颂诗译选

建造者The Builders

凌风 译

所有人都是命运的建造者群，
　　在为时间的牆工作；
　　有的用丰功伟蹟，
　　也有的用诗韻雕琢。

沒有什么是无用或低下；
　　各成最美好在其安排之处；
　　什么看来是閒笔无需
　　卻是加強並支持其余。

我们建造的这座建筑，
　　时间用材料充填；
　　我们用来建造的石头，
　　是我们的今天和昨天。

依真正的形像和样式兴建；
　　不能留下缺口在中间；
　　莫想沒有人能夠看见，
　　这些事将保持不被发现。

在古老时代的艺术，
　　建筑者以最大的谨慎
　　用心在细微看不见的地方；
　　因为神看到每一隐藏。

我们也要这样的工作，
　　不论隐藏和明显；
　　作成神所要居住的殿，
　　美丽，清洁，完全。

否则在这些时间的牆中，
　　我们的生活就有残缺，
　　破坏的楼梯，当人要登上
　　就要绊跌失腳。

今天就如此建造，坚定不移，
　　立在坚固深广的根基，
　　往上建造並且安全
　　明天会见它矗立在那里。

惟有如此才能夠实现
　　那些楼阁一般，抬望眼
　　俯视这世界如广大平原，
　　无边无垠直达到青天。

The Builders

All are architects of Fate,
Working in these walls of Time;
Some with massive deeds and great,
Some with ornaments of rhyme.

Nothing useless is, or low;
Each thing in its place is best;
And what seems but idle show
Strengthens and supports the rest.

For the structure that we raise,
Time is with materials filled;
Our to-days and yesterdays
Are the blocks with which we build.

Truly shape and fashion these;
Leave no yawning gaps between;
Think not, because no man sees,
Such things will remain unseen.

In the elder days of Art,
Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part;
For the God sees everywhere.

Let us do our work as well,
Both the unseen and the seen;
Make the house, where God may dwell,
Beautiful, entire, and clean.

Else our lives are incomplete,
Standing in these walls of Time,
Broken stairways, where the feet
Stumble as they seek to climb.

Build to-day, then, strong and sure,
With a firm and ample base;
And ascending and secure
Shall to-morrow find its place.

Thus alone can we attain
To those turrets, where the eye
Sees the world as one vast plain,
And one boundless reach of sky.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow（1807-1882）