A Prayer for My Daughter
By William Bulter Yeats
Recitalist: President Michael D. Higgins
Once more the storm is howling, and half hid
Under this cradle-hood and coverlid
My child sleeps on. There is no obstacle
But Gregory’s wood and one bare hill
Whereby the haystack- and roof-levelling wind,
Bred on the Atlantic, can be stayed;
And for an hour I have walked and prayed
Because of the great gloom that is in my mind.
I have walked and prayed for this young child an hour
And heard the sea-wind scream upon the tower,
And under the arches of the bridge, and scream
In the elms above the flooded stream;
Imagining in excited reverie
That the future years had come,
Dancing to a frenzied drum,
Out of the murderous innocence of the sea.
May she be granted beauty and yet not
Beauty to make a stranger’s eye distraught,
Or hers before a looking-glass, for such,
Being made beautiful overmuch,
Consider beauty a sufficient end,
Lose natural kindness and maybe
The heart-revealing intimacy
That chooses right, and never find a friend.
Helen being chosen found life flat and dull
And later had much trouble from a fool,
While that great Queen, that rose out of the spray,
Being fatherless could have her way
Yet chose a bandy-leggèd smith for man.
It’s certain that fine women eat
A crazy salad with their meat
Whereby the Horn of Plenty is undone.
In courtesy I’d have her chiefly learned;
Hearts are not had as a gift but hearts are earned
By those that are not entirely beautiful;
Yet many, that have played the fool
For beauty’s very self, has charm made wise,
And many a poor man that has roved,
Loved and thought himself beloved,
From a glad kindness cannot take his eyes.
May she become a flourishing hidden tree
That all her thoughts may like the linnet be,
And have no business but dispensing round
Their magnanimities of sound,
Nor but in merriment begin a chase,
Nor but in merriment a quarrel.
O may she live like some green laurel
Rooted in one dear perpetual place.
My mind, because the minds that I have loved,
The sort of beauty that I have approved,
Prosper but little, has dried up of late,
Yet knows that to be choked with hate
May well be of all evil chances chief.
If there’s no hatred in a mind
Assault and battery of the wind
Can never tear the linnet from the leaf.
An intellectual hatred is the worst,
So let her think opinions are accursed.
Have I not seen the loveliest woman born
Out of the mouth of Plenty’s horn,
Because of her opinionated mind
Barter that horn and every good
By quiet natures understood
For an old bellows full of angry wind?
Considering that, all hatred driven hence,
The soul recovers radical innocence
And learns at last that it is self-delighting,
Self-appeasing, self-affrighting,
And that its own sweet will is Heaven’s will;
She can, though every face should scowl
And every windy quarter howl
Or every bellows burst, be happy still.
And may her bridegroom bring her to a house
Where all’s accustomed, ceremonious;
For arrogance and hatred are the wares
Peddled in the thoroughfares.
How but in custom and in ceremony
Are innocence and beauty born?
Ceremony’s a name for the rich horn,
And custom for the spreading laurel tree.
為我女兒的祈禱
作者：威廉·巴特勒·葉芝［愛爾蘭］
為你讀詩：邁克爾·希金斯 | 愛爾蘭總統(tǒng)
風暴又一次咆哮抑淫；半掩
在這搖籃的篷罩和被巾下面晾匠，
我的孩子依然安睡。除去
格雷戈里的森林和一座禿丘
再沒有任何屏障足以阻擋
那起自大西洋上的掀屋大風煞躬；
我踱步祈禱已一個時辰，
因為那巨大陰影籠罩在我心上涧衙。
為這幼女我踱步祈禱了一個時辰日矫，
耳聽著海風呼嘯在高塔頂档痪，
在拱橋下字柠，在泛濫的溪水上探越，
在溪上的榆樹林中回蕩；
在快樂的迷狂中幻夢
未來的歲月已經(jīng)來到：
踏著狂亂的鼓點舞蹈窑业，
來自大海殘酷的天真钦幔。
愿她被人承認美麗，
但不至使陌生人的眼光癡迷常柄，
或使自己在鏡前心醉鲤氢，因為
一旦生得過分地艷麗，
便會把美看作是最終的滿足西潘，
從而喪失天性的善良卷玉，還可能
失去推心置腹的莫逆交情，
永遠也找不到一個朋友喷市。
海倫命定要感到生活平淡相种，
后來因一個蠢漢惹來許多麻煩，
而那從浪花中升起的偉大女王东抹，
因沒有生父而可以自做主張蚂子，
卻選中了一個瘸腿鐵匠做男人沃测。
無疑嬌貴的女人們喜歡
吃肉時佐以古怪的生菜冷盤缭黔，
豐饒角因此而被糟蹋罄盡食茎。
我要讓她首先精通禮節(jié)；
心靈不可視為天賜馏谨，而是那些
并不十分美麗的人所掙得别渔；
而許多曾為美而美的蠢貨
已經(jīng)將魅力變成了智慧，
還有不少曾經(jīng)漫游的窮漢惧互，
愛戀過并自認為曾被愛戀哎媚，
現(xiàn)在目光已離不開令人歡悅的仁愛。
愿她成為一株繁茂的綠樹喊儡，
紅雀就好象她全部的思緒拨与，
沒有勞形的事務(wù)，只是慷慨地
四處播送著它們宏亮的鳴啼艾猜，
只是在歡樂中相互嬉逐买喧，
只是在歡樂中你吵我爭。
呵匆赃，但愿她象月桂那樣長青
植根在一個可愛的永恒之處淤毛。
近來，由于我曾喜愛的那些心意
和我曾贊賞的那種美麗
皆是曇花一現(xiàn)算柳，我的心靈已枯竭低淡，
但仍知一旦為仇恨所壅塞
才定然是最可怕的厄運。
假如心靈中毫無仇恨瞬项，
那厲風的襲擊再烈再猛
也絕不能將紅雀和綠葉撕分蔗蹋。
理智的仇恨為害最甚，
因此教她把觀念視為可憎囱淋。
難道我不曾眼見那誕生
自豐饒角之口的最美麗的女人纸颜，
只因她觀念固執(zhí)的心腸，
用溫和的天性所了解的
每一種美德和那只羊角
換取了一只充滿憤怒的舊風箱绎橘？
想到此胁孙，一切仇恨被驅(qū)逐散盡，
靈魂恢復(fù)了根本的天真称鳞，
終于得知那是自娛自樂涮较，
自慰自安，自驚自嚇冈止，
它自己的美好愿望就是天意狂票；
盡管每一張面孔都會惱怒，
每一處風源都會咆哮熙暴，或每一組
風箱都會脹破闺属，但她會依然歡喜慌盯。
還愿她的新郎引她入洞房，
那里一切尋常掂器，莊重堂皇亚皂；
因為傲慢和仇恨都不過
是大路兩旁零售的雜貨。
除了在風俗和禮儀之中国瓮，
純真和美麗如何誕生灭必？
禮儀是豐饒角的別名，
風俗是繁盛的桂樹的名稱乃摹。
