Francis Bacon - Life 汉译

The World’s a bubble, and the Life of Man<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Less than a span:

In his conception wretched, from the womb

So to the tomb;

Curst from the cradle, and brought up to years

With cares and fears.

Who then to frail mortality shall trust,

But limns the water, or but writes in dust.

 

Yet since with sorrow here we live opprest,

What life is best?

Courts are but only superficial schools

To dandle fools:

The rural parts are turn’d into a den

Of savage men;

And where’s a city from all vice so free,

But may be term’d the worst of all the three?

 

Domestic cares afflict the husband’s bed,

Or pains his head;

Those that live single, take it for a curse,

Or do things worse;

Some would have children: those that have them moan

Or wish them gone；

 

What is it, then, to have, or have no wife,

But single thraldom, or d double strife?

Our own affections still at home to please

Is a disease:

To cross the sea to any foreign soil,

Perils and toil:

Wars with their noise affright us; when they cease,

We are worse in peace;—

What then remains, but that we still should cry

Not to be born, or, being born, to die?

 

 

尘世

培根

 

尘世是泡沫，人生世上，

促不长；   

成胎多苦难，从母怀里

一直到死；  

幼小不幸，长大成人后，   

多忧多愁。  

脆弱的众生怎堪信赖？   

是水面涂绘，沙上题写。

 

既然人世充满了忧郁，   

乐土何处？   

宫廷是表面学堂，   

专供玩弄优孟；   

乡村成了这样的地区，   

蛮荒所居；   

有哪个城市，百弊缺少，   

不比宫廷、乡村更糟糕？

 

家累使丈夫睡梦不稳，    

或是头疼；   

独身汉把独身当灾难，   

或更难堪；   

想有儿女，有了又悲叹，   

自添麻烦；  

 

究竟讨老婆，还是不讨，    

是鳏居还是一对争吵？    

闭门不出，以身娱为务，   

不免谬误；

跨海飘洋到他国国土，    

既险又苦；  

战争喧嚣可怖，逢太平

更欠安宁；  

对于生，既生又要死亡，    

到头来有谁难免悲伤？