《當你老了》這首詩在中國可以說是非常有名了！

《When you are old》

——《當你老了》

William Butler Yeats（威廉·巴特勒·葉芝）

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,

當你老了，頭髮花白，睡意沉沉，

And nodding by the fire，take down this book,

倦坐在爐邊，取下這本書來，

And slowly read,and dream of the soft look

慢慢讀著，追夢當年的眼神

Your eyes had once,and of their shadows deep;

你那柔美的神采與深幽的暈影。

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

多少人愛過你曇花一現的身影，

And loved your beauty with love false or true,

愛過你的美貌，以虛偽或真情，

But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you

惟獨一人曾愛你那朝聖者的心，

And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

愛你哀慼的臉上歲月的留痕。

And bending down beside the glowing bars,

在爐罩邊低眉彎腰，

Murmur,a little sadly,how Love fled

憂戚沉思，喃喃而語，

And paced upon the mountains overhead

愛情是怎樣逝去，又怎樣步上群山，

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

怎樣在繁星之間藏住了臉。

Funeral Blues

《葬禮藍調》

-- W. H. Auden

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,

停止所有的時鐘，切斷電話，

Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,

給狗一塊濃汁的骨頭，讓他別叫，

Silence the pianos and with muffled drum

黯啞了鋼琴，隨著低沉的鼓，

Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

抬出靈柩，讓哀悼者前來。

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead

讓直升機在頭頂悲旋，

Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead.

在天空狂草著資訊他已逝去，

Put crepe bows round the white necks of public doves,

把黑紗系在信鴿的白頸，

Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

讓交通員戴上黑色的手套。

He was my North, my South, my East and West.

他曾經是我的東，我的西，我的南，我的北，

My working week and my Sunday rest,

我的工作天，我的休息日，

My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;

我的正午，我的夜半，我的話語，我的歌吟，

I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong.

我以為愛可以不朽，我錯了。

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;

不再需要星星，把每一顆都摘掉，

Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;

把月亮包起，拆除太陽，

Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;

傾瀉大海，掃除森林,

For nothing now can ever come to any good.

因為什麼也不會，再有意味。

《Had I not seen the Sun》

—— Emily Dickinson

Had I not seen the Sun

I could have borne the shade

But Light a newer Wilderness

My Wilderness has made

— 《如果我不曾見過太陽》

假如我沒有見過太陽

我也許會忍受黑暗

可如今，太陽把我的寂寞

照耀得更加荒涼

What can I hold you with?

我要用什麼來留住你？

- Jorge Luis Borges (1934)

博爾赫斯

I offer you lean streets, desperate sunsets, the moon of the jagged suburbs.

我給你瘦狹的街道，孤絕的落日，荒郊的冷月。

I offer you the bitterness of a man who has looked long and long at the lonely moon.

我給你整個人的悲苦，那個人曾久久凝望寂寞的月亮。

I offer you my ancestors, my dead men, the ghosts that living men have honoured in marble: my father"s father killed in the frontier of Buenos Aires, two bullets through his lungs, bearded and dead, wrapped by his soldiers in the hide of a cow; my mother"s grandfather -just twentyfour- heading a charge of three hundred men in Perú, now ghosts on vanished horses.

我給你我的祖先，死者的靈魂被生者銘刻在大理石上： 我父親的父親死於布宜諾斯艾利斯的前線，兩顆子彈穿過他的胸口，他死時蓄著鬍子，被同袍裹於獸皮之內； 我母親的祖父——才二十四歲——曾在秘魯率領三百軍士，如今已成死馬上的幽魂。

I offer you whatever insight my books may hold. whatever manliness or humour my life.

我給你我書中所有的一切，給你我命裡所有的男子氣和幽默。

I offer you the loyalty of a man who has never been loyal.

我給你一個浪蕩子的忠心。

I offer you that kernel of myself that I have saved somehow -the central heart that deals not in words, traffics not with dreams and is untouched by time, by joy, by adversities.

我給你我設法儲存的生命核心——它難以言表，無法入夢，不被時間、歡愉和災難所觸動。

I offer you the memory of a yellow rose seen at sunset, years before you were born.

我給你一朵黃玫瑰的記憶，你未出生時，她曾在夕照中綻放。

I offer you explanations of yourself, theories about yourself, authentic and surprising news of yourself.

我給你關於你的闡釋，關於你的理論，關於你的真實而讓人驚歎的訊息。

I can give you my loneliness, my darkness, the hunger of my heart; I am trying to bribe you with uncertainty, with danger, with defeat.

我給你我的孤獨，我的暗夜，我內心的飢渴；我要用我的無常、危險和失敗來留住你。

No Man Is An Island

——John Donn

美國著名的小說家海明威在他的著作《喪鐘為誰而鳴》一書中也引用了本詩作為開篇詞。

No man is an island, entire of itself;

every man is a piece of the continent,

a part of the main;

if a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less,

as well as if a promontory were,

as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were:

any man’s death diminishes me,

because I am involved in mankind, and therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

it tolls for thee.

沒有誰是一座孤島 ——約翰•多恩

沒有誰是一座孤島，

在大海里獨踞；

每個人都像一塊小小的泥土，

連線成整個陸地。

如果有一塊泥土被海水沖刷，

歐洲就會失去一角，

這如同一座山岬，

也如同一座莊園，

無論是你的還是你朋友的。

無論誰死了，

都是我的一部分在死去，

因為我包含在人類這個概念裡。

因此， 不要問喪鐘為誰而鳴，

喪鐘為你而鳴。

葉茨的《down by the salley garden》

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 i m full of tears.

附上我覺得特別棒的翻譯

Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;

步至庭院，初見吾愛

She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet.

佳人緩行，纖足如雪

She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;

柔情漸濃，嫩葉染綠

But I, being young and foolish, with her did not agree.

恨吾愚稚，不解彼意

In a field by the river my love and I did stand,

粼粼河畔，卿卿愛侶

And on my leaning shoulder she placed her snow-white hand.

依肩玉指，潔白似雪

She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;

長路漫漫，淺草覆堰

But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.

恨吾愚稚，淚盈於睫

桂冠詩人華茲華斯的：

What though the radiance which was once so bright. 往昔的光輝，如此燦爛

Be now for ever taken from my sight, 如今眼前再不可見。

Though nothing can bring back the hour 雖然沒有什麼能帶回

Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower, 草之繁盛，花之輝煌的時刻，

We will grieve not, rather find， 我們不會悲傷，

Strength in what remains behind, 而是在仍然擁有的東西中尋找力量。

In the primal sympathy，在童年情感的釋放中，

Which having been must ever be, 能重溫的都是曾經經歷過的，

In the soothing thoughts that spring 在從人類的苦難中，

Out of human suffering, 湧出的惻隱之心中，

In the faith that looks through death, 在看透生死的信念中

In years that bring the philosophic mind. 在讓自己變得更聰慧的年華中

節選自“Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood”

主旨是：往昔輝煌燦爛的年華無法尋回，雖然遺憾，我們不該悲傷，而是在我們仍然擁有的東西中尋找活下去的力量，如：

對往昔的重溫

對他人苦難的惻隱之心

看透生死的信念

自己變得更聰慧的過程

誰都經歷過美好的時光，過去如此美好以至於讓某些人無法自拔。華茲華斯表達出了一種於抱殘守缺中仍然積極樂觀的態度。