The Second Coming

 

基督再临

 

William Butler Yeats

 

威廉·巴特勒·叶芝

 

Turnig and turning in the widening gyre

 

猎鹰绕着越来越大的圈子不停地盘旋

 

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

 

再也听不见放鹰人的呼唤；

 

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

 

万物分崩离析；中心难以为系；

 

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

 

世上只落下一盘散沙的无政府主义，

 

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

 

血色迷糊的潮流奔腾汹涌，

 

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

 

天真的仪典，亦忍为滔天血浪所湮没;

 

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

 

至善者毫无信心，而至恶者

 

Are full of passionate intensity.

 

却躁动不止。

 

Surely some revelation is at hand;

 

一准是某种启示已近在眼前；

 

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

 

一准是基督再临就在眼前。

 

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

 

基督再临！话未出□，

 

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

 

一个巨大的形象便出现在人们脑际

 

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

 

令我花了眼：在大漠沙海之中，

 

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

 

一个獅身人面的形体

 

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

 

目光如烈日般茫然而无情。

 

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

 

正缓慢地挪动腿脚，周围环绕着

 

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

 

—群义愤的沙漠鸟的影子。

 

The darkness drops again; but now I know

 

黑暗再度降临；不过现在我知道

 

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

 

过去两千年岩石般的沉睡

 

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

 

都被摇篮摇成了噩梦般的烦恼，

 

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

 

何等粗野的畜牲，它的时辰巳至，

 

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

 

慵懒地朝伯利恒走去投生。