葉慈的一首憂憤詩

ALL THINGS CAN TEMPT ME

ALL things can tempt me from this craft of verse:
One time it was a woman's face, or worse --
The seeming needs of my fool-driven land;
Now nothing but comes readier to the hand
Than this accustomed toil. When I was young,
I had not given a penny for a song
Did not the poet Sing it with such airs
That one believed he had a sword upstairs;
Yet would be now, could I but have my wish,
Colder and dumber and deafer than a fish.
凡事皆能令我疏於琢詩，
一度是女子美貌，或更下之，
吾蠢漢驅策祖國之假需。
如今再無比此習慣苦劬，
更親我手之事。當吾年少，
吾未嘗予歌者一文以犒，
除非那詩人慨歌之氣焰，
足讓人信其樓上有把劍，
今吾只願-----倘吾願得從----
比條魚更冷淡、喑啞、耳聾。

這是葉慈在20世紀初，因厭倦其祖國愛爾蘭無解之政治惡鬥後，憤而寫下的一首詩。前陣子讀後，心頗戚戚。但願我能在變得「比魚更冷淡、喑啞、耳聾」之前，為我的「為蠢漢所驅策之祖國」做點事吧。