布瑞頓：水手比利巴德
Britten: Billy Budd (Prologue)

【序 --- 船長威爾的獨白】

白髮蒼蒼，見識大風大浪。
生龍活虎於過往，為陛下為國家，征戰海洋。
閱讀諸子思想，琢磨細細思量，
永恆真理，鍥而不捨探訪！
太多的善與惡，示現種種跡象：
世間沒有毫無瑕疵的善良。
總有缺陷不足，不完美神的形像，
天使歌唱有時錯，神諭有時不流暢。
所以人活世上，都有邪惡要扛！

曾經犯下何罪？迷惘，太多迷惘！
我曾率領，指引正確方向，
獨自卻迷航，無盡汪洋！
當年有誰賜恩典？當年有誰救償？
1797年夏，對戰法藍西，諾爾兵變這場，
是我愛德華•威爾，面對艱苦風霜，
統率船艦這艘，名為「寧死誓不降」！
是我愛德華•威爾，統率「寧死誓不降」！

VERE 

I am an old man who has experienced much. I have been a man of action and have fought for my King and country at sea. I have also read books and studied and pondered and tried to fathom eternal truth. Much good has been shown me and much evil, and the good has never been perfect. There is always some flaw in it, some defect, some imperfection in the divine image, some fault in the angelic song, some stammer in the divine speech. So that the evil still has something to do with every human consignment to this planet of earth.

Oh what have I done? Confusion, so much is confusion! I have tried to guide other rightly, but I have been lost in the infinite sea. Who was blessed me? Who saved me? In the summer of seventy-hundred ninety-seven, in the French wars, in the difficult and dangerous days after the Mutiny at the Nore, in the days when I, Edward Fairfax Vere, commanded the "Indomitable". I, Edward Fairfax Vere, commanded the "Indomitable".