For Lincoln MacVeagh

Never tell me that not one star of all
That slip from heaven at night and softly fall
Has been picked up with stones to build a wall.

永遠不要告訴我沒有一顆星星
那夜從天而降，悄悄地墜落
已在一堆石頭中被撿去砌成一堵牆。

Some laborer found one faded and stone-cold,
And saving that its weight suggested gold
And tugged it from his first too certain hold,

某個工人發現了一個褪色的、冷冰如石的東西，
由於它的重量暗示是黃金因是保留下來
一開始他就非常確定地把它拽出來

He noticed nothing in it to remark.
He was not used to handling stars thrown dark
And lifeless from an interrupted arc.

他注意到其中沒有什麼特別之處。
他不習慣處理被拋出黑暗的星星
它因弧光的磨損而死氣沉沉。

He did not recognize in that smooth coal
The one thing palpable besides the soul
To penetrate the air in which we roll.

他沒有認出那光滑的煤
惟一可感知的是除了靈魂之外
穿透我們的滾動的空氣。

He did not see how like a flying thing
It brooded ant eggs, and bad one large wing,
One not so large for flying in a ring,

他沒有看出它像是個飛行器
它孵出螞蟻蛋，還有一個大翅膀，
一個不怎麼大的為適合環繞飛行，

And a long Bird of Paradises tail
(Though these when not in use to fly and trail
It drew back in its body like a snail);

還有天堂鳥的長尾巴
（雖然這些不用於飛行和跟踪
它縮回身體像一隻蝸牛）；

Nor know that be might move it from the spot—
The harm was done: from having been star-shot
The very nature of the soil was hot

也不知道把它從現場移開可能——
已經造成傷害：曾經是顆明星
土壤的本質是炙熱的

(以上幾段，敘述著那名工人是如何的不識明星。當他明白它不是黃金後的漠視。He noticed nothing 、He did not recognize 、He did not see、 Nor know等否定句在在說明工人的不識貨。)

And burning to yield flowers instead of grain,
Flowers fanned and not put out by all the rain
Poured on them by his prayers prayed in vain.

燃燒產生花朵而不是穀物，
花朵被搧動，卻沒有被所有的雨澆滅
他的祈禱傾注在它們身上，但祈禱是徒勞的。

He moved it roughly with an iron bar,
He loaded an old stoneboat with the star
And not, as you might think, a flying car,

他用一根鐵棍粗暴地移動它，
他用一艘舊石船裝載了那顆星星
而不是，如你所想，一輛會飛的車，

Such as even poets would admit perforce
More practical than Pegasus the horse
If it could put a star back in its course.

就連詩人也會不得不承認的那樣
比飛馬座的馬更實用
如果它能讓一顆明星回到原來的軌道。

He dragged it through the plowed ground at a pace
But faintly reminiscent of the race
Of jostling rock in interstellar space.

他以一定的速度拖著它穿過犁過的土地
卻隱隱約約地回憶起奔馳的感覺
在星際間碰撞的岩石。

It went for building stone, and I, as though
Commanded in a dream, forever go
To right the wrong that this should have been so.

它成了建造石材，而我，好像
夢中被吩咐，要永遠去
糾正錯誤，一切應該是這樣的。

Yet ask where else it could have gone as well,
I do not know—I cannot stop to tell:
He might have left it lying where it fell.

然而問它還能去哪裡，
我不知道——我無法停下來告訴你:
他也許該把它留在它墜落的地方。

From following walls I never lift my eye,
Except at night to places in the sky
Where showers of charted meteors let fly.

跟隨牆壁，我從不轉移視線，
除非晚上天空中
乘著包車的流星雨放飛的地方。

Some may know what they seek in school and church,
And why they seek it there; for what I search
I must go measuring stone walls, perch on perch;

有些人可能知道他們在學校和教堂尋求什麼，
以及為什麼他們所尋找的在那裡； 我所搜索的是
我必須去測量石牆，棲息在高處；

Sure that though not a star of death and birth,
So not to be compared, perhaps, in worth
To such resorts of life as Mars and Earth—

當然，雖然不是生與死之星，
因此不能被比較，也許，在價值方面
前往火星和地球這樣的生命勝地——

Though not, I say, a star of death and sin,
It yet has poles, and only needs a spin
To show its worldly nature and begin

我說，雖然不是死亡和罪惡之星，
它還有兩極，只需要旋轉
展示它世界的本質並開始

To chafe and shuffle in my calloused palm
And run off in strange tangents with my arm,
As fish do with the line in first alarm.

在我長滿老繭的手掌中摩擦和抽洗
在奇怪的切線中從我的的手臂逃脫，
就像魚在第一次警報時對釣線所做的那樣。

Such as it is, it promises the prize
Of the one world complete in any size
That I am like to compass, fool or wise.

就這樣，它承諾了獎品
任何大小的一個完整的世界
我喜歡被了解，不管是愚笨或聰明。

Translated by Ying Fu 20220520 3:06pm