Thomas Hardy¹

托马斯·哈代（Thomas Hardy,1840-1928）生于英格兰多尔切斯特的一个小村子里。父亲是位建筑师。早年，托马斯·哈代从事建筑事务，但是他最爱写诗，他由于写诗难得有出版机会，随转向写小说，后以写小说而成名。1896年，他发表了他的最后一部小说《无名的裘德》（Jude the Obscure），以后即转向写诗，整个晚年他都用来写诗。

早年，他浪迹于森林田野和草原上，听到不少民谣和民间故事，多为荒凉的路口和坟园故事，逐渐形成一种悲观失望的人生观，认为人就是孤立无援与上帝奋斗。但在他的作品中，我们看到哈代对受苦的人民充满同情。

　

The Shadow on the Stone

　

I went by the Druid stone

That broods in the garden white and lone,

And I stopped and looked at the shifting shadows

That at some moments fall thereon

From the tree hard by with a rhythmic² swing,

And they shaped in my imagining

To the shade that a well-known head and shoulders

Threw there when she was gardening.

　

I thought her behind my back,

Yea, her I long had learned to lack,

And I said: "I am sure you are standing³ behind me,

Though how do you get into this old track?"

And there was no sound but the fall of a leaf

As a sad response; and to keep down my grief

I would not turn my head to discover

That there was nothing in my belief.

　

Yet I wanted to look and see

That nobody stood at the back of me;

But I thought once more: "Nay⁴, I'll not unvision

A shape which, somehow, there may be."

So I went on softly from the glade,

And left her behind me throwing her shade,

As she were indeed an apparition-

My head unturned lest my dream should fade.

　

踪影

　

我漫步经过一块石碑

它晶莹而又孤零零立在花园中，

我停步注视着

碑上移动的树影，

树枝在有节奏的摆动。

在我的想象里，

影子化作我熟悉的头和双肩，

是她在园中操作的身影。

　

我想准是她站在我的背后，

我久已失去她的音容。

我说：“我知道你在我背后，

可你怎么到这常来的旧径？”

寂然无语，只有凄凉的落叶声。

我抑制住我的悲哀，

我不愿回过头去，

怕看不到一个人影。

　

可是我又想看个分明，

看背后有否人踪。

但我又想：“可不能使这一形象消失，

她就在我身后也很可能。”

我悄悄离开花园，

留下她的身影在我背后，

她好象真是一个幻影，

我头也不回，怕我的梦消失无踪。

　

Snow in the Suburbs

　

Every branch big with it,

Bent every twig⁵ with it ;

Every fork like a white web-foot;

Every street and pavement mute:

　

Some flakes⁶ have lost their way, and grope back upward, when

Meeting those meandering⁷ down they turn and descend⁸ again.

The palings are glued together like a wall,

And there is no waft⁹ of wind with the fleecy fall.

　

A sparrow enters the tree

Whereon immediately

A snow-lump thrice his own slight size

Descends on him and showers his head and eyes.

And overturns him

And near inurns him,

And lights on a nether¹⁰ twig, when its brush

Starts off a volley of other lodging¹¹ lumps with a rush.

　

The steps are a blanched¹² slope,

Up which, with feeble hope,

A black cat comes, wide-eyed and thin,

And we take him in.

　

郊外雪景

　

雪使树干变粗了，

雪把树枝压弯了；

一个个树杈都嵌满白雪，

一条条街巷都人声寂灭。

　

雪花迷失了路转向上飞去，

遇到新的雪花一齐向下飘去。

条条篱笆被雪花连成一片围墙，

静悄悄中鹅毛大雪在飞翔。

　

一只麻雀飞上了树枝，

摇落一团团银絮，

雪块有它的三倍大，

朝着它的头和眼睛洒下。

　

雪块冲倒了麻雀，

几乎把它埋在雪窝。

麻雀飞到低枝上栖歇，

又抖落树枝上片片玉屑。

　

台阶变成了白色斜坡，

走来一支有气无力的黑猫，

饥饿的大眼睛，骨瘦如柴，

我们把它抱了进来。