飘忽的云

I've opened the curtain of my east window here above the computer,

拉开了房间东边电脑上方的窗帘，

and I sit now in a holy theater before a sky-blue stage.

感觉自己仿佛身处一个神圣的剧场，天蓝的舞台展现在面前。

A little cloud above the neighbor's trees resembles Jimmy Durante's nose for a while,

有好一会儿，邻居家树丛上飘着一朵像杰米·杜兰特那大鼻子形状的云朵，

then becomes amorphous as it slips on north.

但渐渐云朵就往北飘移，大鼻子也就散了状。

Other clouds follow, big and little and tiny on their march toward whereness.

周围的云，大的、小的、丁点儿的都随之往不知什么地方飘走了。

Wisps of them lead or droop because there must always be leading and drooping.

缕缕白云或前行，或散去，这最自然不过了。

The trees seem to laugh at the clouds while yet reaching for them with swaying branches.

树梢随风轻摆，像往上攀附云朵，也像在嘲笑云朵。

Trees must think that they are real, rooted, somebody,

树肯定在想自己才是实实在在、稳稳扎根的重量级人物，

and that perhaps the clouds are only tickled water which sometimes blocks their sun.

而云朵只不过是积聚的水珠，只会偶尔挡住太阳的光辉。

But trees are clouds, too, of green leaves-clouds that only move a little.

其实树也是一种云，是绿叶做的云，是不怎么动的云。

Trees grow and change and dissipate like their airborne cousins.

树会成长、变化、老去，就跟天空的浮云一样。

And what am I but a cloud of thoughts and feelings and aspirations?

我不也是一朵云吗？一朵怀着种种想法、感受和抱负的云。

Don't I put out tentative mists here and there?

我不是也到处作尝试，制造一个个雾团吗？

Don't I occasionally appear to other people as a ridiculous shape of thoughts without my intending to?

我的那些异想天开不也常不经意地在人面前变成了一团奇形怪状的云吗？　

Don't I drift toward the north when I feel the breezes of love and the warmth of compassion?

在感受到爱的微风和怜悯的温暖时，我不也像一朵朝北畅快游走的浮云吗？

If clouds are beings, and beings are clouds,

若浮云如人，人亦如浮云，

are we not all well advised to drift,

我们是否都应该飘，

to feel the wind tucking us in here

感受风的力量，

and plucking us out there?

让我们一时扎根这里，一时又把我们拔起吹走？

Are we such rock-hard bodily lumps as we imagine?

难道我们真的就如自己想像中的那样稳如磐石吗？

Drift, let me. Sing to the sky, will I.

飘吧，让我飘吧！我要向天高歌。

One in many, are we.

我们都是沧海一粟。

Let us breathe the breeze and find therein our roots in the spirit.

让我们一起感受微风的气息，在其中寻找我们的精神之根吧。