第二次降临 | 叶芝

旋转旋转，在扩大的漩涡中，

猎鹰不再听从驯鹰者；

万物四散，中心无法维持；

唯有混乱弥漫世间，

暗红的潮流奔涌，每一处

天真的典礼都被淹没；

最好的人缺乏信念，最坏的人

充满极度的狂热。

当然某种启示即将到来；

当然第二次降临即将到来；

第二次降临！这几个词刚说出口，

来自“世界之灵”的巨大图像

便扰乱了我的视线：沙漠中的某处，

一个狮身人头的形体，

凝视如太阳般空洞无情，

正缓慢地拖着腿，而在它四周

沙漠上愤怒的鸟群投下圈圈阴影。

黑暗再次落下；但我现在知道

坚实沉睡着的二十世纪

在摇晃的发源地旁被扰成了噩梦，

何种粗野的巨兽，它的时刻最终来临，

笨拙地朝着伯利恒去投生？

——[爱尔兰] W.B. 叶芝

The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The bset lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles may sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thigns, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Written on November 27th, 2022 by Sherry