Prometheus
普罗米修斯
1
Titan! to whose immortal eyes
The sufferings of mortality
Seen in their sad reality,
Were not as things that gods despise;
What was thy pity's recompense?
A silent suffering, and intense;
The rock, the vulture, and the chain,
All that the proud can feel of pain,
The agony they do not show,
The suffocating.sense of woe,
Which speaks but in its loneliness,
And then is jealous lest the sky
Should have a listener, nor will sigh
Until its voice is echoless.
1
巨人!在你不朽的眼睛看来
人类所受的苦难
是种种可悲的现实,
不应该成为众神蔑视的东西;
你的悲悯得到了什么报酬?
是越烧越烈的痛苦
是岩石、饿鹰、锁链,
是高傲的人感受到的所有痛苦,
还有他们不愿表露的痛苦的挣扎,
那郁积胸中的悲伤,
只在孤独时吐露,
即便那时,也得小心,
以防天上有人偷听,更不能叹息,
除非它没有回音。
3
Thy Godlike crime was to be kind,
To render with thy precepts less
The sum of human wretchedness,
And strengthen Man with his own mind;
But baffled as thou wert from high,
Still in thy patient energy,
In the endurance, and repulse
Of thine impenetrable spirit,
Which Earth and Heaven could not convulse,
A mighty lesson we inherit:
Thou art a symbol and a sign
To mortals of their fate and force;
Like thee, Man is in part divine,
A troubled stream from a pure source;
And Man in portions can foresee
His own funereal destiny;
His wretchedness, and his resistance,
And his sad unallied existence:
To which his Spirit may oppose
Itself—and equal to all woes,
And a firm will, and a deep sense,
Which even in torture can descry
Its own concenter'd recompense,
Triumphant where it dares defy,
And making Death a Victory.
3
你神圣的罪恶是心肠太好,
你要以你的教训
减轻人类的苦难,
并且振奋起人类的精神;
尽管上天与你为敌,
但你顽强的毅力,
你那坚不可摧的灵魂,
天上和人间的暴风雨
又怎能摧毁你的坚忍和勇敢!
我们得到了一个有力的教训:
你是一个象征,一个标记,
象征着人类的命运和力量;
和你一样,人类也有神圣的一部分,
污浊的河流来自圣洁的源头;
人也能预见一部分,
自己凄惨的命运;
他的悲惨,他的坚强,
和他孤立无援的存在:
这一切反而使他振奋,
并唤起他顽抗的精神
使他与不幸相持对立,
坚定的意志,深刻的认知;
即使在痛苦中,他能看到
其中也有它凝聚的回报,
把死亡变成胜利。
2
Titan! to thee the strife was given
Between the suffering and the will,
Which torture where they cannot kill;
And the inexorable Heaven,
And the deaf tyranny of Fate,
The ruling principle of Hate.
Which for its pleasure doth create
The things it may annihilate,
Refused thee even the boon to die:
The wretched gift eternity
Was thine-and thou hast borne it well.
All that the Thunderer wrung from thee
Was but the menace which flung back
On him the torments of thy rack;
The fate thou didst so well foresee,
But would not to appease him tell;
And in thy Silence was his Sentence,
And in his Soul a vain repentance,
And evil dread so ill dissembled
That in his hand the lightnings trembled.
2
巨人!你注定要
挣扎于痛苦和意志之间,
它们虽不能将你杀死,却要折磨你;
而那无情的天堂,
那昏聩凶残的命运,
那愤恨的规则,
它为了自己取乐创造出万物,
然后又一一毁灭,
甚至不让你痛痛快快地去死;
这悲惨的永恒
是你的:而你却善于忍受。
雷神逼出了你什么?
除了你给他的一句诅咒:
你所承受的折磨也会降临在他的身上。
你能够准确预知未来的命运,
却不肯说出以求和解;
你的沉默促成了他的判决,
他的灵魂只剩下徒劳地悔恨:
邪恶的恐惧已无法掩饰,
他手中的闪电正在颤抖。