"The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats

譯者: Dexin Wang 審譯者: Helen Chang

"The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats

《二度聖臨》 作者：威廉•巴特勒•葉慈

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

盤旋復盤旋，漩渦越來越大

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

鷹不再受蓄鷹者的呼喚

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

萬物散盤了，中心失控了

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

成為只是亂民的世界

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

血潮氾濫，漫溢四方

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

淹沒對純真的尊重

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

最好的人缺乏信念

最壞的卻滿腔激情

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

定然是某種啟示臨近了

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

定然是第二次降臨來了

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

二度聖臨！話音剛落，

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

便見神獸蒙迪

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

擾我視線：潛行沙漠之間

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

一副獅身人面的模樣

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

像太陽漠然無憐惘的注視

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

它的腿緩緩移動

周圍是沙漠群鳥憤怒的影子

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

黑暗又降臨，然我已知曉

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

二十個世紀的沈睡

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

苦惱地被搖籃搖成噩夢

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

何種猛獸的時刻終將到來

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

重生在伯利恆？