in Jerusalem.

如同耶路撒冷其他的一切。