Robert Frost - Our Hold on the Planet 汉译

We asked for rain. It didn’t flash and roar.

It didn’t lose its temper at our demand

And blow a gale. It didn’t misunderstand

And give us more than our spokesman bargained for;

And just because we owned to a wish for rain,

Send us a flood and bid us be damned and drown.

It gently threw us a glittering shower down.

And when we had taken that into the roots of grain,

It threw us another and then another still,

Till the spongy soil again was natal wet.

We may doubt the just proportion of good to ill.

There is much in nature against us. But we forget;

Take nature altogether since time began,

Including human nature, in peace and war,

And it must be a little more in favor of man,

Say a fraction of one percent at the very least,

Or our number living wouldn’t be steadily more,

Our hold on the planet wouldn’t have so increased.

对这颗行星的把握

我们要求下雨。他并不电闪雷鸣。

对于我们的要求，他没有发脾气。

请他刮点风。他也不曾误解我们，

而给了我们多过那代言人的申请，

并不因为我们承认我们希望下雨，

就发洪水、诅咒我们让我们淹死。

而给了我们一场轻柔晶亮的淋浴。

当我们把那雨水引入谷物的根部，

他还会降下甘霖，一阵，又一阵

直到松软的土壤又像新生般湿润。

我们也许会怀疑好与坏不成比例。

大自然不少于人不利。我们忘记。

从远古开始，就把自然视为整体，

包括人的本性，在战时，在平时，

都一定是，偏向人类一些，至少，

比如说，哪怕是少到了百分之一，

否则我们人口就不可能稳定增长，

对这星球的把握就不会如此增强。