43、EXODUS

EXODUS
出埃及
From coastal towns,
where the sky innocently begins a hopeless journey,
came reports of unmarked stars
ruining schedules and confusing fishing-men;
and now it has come out
some northern weather-keepers
in their secret journals
recorded the arrangement of a new constellation;
but we were not told
and our streets seemed unchanged.
来自沿海城镇，
那里的天空纯洁地开始一场无望的旅程，
没有标记星星的报告的到来
毁坏了日程安排并令钓鱼的人困惑；
但现在它已出现了
一些北方的气象员
在他们秘密的日志中
记录下一颗新的星座的排布；
但我们没有被告知
而且我们的街道似乎没有改变。
We knew nothing of Pharaoh's negotiations
or that higher powers were involved.
We went about our acts of charity,
visiting the city corners
where beggars calculated waltzes
and made rattles with pencils in a cup.
We paid all the lame and wired men
and gained the difficult gestures of many stumps.
We were loved those afternoons
by wagon-sitters and street-musicians：
we had numerous friends among the wretched.
我们对法老的谈判
或被涉及的主要的权利一无所知。
我们忙于我们的善行
走访城市的街角
那里的乞丐计算着圆舞曲
用画笔在杯子上发出咯咯的响声。
我们给所有的瘸子和不安的人钱
并得到许多假肢不友好的手势。
那些午后我们被
坐着四轮马车的人和街头艺人所爱：
在不幸的人群中我们有众多的朋友。
Now our Nile has turned to blood
and in the cafes the scholars jest
about a cosmic wound.
Priests no longer smile
at our catalogue of charities
and even the beggars whom we pity and love
refuse our coins with a curse.
如今我们的尼罗河已变成血水
在小摊上学者
就宇宙的伤口开起玩笑。
祭司不再对
我们一系列的施舍微笑
甚至那些我们爱怜的乞丐
都带着诅咒拒收我们的硬币。
Councils have met and ministers
assure us of a clearer water.
Temples have given out
their beautiful warnings.
But what shall we do while the beggars
hate us from the corner,
regarding us like visitors
    who have come into their dark houses
and have seen too much,
or how shall we speak to our children
when they report each day
how their favorite animals have perished
in the city fountains.
会议已召集，教长
担保我们清白如水。
寺庙已发出
他们美丽的警告。
但我们应当做什么当那些
来自角落的乞丐狠我们，
像游客一般看待我们
而我们已走入他们黑暗的房子
并且看的太多，
又或者我们应当如何对我们的孩子说
当他们每日描述
他们喜爱的动物如何已腐烂
在城市的喷泉中。
My distant enemy in his linen tomb
still murmurs these questions through the crumbling cloth,
though these children died in later battles
and the coloured feathers of their fountain creatures
turned dust in the dynasties of war.
He still remembers the locusts
eating through the window panes
and the wooden carts
squeaking past the blackened castles
with their sad cargo of first-born dead.【1】cargo 不理解
And in his soft grave the shouts again are heard
as the walls of water break in on the chariots,
and under the terrible wave
go the beautiful boys from Memphis and Thebes
and the adorned riders charging against the foam.
我陌生的敌人在他亚麻布的墓中
穿过破碎的布依然发出疑问的轻柔之声，
尽管这些孩子死在更晚的战役中
他们喷泉生物的彩色羽毛
在王朝的战争中已化为尘埃。
他依然记得蝗虫
啃食破窗格
和木头手推车
发出吱吱尖叫经过昏暗的城堡
随着他们悲痛的长子死亡的货物。
在他柔软的墓中那呼喊一再被听见
就像水墙在战车上粉碎，
在可怕的水浪下
那美丽的男孩从孟菲斯和底比斯出发
全副武装的骑士正迎着水沫冲锋。
Dream your questions,my oppressor,dream;
you of whom advice was never asked,
who die not order the attack,
whose tacit approval was always assumed.
You have endured your Flood
and you will have your Covenant:
perhaps now beneath the miles of water,
the Messenger,blessed be he,
moves between the alien chariots,
comforting Egyptian drowned
and teaching them songs for their damp harps:
how the sea did not wish to be a mouth,
how the east wind turned with grief to his calamity.
幻想你的疑问，我的压迫者，幻想；
你忠告谁决不问起，
谁死了而没有下令攻击，
谁无言的默许总是被假定。
你已容忍你的水灾
你将有你的约定：
也许如今在数英里的水之下，
被赐福的使者，
在陌生的战车间移动，
令人欣慰的是埃及人淹死了
并且教他们潮湿竖琴的歌曲：
大海如何没有希望成为一张嘴，
东风如何带着悲痛变成他的灾难。
And I will instruct my friends
in your human innocence
as your seed and mine
gather in armies of blind giants
to war again at ancient useless borders;
and know,my taskmaster,that we too ask:
how long in the wilderness of Sinai
until the sons of bondsmen
understand their fathers'slavery;
who will read the chart of whip-scars on the backs;
who will interpret the numbers
burnt on our brothers'wrists.
And let this comfort you:
though no great fish came
to spit your drowning boys on dry land,
and no pillar of light illumined a road back
through the falling water,
still these uncommitted bodies
dried the swamp toward Jerusalem,
and your widows and sweethearts along the shore
wept a prayer which found our God.
我会教导我的朋友们
你本性清白
如你的子孙和我
聚集大批瞎眼的巨人
再次在古老无用的边境开战；
我知道，我的监工，我们太多请求：
要多久在西奈山的荒野
直到奴隶的儿子
懂得他们父亲的奴隶身份；
谁会读懂那后背抽打的伤痕的图表；
谁会解读民数记
燃烧在我们兄弟的手腕上。
让这安慰你吧：
尽管没有大鱼
在干燥的大地为你淹死的男孩吐沫，
尽管没有光柱穿过垂落的海水
照亮出一条归路，
这些为寻得的身体依然
使得朝向耶路撒冷的沼泽干涸，
你的寡妇和心上人沿着海岸
哭着祈祷找寻我们的上帝。