书城外语那些年那些诗
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第47章 The Second Coming

William Butler Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart;the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed,and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction,while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi

Troubles my sight:somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs,while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again;but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast,

its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

基督再临

威廉·巴特勒·叶芝

猎鹰绕着越来越大的圈子不停地盘旋

再也听不见放鹰人的呼唤;

万物分崩离析;中心难以为系;

世上只落下一盘散沙的无政府主义,

血色迷糊的潮流奔腾汹涌,

天真的仪典,亦已为滔天血浪所湮没;

至善者毫无信心,而至恶者

却躁动不止。

一准是某种启示已近在眼前;

一准是基督再临就在眼前。

基督再临!话未出口,

一个巨大的形象便出现在人们脑际

令我花了眼:在大漠沙海之中,

一个狮身人面的形体,

目光如烈日般茫然而无情。

正缓慢地挪动腿脚,周围环绕着

一群义愤的沙漠鸟的影子。

黑暗再度降临;不过现在我知道

过去两千年岩石般的沉睡

都被摇篮摇成了噩梦般的烦恼,

何等粗野的畜牲,

它的时辰已至,

慵懒地朝伯利恒走去投生。

背景知识

威廉·巴特勒·叶芝(William Butler Yeats),曾于1923年获得诺贝尔文学奖,获奖的理由是“以其高度艺术化且洋溢着灵感的诗作表达了整个民族的灵魂”。

这首诗作于1921年。根据基督教传说,基督将在世界末日重临人间主持审判。叶芝认为古希腊罗马传下来的西方文明今天已接近毁灭时期,两百年内即将出现一种粗野狂暴的反文明,作为走向另一种贵族文明的过渡。

单词注解

gyre [5dVaiE] 旋回

falcon [5fAlkEn] 猎鹰

anarchy [5AnEki] 无秩序;混乱

revelation [7revi5leiFEn] 天启,神示

vexed [vekst] 动荡的

名句诵读

Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer;Things fall apart;the centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,The blood-dimmed tide is loosed,and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned;The best lack all conviction,while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

And what rough beast,its hour come round at last,Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?