黑鳥在唱, 天空晴朗潔淨;
我們在路上飛馳, 連脊椎也拐彎了
路在蜿蜒, 如蛇委婉的腰肢
穿越夏天濃綠的靜穆交響樂。
驀然霍多河赫然呈現 – 一臉憂傷
沒有雲彩為它抹上色彩, 沒有微風勾勒它的輪廓;
黝黑沉悶的大玻璃, 沒有任何
生命或死亡的徵兆, 在兩沙岬中流淌。
在煙霧中天空河面混沌一色
堡壘幽魂般逼近, 護航艦的船桅
模糊的黑影投射在閃爍的微光中:
我們感受到陰暗奇特的流年, 灰暗詭譎的天氣,
安靜而怪異的土地, 它不會為太陽或星星而憂傷,
在這裡, 蘭斯洛在薄霧中騎著馬叮噹而過。

註: 霍多河是蘇格蘭的一條河; 蘭斯洛是圓桌武士之一。
譯者按: 只有去過蘇格蘭的人, 才明白那裡的山水是何其沉鬱。

2005/5/6

原文
At Queensferry
To W. G.S.

The blackbird sang, the skies were clear and clean;
We bowled along a road that curved a spine
Superbly sinuous and serpentine
Through silent symphonies of summer green.
Sudden the Forth came on us --- sad of mien,
No cloud to color it, no breeze to line:
A sheet of dark, dull glass, without a sign
Of life or death, two spits of sand between.
Water and sky merged blank in mist together,
The Fort loomed spectral, and the Guardship’s spars
Traced vague, black shadows on the shimmery glaze:
We felt the dim, strange years, the gray, strange weather,
The still, strange land, unvexed of sun or stars,
Where Lancelot rides clanking through the haze.

William Ernest Henley