John Crowe Ransom - Blue Girls 汉译

Under the towers of your seminary,

Go listen to your teachers old and contrary

Without believing a word.

Tie the white fillets then about your hair

And think no more of what will come to pass

Than bluebirds that go walking on the grass

And chattering on the air.

Practice your beauty, blue girls, before it fail;

And I will cry with my loud lips and publish

Beauty which all our power shall never establish,

It is so frail.

For I could tell you a story which is true;

I know a lady with a terrible tongue,

Blear eyes fallen from blue,

All her perfections tarnished—yet it is not long

Since she was lovelier than any of you.

蓝灰姑娘们

约翰·克罗·兰瑟姆

在你们女校的这些高房子之下，

旋转起你们的蓝裙子，穿过草地——

任教师是老是少，听不进一个字，

但你们还是去听课吧。

随即用一条白头带把头发一扎，

将来会发生什么事就不要去想，

只想幸福的青鸟在草地上来往

又在半空中叽叽喳喳。

在美衰退前，快运用你们的美吧；

蓝衣姑娘们，我要用我响亮的嘴

来宣扬我们无力使之常驻的美，

它真是太脆弱啦。

因为我能够告诉你们真事一件：

我认识一位嘴令人敬畏的女士，

昏花的眼丧失了蔚蓝，

她全部的美已失去光彩，但是，

不久前她比你们哪一位都鲜艳。