颂诗译选
孩子们 Children
孩子们，到我这里来！
因为我听到你们在遊戏，
那些困扰着我的问题，
就消逝了无蹤跡。
你们开了东面的窗，
向着初升的太阳，
那里思绪是燕子歌唱
早晨的溪水流畅。
在你们的心里是鸟儿和阳光，
你们思想里小溪流荡，
但在我心头是秋风生涼
带着雪花初降。
啊，我们的世界将是怎般
如果孩童都消失不见？
我们会恐惧沙漠在后面
更坏过前面的黑暗。
正如叶子之与森林，
阳光和空气之与食物，
先是他们甜柔的汁浆
再硬化成长为树木，─
孩童对世界也是这样；
借他们才感觉到光芒
更明亮和晴朗的气候
达到他们的根本之上。
孩子们，到我这里来！
在我的耳边轻语
鸟儿和清风鸣唱些什么
在你们晴朗的领域。
我们所有的谋画算什么，
还有我们书卷的智慧，
与你们的轻抚和欢乐面容
相比时成为何等轻微？
你们胜过所有的颂歌
不论是述说或詠唱；
因为你们是活的诗篇，
其余的都已死亡。
Children
Come to me, O ye children!
For I hear you at your play,
And the questions that perplexed me
Have vanished quite away.
Ye open the eastern windows,
That look towards the sun,
Where thoughts are singing swallows
And the brooks of morning run.
In your hearts are the birds and the sunshine,
In your thoughts the brooklet's flow,
But in mine is the wind of Autumn
And the first fall of the snow.
Ah! what would the world be to us
If the children were no more?
We should dread the desert behind us
Worse than the dark before.
What the leaves are to the forest,
With light and air for food,
Ere their sweet and tender juices
Have been hardened into wood,—
That to the world are children;
Through them it feels the glow
Of a brighter and sunnier climate
Than reaches the trunks below.
Come to me, O ye children!
And whisper in my ear
What the birds and the winds are singing
In your sunny atmosphere.
For what are all our contrivings,
And the wisdom of our books,
When compared with your caresses,
And the gladness of your looks?
Ye are better than all the ballads
That ever were sung or said;
For ye are living poems,
And all the rest are dead.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow（1807-1882）
