【班門弄斧、越俎代庖】William Barnes《A Winter Night》試譯

《A Winter Night》

It was a chilly winter’s night;

And frost was glitt’ring on the ground,

And evening stars were twinkling bright;

And from the gloomy plain around

Came no sound,

But where, within the wood-girt tow’r,

The church bell slowly struck the hour;

As if that all of human birth 

Had risen to the final day,

And soaring from the wornout earth

Were called in hurry and dismay,

Far away;

And I alone of all mankind

Were left in loneliness behind.

《一個冬天晚上》

這是一個寒冷冬天的晚上；

雪霜在地上閃亮，

暮星明亮地閃爍，

周遭黯鬱的曠野

一聲不響，

但重林圍繞的塔裡

教堂鐘聲卻緩緩地報時敲響，

彷彿整個人類的誕生

都是起來趕赴這末日，

而從這磨蝕不堪的大地躍起

是受到召喚─於匆忙與絕望，

來自遠方；

而整個人類當中唯有我

被獨自遺棄於寂寞