艺文走廊 ✐2005-02-01


奴役

凌风 译

 

噢,那棚屋在广袤的原野,
无尽连绵的绿荫,
那里压榨和诈欺的谣言
成功与不成功的战爭,
可以全不关我!每天传闻
世界充满了不公和暴行
使我耳朵痛苦灵魂厌恨。
全沒有肉在人刚硬的心;
对人失去了感觉;
那自然的兄弟关连受了伤损
如同麻遇到火焰破碎无存。
他发现同类的罪过在於皮肤
颜色和他不同,並且有力量
就可以为了这无价值的借口而动武
判定其作为合法的猎物。
土地仅一带水之隔彼此恨恶。
山脈连接使国与国构成仇隙,
本该是亲族像水滴汇合为一。
如此人恶待他的弟兄而且毀灭,
最坏的,最可悲哀的是
人性最粗野,最秽臭的污点,
是给他带锁链,役使他,榨取他的汗
用鞭打,如果慈怜看见
这样的虐待牲畜她也会流血悲泣。
人又如何?什么人,有人的情感,
看到这样,能不羞惭,
垂下头,想他自己也是人?
我绝不要一个奴隶耕我的田,
抬着我,在睡觉时为我打扇,
当我醒来他就发颤,任多大财富,
那筋力所得的我不能买卖赚钱。
不;自由如此可贵,在我心中衡量
珍视在所有的价值之上,
我深愿自己作奴隶,
被捆绑,而不愿把锁链加於他人身上。
我们沒有奴隶在本乡。—这样,为什么在外邦?
他们一度曾自己航过波浪
使我们部分人得到自由和解放。
奴隶不能夠存在於英国;如果他们的肺
接受了我们的空气,他们立即自由;
他们踏上我们的国土,他们的枷锁就脫落。
那是高贵的,表明一个国家自豪
享有可羡慕的福分。因此,应该散播,
让这福分周流在每个血管
在我们全国;这样,当不列颠
权力所及,人类也可感受她的慈惠。

 

Slavery

  From The Timepiece

O for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumour of oppression and deceit
Of unsuccessful or successful war,
Might never reach me more! My ear is pained,
My soul is sick, with every day's report
Of wrong and outrage with which earth is filled.
There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart;
It does not feel for man; the natural bond
Of brotherhood is severed as the flax
That falls asunder at the touch of fire.
He finds his fellow guilty of a skin
Not coloured like his own, and, having power
To enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.
Lands intersected by a narrow frith
Abhor each other. Mountains interposed
Make enemies of nations, who had else
Like kindred drops been mingled into one.
Thus man devotes his brother, and destroys;
And, worse than all, and most to be deplored
As human nature's broadest, foulest blot,
Chains him, and tasks him, and exacts his sweat
With stripes, that Mercy, with a bleeding heart,
Weeps, when she sees inflicted on a beast.
Then what is man? And what man, seeing this,
And having human feelings, does not blush,
And hang his head, to think himself a man?
I would not have a slave to till my ground,
To carry me, to fan me while I sleep,
And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth
That sinews bought and sold have ever earned.
No; dear as freedom is, and in my heart's
Just estimation prized above all price,
I had much rather be myself the slave,
And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him.
We have no slave at home.— Then why abroad?
And they themselves once ferried o'er the wave
That parts us are emancipate and loosed.
Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs
Receive our air, that moment they are free;
They touch our country, and their shackles fall.
That's noble, and bespeaks a nation proud
And jealous of the blessing. Spread it then,
And let it circulate through every vein
Of all your empire; that, where Britain's power
Is felt, mankind may feel her mercy too.

William Cowper (1731-1800)
English poet & hymn writer.

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