T.S. Eliot ： 燒毀的諾頓 －－第五章

《燒毀的諾頓 －－第五章》

BURNT NORTON
(No. 1 of 'Four Quartets')

By T.S. Eliot  (浮生歡娛譯）

惟在時間中，言語前行，
音樂前行；然而隻有生者
方能寂滅。言語，述說後便進入
靜止，猶如一隻中國瓷瓶
在靜止中運動不息。
當樂音繚繞，那不是小提琴歸於沉寂，
不隻是那樣，而是動靜共存。
或者說那是終止先於開始，
在開始之前和結束以後，
結束和開始便一直存在。
重要的乃是現在。言語在重負下
疲乏、迸裂、有時甚至破碎，
在張力下跌落、溜走、消失，
或因表達不當而腐朽，不會停留在原處，
不會靜止不動。刺耳聲、
嗬斥、嘲弄，抑或僅是絮叨，
總在攻擊它們。廢墟中的詞，
最易受到誘惑之聲的攻擊，
還有葬禮之舞中哭泣的陰影，
不能安撫的卡米拉之慟哭。

模式的細節是一種運動，
好比十階梯的圖形所顯示。
欲望本身是一種運動，
而非它本身是令人向往的。
愛本身靜謐不動，
隻是運動的緣由和終結，
無始無終，無所乞求，
除非牽涉到時間，
囿於某種形式的限製，
介於存在和非存在之間。
驀然在一道陽光中，
甚至當塵埃四起，
綠葉中揚起一陣
潛在的孩童笑聲。
趕緊，此地，現在，永遠—
滑稽可笑的是，虛擲而悲哀的時間
伸展於之前和其後。

V

Words move, music moves
Only in time; but that which is only living
Can only die. Words, after speech, reach
Into the silence. Only by the form, the pattern,
Can words or music reach
The stillness, as a Chinese jar still
Moves perpetually in its stillness.
Not the stillness of the violin, while the note lasts,
Not that only, but the co-existence,
Or say that the end precedes the beginning,
And the end and the beginning were always there
Before the beginning and after the end.
And all is always now. Words strain,
Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,
Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,
Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,
Will not stay still. Shrieking voices
Scolding, mocking, or merely chattering,
Always assail them. The Word in the desert
Is most attacked by voices of temptation,
The crying shadow in the funeral dance,
The loud lament of the disconsolate chimera.

The detail of the pattern is movement,
As in the figure of the ten stairs.
Desire itself is movement
Not in itself desirable;
Love is itself unmoving,
Only the cause and end of movement,
Timeless, and undesiring
Except in the aspect of time
Caught in the form of limitation
Between un-being and being.
Sudden in a shaft of sunlight
Even while the dust moves
There rises the hidden laughter
Of children in the foliage
Quick now, here, now, always—
Ridiculous the waste sad time
Stretching before and after.