葉慈（W. B. Yeats, 1865-1939）
When You Are Old
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
*
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
*
A Drinking Song
Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That's all we know for truth
Before we grow and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.
*
The Living Beauty
I bade, because the wick and oil are spent
And frozen are the channels of the blood,
My discontented heart to draw content
From beauty that is cast out of a mould
In bronze, or that in dazzling marble appears,
Appears, but when we have gone is gone again,
Being more indifferent to our solitude
Than 'twere an apparition. O heart, we are old;
The living beauty is for younger men:
We cannot pay its tribute of wild tears.
*
Down by the Salley Gardens
聽此詩朗讀 聽此詩演唱，Britten 曲
Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;
She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;
But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.
In a field by the river my love and I did stand,
And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand.
She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;
But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.
當你年老
當你年老，灰白，睡意正濃，
在火爐邊打盹，取下這本書，
慢慢閱讀，夢見你眼中一度
發出之柔光，以及深深暗影；
多少人愛你愉悅丰采的時光，
愛你的美，以或真或假之情，
祇一個人愛你朝聖者的心靈，
愛你變化的容顏蘊藏的憂傷；
並且俯身紅光閃閃的欄柵邊，
帶點哀傷，喃喃低語，愛怎樣
逃逸，逡巡於頭頂的高山上
且將他的臉隱匿於群星之間。
*
他想要天國的綢緞
假如我有天國的錦緞，
繡滿金光和銀光，
那用夜和光和微光
織就的藍和灰和黑色的錦緞，
我將把它們鋪在你腳下：
但我很窮，只有夢；
我把我的夢鋪在你腳下；
輕輕踩啊，因為你踩的是我的夢。
*
酒 歌
酒從唇間進，
愛從眼波起；
吾人老死前，
惟知此真理。
我舉杯就唇，
我看你，我嘆息。
*
活生生的美
我請求--因為燈芯和油都已耗盡
而且血液的通路都已凍結--
我這顆不滿足的心且滿足於
那用青銅模子鑄造出來的，
或者顯形於眩眼的大理石中的美，
顯形，但當我們消逝後又再度消逝，
比一個幽靈，更加不關心
我們的孤寂。噢心啊，我們已老；
活生生的美是給更年輕的人的：
我們無法支付它狂野淚水的貢禮。
*
在楊柳園畔 *
在楊柳園畔，我的愛人和我相見，
她移動雪白的小腳，行過楊柳園。
她叫我平心對愛情，如同葉生樹上，
但我年輕又愚蠢，不願從她的思想。
在河邊地上，我的愛人和我並站，
她把她雪白的手，擱在我斜肩上。
她叫我從容對人生，如同草生堰上，
但我年輕又愚蠢，到如今淚滿衣裳。
* 此詩收於我們譯的 《世界情詩名作100首》
