Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold

 

《多佛海滩》 马修·阿诺德

 

The sea is calm tonight.

 

今晚，海上风平浪静。

 

The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits;

 

潮水正满，皎洁的月光洒在海峡上；

 

On the French coast the light gleams and is gone;

 

法兰西海岸，灯火闪烁；

 

The cliffs of England stand; Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.

 

英格兰崖壁陡峭，高高耸立静谧的海湾， 一望无际，微光闪闪。

 

Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!

 

走到窗前，夜色如此甘甜！

 

Only, from the long line of spray where the sea meets the moon-blanched land.

 

月色中苍白的大地与海相接，孤寂的长岸浪花飞溅。

 

Listen! you hear the grating roar of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, at their return, up the high strand, begin, and cease, and then again begin, with tremulous cadence slow, and bring the eternal note of sadness in.

 

听啊，听那聒噪吼叫， 巨浪把卵石翻卷，一次次拉回海底，一次次又抛向高滩。 反复循环，相继不断，那节奏舒缓，那旋律震颤，这永恒的曲调饱含悲切哀怨。

 

Sophocles long ago,heard it on the Aegean, and it brought into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery;

 

古代的诗人索弗克斯， 在爱琴海上也曾聆听过这涛声的咏叹。由这混杂的潮汐， 想到人世的苦难。

 

We find also in the sound a thought, Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

 

如今，在这遥远的北海倾听， 我们的心感到同样震撼。

 

The Sea of Faith was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.

 

信仰之海啊， 曾几何时，大潮涨满， 遍布整个世界， 飞舞彩带，闪耀光环。

 

But now I only hear its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear and naked shingles of the world.

 

可是现在，还能听到什么？ 只剩下悲伤悠长的呼喊， 潮声退落成晚风的呜咽， 直到世界沙石裸露，广漠的边际一片昏暗。

 

Ah, love, let us be true to one another!

 

让我们彼此真诚相爱！

 

For the world, which seems to lie before us like a land of dreams, so various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

 

看这眼前的世界， 处处如梦似幻， 似乎美好、新奇、灿烂， 可是既无欢乐、光明、爱恋， 又无诚信、和平、慈善；

 

And we are here as on a darkling plain swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, where ignorant armies clash by night.

 

我们身处漆黑的莽原， 争斗、逃亡、惶恐、纷乱， 黑夜里愚蠢的军队厮杀纠缠。