Hélas!
To drift with every passion till my soul
Is a stringed lute on which all winds can play,
Is it for this that I have given away
Mine ancient wisdom, and austere control?
Methinks my life is a twice-written scroll
Scrawled over on some boyish holiday
With idle songs for pipe and virelay,
Which do but mar the secret of the whole.
Surely there was a time I might have trod
The sunlit heights, and from life's dissonance
Struck one clear chord to reach the ears of God:
Is that time dead? lo! with a little rod
I did but touch the honey of romance—
And must I lose a soul's inheritance?
唉!
伴隨每一次激情而漂流,直到
我的靈魂變作豎琴任每陣清風(fēng)撫弄,
莫非因為這個,我不得不放棄
我古老的智慧和嚴(yán)苛的節(jié)制?
我想我的生命是二度書寫的卷軸,
在稚氣的假日里被潦草地涂抹,
為笛管和古風(fēng)寫就慵懶的歌曲,
只是它毀棄了整個生活的秘密。
確實有過一段時光,我走過
陽光普照的峰頂,而生命的不和諧音
清晰地撞擊琴弦,直抵上帝耳畔:
莫非那時光已死?噢!我只是
用一根嫩枝蘸取了浪漫傳奇的蜂蜜——
我就必須喪失一個靈魂的遺產(chǎn)?