The Old Vicarage, Grantchester
(Café des Westens, Berlin, May 1912)
JUST now the lilac is in bloom,
All before my little room;
And in my flower-beds, I think,
Smile the carnation and the pink;
And down the borders, well I know, 5
The poppy and the pansy blow…
Oh! there the chestnuts, summer through,
Beside the river make for you
A tunnel of green gloom, and sleep
Deeply above; and green and deep 10
The stream mysterious glides beneath,
Green as a dream and deep as death.
—Oh, damn! I know it! and I know
How the May fields all golden show,
And when the day is young and sweet, 15
Gild gloriously the bare feet
That run to bathe…
Du lieber Gott!
Here am I, sweating, sick, and hot,
And there the shadowed waters fresh 20
Lean up to embrace the naked flesh.
Temperamentvoll German Jews
Drink beer around;—and there the dews
Are soft beneath a morn of gold.
Here tulips bloom as they are told; 25
Unkempt about those hedges blows
An English unofficial rose;
And there the unregulated sun
Slopes down to rest when day is done,
And wakes a vague unpunctual star, 30
A slippered Hesper; and there are
Meads towards Haslingfield and Coton
Where das Betreten’s not verboten.
… would I were
In Grantchester, in Grantchester!— 35
Some, it may be, can get in touch
With Nature there, or Earth, or such.
And clever modern men have seen
A Faun a-peeping through the green,
And felt the Classics were not dead, 40
To glimpse a Naiad’s reedy head,
Or hear the Goat-foot piping low:…
But these are things I do not know.
I only know that you may lie
Day long and watch the Cambridge sky, 45
And, flower-lulled in sleepy grass,
Hear the cool lapse of hours pass,
Until the centuries blend and blur
In Grantchester, in Grantchester.…
Still in the dawnlit waters cool 50
His ghostly Lordship swims his pool,
And tries the strokes, essays the tricks,
Long learnt on Hellespont, or Styx.
Dan Chaucer hears his river still
Chatter beneath a phantom mill. 55
Tennyson notes, with studious eye,
How Cambridge waters hurry by…
And in that garden, black and white,
Creep whispers through the grass all night;
And spectral dance, before the dawn, 60
A hundred Vicars down the lawn;
Curates, long dust, will come and go
On lissom, clerical, printless toe;
And oft between the boughs is seen
The sly shade of a Rural Dean… 65
Till, at a shiver in the skies,
Vanishing with Satanic cries,
The prim ecclesiastic rout
Leaves but a startled sleeper-out,
Grey heavens, the first bird’s drowsy calls, 70
The falling house that never falls.
God! I will pack, and take a train,
And get me to England once again!
For England’s the one land, I know,
Where men with Splendid Hearts may go; 75
And Cambridgeshire, of all England,
The shire for Men who Understand;
And of that district I prefer
The lovely hamlet Grantchester.
For Cambridge people rarely smile, 80
Being urban, squat, and packed with guile;
And Royston men in the far South
Are black and fierce and strange of mouth;
At Over they fling oaths at one,
And worse than oaths at Trumpington, 85
And Ditton girls are mean and dirty,
And there’s none in Harston under thirty,
And folks in Shelford and those parts
Have twisted lips and twisted hearts,
And Barton men make Cockney rhymes, 90
And Coton’s full of nameless crimes,
And things are done you’d not believe
At Madingley on Christmas Eve.
Strong men have run for miles and miles,
When one from Cherry Hinton smiles; 95
Strong men have blanched, and shot their wives,
Rather than send them to St. Ives;
Strong men have cried like babes, bydam,
To hear what happened at Babraham.
But Grantchester! ah, Grantchester! 100
There’s peace and holy quiet there,
Great clouds along pacific skies,
And men and women with straight eyes,
Lithe children lovelier than a dream,
A bosky wood, a slumbrous stream, 105
And little kindly winds that creep
Round twilight corners, half asleep.
In Grantchester their skins are white;
They bathe by day, they bathe by night;
The women there do all they ought; 110
The men observe the Rules of Thought.
They love the Good; they worship Truth;
They laugh uproariously in youth;
(And when they get to feeling old,
They up and shoot themselves, I’m told)… 115
Ah God! to see the branches stir
Across the moon at Grantchester!
To smell the thrilling-sweet and rotten
Unforgettable, unforgotten
River-smell, and hear the breeze 120
Sobbing in the little trees.
Say, do the elm-clumps greatly stand
Still guardians of that holy land?
The chestnuts shade, in reverend dream,
The yet unacademic stream? 125
Is dawn a secret shy and cold
Anadyomene, silver-gold?
And sunset still a golden sea
From Haslingfield to Madingley?
And after, ere the night is born, 130
Do hares come out about the corn?
Oh, is the water sweet and cool,
Gentle and brown, above the pool?
And laughs the immortal river still
Under the mill, under the mill? 135
Say, is there Beauty yet to find?
And Certainty? and Quiet kind?
Deep meadows yet, for to forget
The lies, and truths, and pain?… oh! yet
Stands the Church clock at ten to three? 140
And is there honey still for tea?
格蘭切斯特的老莊房
--儒泊特。布魯克--
此時此刻
我舊時的小屋前丁香正在盛放
--我想
花圃裏，石竹和康乃馨綻開笑容
籬邊的罌粟和三色槿
齊齊，吐露芬芳
哦，河邊的栗樹搭起夏日的帳幕
綠蔭如沉睡的巷道
寂寂，進入夢鄉
那一彎清流謎一般悄悄滑過
綠的象幔紗之夢
深邃有如死亡
哦，還有那
五月的原野一片金黃
我如何能不裸裎了雙腳向你飛奔
當白晝依然年輕甜美，燦爛地
給它們鍍上金色的光芒
仁慈的上帝啊！
我在這個鬼地方
窒熱、病懨、汗流如漿
鬧哄哄的德國猶太佬端著啤酒四處遊蕩
盡管鬱金香
在雜草叢生的籬下應時而開
甚至，還有一枝英格蘭的野玫瑰攀出圍欄
楚楚輕颺
卻怎比我的格蘭切斯特：
濃蔭下的河水多麽清涼
多想撩一捧
潑在赤裸的身上
清晨的露珠如此溫柔
在金色的早霞中晶瑩閃亮
還有優遊自在的斜陽
散漫西沉，喚醒忠實的晚星
朦朧地，掛在天上
哦，還有
通向柯頓和海斯林菲爾德的牧場
任我徜徉
嗬，我向往
格蘭切斯特啊，我的格蘭切斯特
假若在你身旁
便能，摩撫你的綠野、大地
以及所有自然的歡暢
你看，綠叢中幼鹿的那一瞥
怯生生，多麽溫馴又驚慌
令博學的今人悠然思古、心馳神往
依稀，戴水草頭冠的淩波仙子
翩翩，在水一方
彼得。潘幽幽地吹響蘆哨，婉轉悠揚
你可以一整天躺在草地上
看天光流逝
任日影西斜
聽清風回繞
還有多情的花兒悄悄
在微醺的草叢中，吟唱
直到暮色四合，糅合了歲月
迷蒙了洪荒
在格蘭切斯特，啊！
就在格蘭切斯特的天空上
哦，還有晨曦下的池塘
幽幽閃光
飄忽如魅影的拜倫爵士
泳姿如此洗暢
身手如同橫渡斯蒂克斯
暢遊廣闊的海峽--赫勒斯龐
一如他行雲流水的文章
還有--
喬叟正諦聽流水喁喁
水車如幻影孓立
騰尼遜注目沉吟
逝者如斯，康河為何輕狂？
而在夜之明暗的花園裏
青草竊竊私語，直到天光
哦，當東方欲曉，鬼魂起舞
樂，夜之未央
無數神甫們掠過草坪
久歸塵土的修士們躡手躡腳
輕如飛鴻，來去無蹤
清臒的主教孤獨的影子
隱約在枝葉的那廂
待得日曉九天顫栗
撒旦的狂笑漸漸，消失了音響
死板的神甫也不知所措
唯有露宿的未歸人，滿臉驚慌
鉛灰的天空
傳來第一聲困倦的鳥鳴
搖搖欲墜的房子，依然佇立地上 
嗬，上天！我多想
背起行囊
登上火車
即刻回到英格蘭，我的家鄉
那是何等的土地
胸懷美好的人們，對它無不向往！
當然我更想
回到劍橋鄉下，一個智者的樂土
更有我鍾愛的格蘭切斯特
嗬，那個可愛的小村莊
不像劍橋街上：
君子不苟言笑
城裏人趾高氣揚
腦滿腸肥、裝模作樣
也不象南邊的羅伊斯頓人
黧黑、暴烈、不知所雲
或者象在奧佛，動不動賭咒發誓
可他們還不如特朗平敦人
發誓，就和放屁一樣！
迪頓的姑娘粗野放蕩
哈斯頓找不到三十以下的女郎
謝爾福特的那些人都是變態彎彎繞
巴頓人說話一口土腔
柯頓多的是小偷小摸
馬丁利人幹的事兒難以想象
大年三十他們愣要跑十裏八裏
櫻桃穀的懶漢笑聲響
唉，你說這事荒不荒唐！
男人們急赤白臉，
抬手給老婆一槍
也不送去聖伊夫斯
唉，這些個寶貝--
等到聽說巴巴拉漢那旮瘩的事
嚎啕大哭比嬰孩還響
怎比我，哦，我的格蘭切斯特
寧靜平和如天堂
哦，格蘭切斯特啊，我的格蘭切斯特
大風起兮雲飛揚
直如雲帆濟海洋
兒童柔美如夢幻
男男女女都端莊
密林沉沉入夢境
微風窸窸最有情
千回百轉待天曉
猶半清醒半夢酣
哦，格蘭切斯特啊，格蘭切斯特人
他們皮膚多白皙
日間沐浴夜濯洗
男人從道循天理
女子安分守規矩
愛美德，愛真理
笑時朗聲，猶勝翩翩少年郎
（若覺年邁，我獲知
起而自戕不彷徨！）
哦，上天！當你看到支離的樹枝
淩亂了格蘭切斯特的月亮
當你嗅著那甜膩而靡腐的河水--
它，如此讓人欣喜若狂、永生不忘
當你聽到微風在樹叢間嗚咽
你，怎能不思量？
哦，傲然矗立的榆樹樁
是否依然在守護那塊神聖的土地？
栗樹的濃蔭在旖旎的夢裏
是不是正在蔭護那條小河，將天光遮擋？
黎明的晨曦有沒有攜一個沁涼的秘密
象素裹金飾的阿弗洛蒂黛
羞澀地，東躲西藏？
從海斯林菲爾德到馬丁利， 夕陽
是不是還象從前，染一片金色的海洋？
夜幕低垂，野兔們還會不會出來
找玉米棒？
哦，還有那個池塘
水，是否依舊溫柔涼爽？
不息的河流，有沒有在水車下
依然笑語飛揚？
哦，讓我再想想--
還有什麽美麗尚待我去發現?
那種確實無疑的美，含蓄而不張揚？
比如深廣的原野，讓人憂思皆忘
無論謊言、真實、痛苦、還是彷徨？
哦，怎能不想，怎能忘
教堂頂上的鍾正指向兩點五十
夜靜更深，還能不能找到蜂蜜調茶
供我一觴？ 
