《機緣之間》英文原詩

『小記：幾天前，網友林貝卡來到我的“部落閣”坐客，留下了一首我喜歡的歌《那時候》的鏈接，並送上耶魯畢業頌詩《機緣之間》的英文節選與我分享；又一天，紫君網友貼了電影《喜福會》片段，使我的那篇《A Pair of Tickets》的故事梗概顯得有的放矢。我現在把《機緣之間》英文原詩全文抄錄於此，借花獻佛，謝謝林貝卡， 謝謝紫君。也希望美語世界的網友們喜歡。– 仲夏百合』

  

The Ivy Ode: 《Between the Chances》

 Written by David Griswold (Yale Class 2007)

 

The gate swings open, and minutes pass,

Someone cracks a joke – the last

Heard as a student.

Four years ago, this stage was far.

Now could we get there from where we are –

Well, who wouldn’t?

 

Bustling like bees, rallied into ranks,

Arranged like sinners giving thanks,

The time arrives,

And down the well-worn rows we march

To shake the hands, and disembark

Into our real lives.

 

The books we perused are snug in bed,

What angels watched us overhead

Extend their contracts,

While parents bend a wave of grief

Beneath a feeling of relief –

They can relax.

 

As we, in gothic, graying towers,

Gilded libraries, where we spent hours

Rehearsing facts,

Have borrowed knowledge of a kind

The ready heart can only find

When it reacts

 

To difference, and to love’s full

Enchantment. Too often, thoughts are dull

Or un-ignited

Without their better counterpart:

The art of making, made an art

Itself, unrequited

 

Until it is given back.

We are our books, barely a crack

Along the seams –

Their wisdom here, freshly imparted,

Is thrown to depths perpetually charted

Beyond the sun’s beams.

 

It falls to us, now graduated

To share the worlds we’ve contemplated,

    To brandish hope;

To shield the war-sick, weary masses,

And separate the volatile gases

    Before they elope.

 

It falls to us to be the strong,

To mark all those who worship wrong

    Yet tempting causes,

To marshal out our erudition

Yet always keen to our position,

    And our many flaws.

 

This task we have, these hearts to mend,

They are the same our fathers lend

    From age to age:

The desperate manors, plush and futile,

The forges of the bored and brutal

    Company wage.

 

Let us not marry our intent

To keep up the establishment

    Of vain pursuits.

Remember what has meant the most,

Give others a chance, and do not boast,

    Be kind in disputes.

 

And always, always, love with true

And fervent love.  None may undo

    What has been done.

A summer’s night cannot be made

Again – none uncode time’s blockade.

    There is only one.

 

So did you gather all you wanted?

From classes, friends, professors vaunted

    Above the gods?

The captive seeds that in us churn

Now to the earth must be returned –

    Are there more words

 

You wish you had distributed?

Or times that, uninhibited,

    You would have changed?

Collect them all, savor the lost

Chances, the freedoms that were glossed

    Over, estranged

 

Embraces – pack them up for good,

And do not do what others would

    Tell you is best.

Follow the distant drum that speaks

Of light and truth, and life that seeks

    A surer rest.

 

The clocks are whirring with a fury,

The streets are lined with those who hurry

    With heads averted.

The classroom doors to us now close,

Our busy hands are in repose,

    Though disconcerted.

 

The hidden walkways known to us

Now open to those curious

    Enough to look.

They pass along a legacy,

Our prints of anonymity

    In every nook.

 

The stories of our hands explain

A common bond that must remain,

    Though we are gone –

We are the grass, we are the rooms,

The silent marching that resumes

    Its slow, proud song.

 

 

 

   

[林貝卡]

仲夏百合,

謝謝你和[美語世界]的網友們分享The Ivy Ode: 《Between the Chances》，一首好美的英語詩，讓我想起了久遠的校園生活，青春歲月。

你博客裏的[耶魯的畢業頌詩–常青頌]中文翻譯文也很精彩，不知道是否可以也轉載到[美語世界]，以便網友們中英對照學習閱讀，再謝你的分享。

耶魯的畢業頌詩–常青頌
http://blog.wenxuecity.com/blogview.php?date=200909&postID=39939

Good night,

Rebecca