If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be thy love.
Time drives the flocks from field to fold,
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold;
And Philomel becometh dumb;
The rest complains of cares to come.
The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yields:
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.
The gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,—
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.
Thy belt of straw and ivy buds,
Thy coral clasps and amber studs,
All these in me no means can move
To come to thee and be thy love.
But could youth last and love still breed,
Had joys no date nor age no need,
Then these delights my mind might move
To live with thee and be thy love.
《三》
夜会
罗伯特·布朗宁 Robert Browning
点评
诗的标题为 “夜会”,可是通篇都只是描述前去赴约的过程,直到最后也未直接显示 “会面” 的镜头。但诗的末行 “the two hearts beating each to each (两颗心相对着跳动)” 这朦胧的一笔却间接地点明了夜会的高潮。译作结尾借景言情,与原作异曲同工。
长岸黑黝黝，
大海灰濛濛；
半月黄又大，
远远挂低空。
我驾小船来，
疾驰多奋勇；
船头惊细浪，
环环映月红。
终于进港湾，
船滞淤沙中；
弃船登沙岸，
海风暖融融。
心头情切切，
脚步快如风；
沙滩一片片，
田野一垄垄。
心头情切切，
脚步快如风；
眼前现农舍，
举手敲窗櫺。
火柴轻轻摖，
脆响急匆匆；
只见蓝光闪，
砰然两心动。
但听轻声唤，
惊喜又惶恐；
灯照心里亮，
情比夜色浓。
Meeting at Night
The gray sea and the long black land；
And the yellow half-moon large and low；
And the startled little waves that leap
In fiery ringlets from their sleep,
As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
And quench its speed i’ the slushy sand．
Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach
Three fields to cross till a farm appears；
A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of a lighted match,
And a voice less loud, thro’ its joys and fears,
Than the two hearts beating each to each!
Round the cape of a sudden came the sea,
And the sun look’d over the mountain's rim：
And straight was a path of gold for him,
And the need of a world of men for me．