(Ink painting by Chinghuey Tiao 刁卿蕙)
《The Tyger》《老虎》
William Blake (1757-1827)
刁卿蕙 譯
Tyger, Tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
老虎, 老虎, 熾然燐燐
在夜晚的森林,
何等不朽之手或眼
才敢擬汝凜凜之勻妍?
Burnt in distant deeps or skies
The cruel fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
灼燒在遙遠深邃或蒼穹中
可是汝眼冷酷之火種?
乘了何翼令他膽敢高聳?
何等的手竟敢擒祝融?
And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat
What dread hand and what dread feet
何種肩胛,何種技藝
方能扭轉汝心之精力?
當汝心開始擊鼓
多可怕的手,多可怕的足
Could fetch it from the furnace deep
And in thy horrid ribs dare steep
In the well of sanguine woe?
In what clay and in what mould
Were thy eyes of fury roll’d?
能將它自熔爐深處攫出
又膽敢將汝駭人之肋骨
浸濡了井中之血苦?
何種黏土,何種模
壓成了汝憤怒之眼目?
Where the hammer? Where the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
何處槌?何處鏈?
來將汝腦鍛煉?
何種鐵砧?何種可怕抓撓
激發牠致命恐怖的扣抱?
When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears
Dare he laugh his work to see?
Dare he who made the lamb make thee?
當群星擲下其矛弋
澆灑天堂以淚滴
他可敢笑看他的努力?
造了羔羊的他可敢造你?
Tyger, Tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
老虎,老虎,熾然燐燐
在夜晚的森林,
何等不朽之手或眼
才敢擬汝凜凜之勻妍?