64. To Minnie 致明妮

TO MINNIE

    The red room with the giant bed

    Where none but elders laid their head;

    The little room where you and I

    Did for awhile together lie

    And, simple suitor, I your hand

    In decent marriage did demand;

    The great day nursery, best of all,

    With pictures pasted on the wall

    And leaves upon the blind

    A pleasant room wherein to wake

    And hear the leafy garden shake

    And rustle in the wind--

    And pleasant there to lie in bed

    And see the pictures overhead--

    The wars about Sebastopol,

    The grinning guns along the wall,

    The daring escalade,

    The plunging ships, the bleating sheep,

    The happy children ankle-deep

    And laughing as they wade;

    All these are vanished clean away,

    And the old manse is changed to-day;

    It wears an altered face

    And shields a stranger race.

    The river, on from mill to mill,

    Flows past our childhood's garden still;

    But ah! we children never more

    Shall watch it from the water-door.

    Below the yew--it still is there--

    Our phantom voices haunt the air

    As we were still at play,

    And I can hear them call and say:

    "_How far is it to Babylon?_"

    Ah, far enough, my dear,

    Far, far enough from here--

    Yet you have farther gone!

    "_Can I get there by candlelight?_"

    So goes the old refrain.

    I do not know--perchance you might--

    But only, children, hear it right,

    Ah, never to return again!

    The eternal dawn, beyond a doubt,

    Shall break on hill and plain,

    And put all stars and candles out

    Erewe be young again.

    To you in distant India, these

    I send across the seas,

    Nor count it far across.

    For which of us forgets

    The Indian cabinets,

    The bones of antelope, the wings ofalbatross,

    The pied and painted birds and beans,

    The junks and bangles, beads and screens,

    The gods and sacred bells,

    And the loud-humming, twisting shells!

    The level of the parlour floor

    Was honest, homely, Scottish shore;

    But when we climbed upon a chair,

    Behold the gorgeous East was there!

    Be this a fable; and behold

    Me in the parlour as of old,

    And Minnie just above me set

    In the quaint Indian cabinet!

    Smiling and kind, you grace a shelf

    Too high for me to reach myself.

    Reach down a hand, my dear, and take

    These rhymes for old acquaintance' sake!

致明妮

红房间，大大的床，
只有大人在里面躺，
你和我，小小的房，
一起来玩耍一起躺，
我牵着你手把婚求，
照足简单婚礼仪式。
托儿所里的幸福时光，
多彩图画贴满墙壁，
窗外枝叶往屋里挤——
房里醒来，心情舒畅，
听到花园树木摇，
风中沙沙发出声响——

我躺在床上乐开怀，
看头顶图画铺展开——
塞巴斯托波战争就在眼前，
咧嘴大炮在城墙下并列排，
勇士们爬着云梯翻入城墙，
战船在前行，羊咩咩叫，
快乐孩童在脚踝深的小溪
涉水而过，乐呵呵地在笑。

如今一切均已消失不见，
牧师的房有了不少改变，
它完全换了另一副模样，
守护着另一户陌生人家。
那条河仍旧流淌过磨坊，
如同旧日流过花园，我们身旁。

但是！我们这群孩子再也不能

在闸口看水花奔腾！
紫衫树下——那棵紫衫树还在——

我们鬼魅的声音仍在空中萦绕，

仿佛我们仍在那玩耍，
我能听到他们在叫喊：
“到古巴比伦还有多远？”

啊，远着呢，亲爱的，

离这里还很远，很远——

是的，你已走了很远！

“我可以举着蜡烛去那里？”

重复着我们的老调子。

我不知道——或许可以——

但，孩子们，听着，
一旦去了就再回不来！
不朽的黎明，毫无疑问，
会继续照亮山川和平原，
拂灭满天星光烛光点点，
在我们再次变年轻之前。
我漂过大洋，跨过大海，

把这送给远在印度的你，
可不管路途有多么遥远，
我们俩都不可能忘记
那来自印度的贮藏柜，
羚羊的骨，信天翁的翅，
色彩斑斓的小鸟和豆子，
小船和手镯，珠子和屏风，
众神的雕像，神圣的大钟，
还有海螺发出深沉的嗡嗡！

客厅的地面平平坦坦，
是温馨的苏格兰海岸，
当我们爬上椅子眺望，
就可看到绚丽的东方！
这也算是天方夜谭吧，
我在客厅跟从前一样，
而明妮在印度柜子中，
在我的上方注视着我！
你友善地笑着，散发光辉，
而我只能仰望，却够不到。
伸出你的手，亲爱的明妮，
收下老朋友带来的诗集！