Song of Nature
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Mine are the night and morning,
The pits of air, the gulf of space,
The sportive sun, the gibbous moon,
The innumerable days.
I hid in the solar glory,
I am dumb in the pealing song,
I rest on the pitch of the torrent,
In slumber I am strong.
No numbers have counted my tallies,
No tribes my house can fill,
I sit by the shining Fount of Life,
And pour the deluge still;
And ever by delicate powers
Gathering along the centuries
From race on race the rarest flowers,
My wreath shall nothing miss.
And many a thousand summers
My apples ripened well,
And light from meliorating stars
With firmer glory fell.
I wrote the past in characters
Of rock and fire the scroll,
The building in the coral sea,
The planting of the coal.
And thefts from satellites and rings
And broken stars I drew,
And out of spent and aged things
I formed the world anew;
What time the gods kept carnival,
Tricked out in star and flower,
And in cramp elf and saurian forms
They swathed their too much power.
Time and Thought were my surveyors,
They laid their courses well,
They boiled the sea, and baked the layers
Or granite, marl, and shell.
But he, the man-child glorious,——
Where tarries he the while?
The rainbow shines his harbinger,
The sunset gleams his smile.
My boreal lights leap upward,
Forthright my planets roll,
And still the man-child is not born,
The summit of the whole.
Must time and tide forever run?
Will never my winds go sleep in the west?
Will never my wheels which whirl the sun
And satellites have rest?
Too much of donning and doffing,
Too slow the rainbow fades,
I weary of my robe of snow,
My leaves and my cascades;
I tire of globes and races,
Too long the game is played;
What without him is summer's pomp,
Or winter's frozen shade?
I travail in pain for him,
My creatures travail and wait;
His couriers come by squadrons,
He comes not to the gate.
Twice I have moulded an image,
And thrice outstretched my hand,
Made one of day, and one of night,
And one of the salt sea-sand.
One in a Judaean manger,
And one by Avon stream,
One over against the mouths of Nile,
And one in the Academe.
I moulded kings and saviours,
And bards o'er kings to rule;——
But fell the starry influence short,
The cup was never full.
Yet whirl the glowing wheels once more,
And mix the bowl again;
Seethe, fate! the ancient elements,
Heat, cold, wet, dry, and peace, and pain.
Let war and trade and creeds and song
Blend, ripen race on race,
The sunburnt world a man shall breed
Of all the zones, and countless days.
No ray is dimmed, no atom worn,
My oldest force is good as new,
And the fresh rose on yonder thorn
Gives back the bending heavens in dew.
自然之歌
拉爾夫·沃爾多·愛(ài)默生
夜與晝是源泉, 1
大氣的溝壑,空間的深淵,
太陽(yáng)嬉鬧,月華盈盈,
數(shù)不清的一天天。
我躲進(jìn)陽(yáng)光的輝煌,
在隆隆的歌里沉默,
停在洪流的波面,
我在酣眠中強(qiáng)壯。
沒(méi)有數(shù)字將我計(jì)數(shù),
沒(méi)有部落充滿我的房屋,
坐在波光瀲滟的生命泉邊,
我默默將洪流傾注;
曾經(jīng)倚靠精妙的力
沿著諸多的世紀(jì)采集
一種接一種珍稀的花朵,
我的花冠上什么都不會(huì)逃過(guò)。
經(jīng)過(guò)成千上萬(wàn)個(gè)夏季
我的蘋(píng)果都成熟得健康,
變化著的星星閃爍
撒下堅(jiān)實(shí)的光芒。
我用巖石的質(zhì)地書(shū)寫(xiě)往昔
并焚燒那些紙制卷軸,
珊瑚海中的建筑哦,
煤礦的基底。
從那些衛(wèi)星和軌道間
我竊取毀壞的星宿,
用那些衰竭與老化之物
我將全新的世界構(gòu)筑;
何時(shí)諸神流連于狂歡,
用星星和花朵妝扮,
也用痙攣的侏儒與蜥蜴標(biāo)本
賦予過(guò)多的神力給它們。
時(shí)間與思想將我檢驗(yàn),
鋪設(shè)它們美好的進(jìn)程,
它們煮沸大海,燒硬巖層
或是花崗巖、泥灰?guī)r和地殼。
而他,光榮的男孩,——
此時(shí)他在何處流連?
彩虹為他映出預(yù)言,
夕陽(yáng)使他的微笑閃現(xiàn)。
我的北極光向上飛升,
我的行星都即刻開(kāi)始運(yùn)行,
那男孩,一切的頂點(diǎn)
卻依然尚未出生,
時(shí)間與潮汐必將恒久運(yùn)行?
我的風(fēng)在西方永不入睡?
我那輪子轉(zhuǎn)動(dòng)太陽(yáng)
和行星,永遠(yuǎn)都不會(huì)停?
太多的求取,太多的丟棄,
虹影太過(guò)緩慢地褪去,
我厭倦我那雪之長(zhǎng)衣,
我的葉子和我的瀑流。
我厭倦眾星及其運(yùn)行,
這游戲已玩了太久;
沒(méi)有他,怎一番夏日的盛景,
怎一番冬日冰冷的暗影?
我為他陷入勞苦傷痛,
我的創(chuàng)造物苦苦等待;
他的信使紛紛而來(lái),
他卻沒(méi)有來(lái)到門(mén)外。
我兩度造出一個(gè)形象,
又三次把我的手展開(kāi),
造一個(gè)用白晝,另一個(gè)用夜晚,
還有一個(gè)用那鹽漬的海灘。
一個(gè)在猶大的馬槽, 2
還有一個(gè)在埃文河畔, 3
一個(gè)對(duì)著尼羅河口, 4
還有一個(gè)在“學(xué)苑”。 5
我造出國(guó)王與救世主,
還有王權(quán)莫及的游吟詩(shī)仙;——
卻未能降下?tīng)N如群星的感化,
那杯子從未充滿。
再次將那些光輝的輪子旋轉(zhuǎn),
再度混合起杯中諸物;
沸騰吧,命運(yùn)!遠(yuǎn)古的元素,
熱,冷,濕,干,還有和平,還有痛苦。 6
讓?xiě)?zhàn)爭(zhēng)、貿(mào)易、教義、歌曲
結(jié)合,并日臻成熟, 7
人要撫育被太陽(yáng)炙灼的世界
每一寸土地,和不可窮盡的年數(shù)。
光線不再黯淡,原子不再衰竭,
我亙古的力量完好如新, 8
鮮艷的玫瑰在遠(yuǎn)處的荊叢
用露珠透映彎曲的蒼穹。
注:1 “夜與晝是源泉”:《舊約·創(chuàng)世紀(jì)》:“起初神創(chuàng)造天地。地是空虛混沌。淵面黑暗。神的靈運(yùn)行在水面上。神說(shuō),要有光,就有了光。神看光是好的,就把光暗分開(kāi)了。神稱(chēng)光為晝,稱(chēng)暗為夜。有晚上,有早晨,這是頭一日。”(據(jù)中文和合本《圣經(jīng)》);
2 據(jù)《新約》福音書(shū)記載,耶穌誕生于猶大伯利恒城中的馬槽;
3 埃文河:埃文河上的斯特拉特福,一代文豪莎士比亞生于斯,卒于斯,其戲劇之魂永存于斯,我輩當(dāng)深深懷念之;
4 此處智者諸多,去過(guò)此處的智者更是不勝枚舉,請(qǐng)乘著想象的翅膀,探索學(xué)問(wèn)的丘壑;
5 Academe:通譯“學(xué)苑”亦譯作“學(xué)園”,古希臘柏拉圖傳道授業(yè)解惑之所在;
6 試回想恩培多克勒的元素說(shuō)及古印度哲學(xué)相關(guān)理論;
7 請(qǐng)重溫黑格爾“螺旋理論”及“絕對(duì)精神”;
8 試以德謨克利特原子說(shuō)方式思考。