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以下内容不传播任何观点，仅用于英语学习

Little Gidding

《小吉丁》

—— by W.H. AudenI

Midwinter spring is its own season

仲冬的春天是它自己的季节

Sempiternal though sodden towards sundown,

一直光辉灿烂，虽日落时才露倦容，

Suspended in time, between pole and tropic.

它停在时间之内，处在极地与回归线之间。

When the short day is brightest, with frost and fire,

当短暂的白天由于霜与火而变得最明亮时

The brief sun flames the ice, on pond and ditches,

匆匆来去的太阳点燃池塘和水渠里的冰，

In windless cold that is the heart's heat,

在无风的寒冷（那是心之热）中，

Reflecting in a watery mirror

在一面似水的镜子里

A glare that is blindness in the early afternoon.

映照出一道晌午时耀眼的亮光。

And glow more intense than blaze of branch, or brazier,

比树枝上或火盆里的火更烈的光焰

Stirs the dumb spirit: no wind, but pentecostal fire

振作麻木不仁的精神：没有风，只有

In the dark time of the year. Between melting and freezing

一年里黑暗时节中的五旬节之火。在融化与结冰之间

The soul's sap quivers. There is no earth smell

灵魂的活力在颤动。

Or smell of living thing. This is the spring time

没有大地或生物的气息。这是春天

But not in time's covenant. Now the hedgerow

而并不受时间的誓约。

Is blanched for an hour with transitory blossom

树篱因为雪花暂时开放一身披白，

Of snow, a bloom more sudden

这是比夏花更突然的绽放，

Than that of summer, neither budding nor fading,

既无满枝蓓蕾也无凋零枯萎，

Not in the scheme of generation.

不在繁衍生息的计划之内。

Where is the summer, the unimaginable Zero summer?

夏天在哪里呀？这不可想象的零夏？

If you came this way,

倘若你这样来，

Taking the route you would be likely to take

选择你可能选择的路线

From the place you would be likely to come from,

从你可能来的那个地方来，

If you came this way in may time, you would find the hedges

如果你在山楂花开的季节来，

White again, in May, with voluptuary sweetness.

你会发现五月里白色的山楂花又盛开，

It would be the same at the end of the journey,

浓郁的芬芳里带着甜味。

If you came at night like a broken king,

如果你像一位落荒的国王夜里来，

If you came by day not knowing what you came for,

到旅途的终点都一样，

It would be the same, when you leave the rough road

如果你在白天漫无目的而来，当你离开那崎岖的小路，

And turn behind the pig-sty to the dull facade

从肮脏破败的屋子后面，转向

And the tombstone. And what you thought you came for

灰暗的宅子正面和墓碑时，还是一个样。

Is only a shell, a husk of meaning

你原先的来意现在看来仅仅包在壳体里，

From which the purpose breaks only when it is fulfilled

只有在目的实现时（如果能实现的话），

If at all. Either you had no purpose

你的目的才显露。你不是来无目的

Or the purpose is beyond the end you figured

就是你的目的超过了你预期的终点，

And is altered in fulfilment. There are other places

而且在实现的过程中已经改变。

Which also are the world's end, some at the sea jaws,

还有一些地方也是世界的终点。有的在汹涌的波涛间

Or over a dark lake, in a desert or a city--

或在深蓝的湖面上，有的在沙漠中或城市里——

But this is the nearest, in place and time,

然而在地点和时间上，这里倒是最近的地方，

Now and in England.

此时，此地英格兰。