《词语》
倾尽我们所有
来谱制音韵，
你会选择么
有时——
就像风，利用
一道墙上的裂缝
或一条水渠，
其乐，或其痛
一路密密耳语——
用我吧，
你这些词语？
我懂你：
你轻若梦幻，
坚韧如橡树，
珍比黄金，
如同罂粟，玉米，
或一件旧披风：
婉转似鸟儿
在耳边唱，
就像密刺野蔷薇
在仲夏的
炙热中
怪异如亡故和未出生者之间
形形色色的竞赛：
乖张而甜美，
同样地，
之于眼睛，
也稔熟如故，
正如一个男人铭心于
那些最心爱的面孔
正如失去的家园：
虽比最太古的红豆杉
还远为古老
正如我们的山丘，苍老，——
磨损的新
一次又一次：
年轻如我们的溪流
在雨后：
正如亲密的人儿
正如你确证我们热爱的
大地。
让我得以满足
用某种来自威尔士的
甘美
其夜莺
没有双翅，——
来自威尔特郡和肯特郡
以及赫里福德郡，
和那儿的村庄，——
来自其名，其物
不多不少。
让我偶尔与你
共舞，
或攀登，
或并立，偶尔
狂喜迷失中，
固定而自由
在一个音韵中，
正如诗人所做的那样。
（微笑 译）
Edward Thomas: Words
Out of us all
That make rhymes,
Will you choose
Sometimes –
As the winds use
A crack in the wall
Or a drain,
Their joy or their pain
To whistle through –
Choose me,
You English words?
I know you:
You are light as dreams,
Tough as oak,
Precious as gold,
As poppies and corn,
Or an old cloak:
Sweet as our birds
To the ear,
As the burnet rose
In the heat
Of Midsummer:
Strange as the races
Of dead and unborn:
Strange and sweet,
Equally,
And familiar,
To the eye,
As the dearest faces
That a man knows,
And as lost homes are:
But though older far
Than oldest yew, -
As our hills are, old, -
Worn new
Again and again:
Young as our streams
After rain:
And as dear
As the earth which you prove
That we love.
Make me content
With some sweetness
From Wales
Whose nightingales
Have no wings, –
From Wiltshire and Kent
And Herefordshire,
And the villages there, –
From the names, and the things
No less.
Let me sometimes dance
With you,
Or climb,
Or stand perchance
In ecstasy,
Fixed and free
In a rhyme,
As poets do.
