Meditation on a Bone
A.D. Hope
A piece of bone, found at Trondhjem in 1901, with the
following runic inscription (about AD 1050) cut on it:
I loved her as a maiden; I will not trouble Erlend’s
detestable wife; better she should be a widow.
Words scored upon a bone,
Scratched in despair or rage –
Nine hundred years have gone;
Now, in another age,
They burn with passion on
A scholar’s tranquil page.
The scholar takes his pen
And turns the bone about,
And writes those words again.
Once more they seethe and shout,
And through a human brain
Undying hate rings out.
‘I loved her when a maid;
I loathe and love the wife
That warms another’s bed:
Let him beware his life!’
The scholar’s hand is stayed;
His pen becomes a knife
To grave in living bone
The fierce archaic cry.
He sits and reads his own
Dull sum of misery.
A thousand years have flown
Before that ink is dry.
And, in a foreign tongue,
A man, who is not he,
Reads and his heart is wrung
This ancient grief to see,
And thinks: When I am dung,
What bone shall speak for me?
对骨头的沉思
A.D. 霍普
1901年在特隆赫姆发现的一截骨头，其上用北欧文字刻写（约于公元1050年）：
“我爱她少女时；我不会和厄伦德
可憎的妻子过不去；她最好变成寡妇。”
字刻在骨头，
在绝望或暴怒中抓狂。——
九百年过去；
现在，另一年，
它们激燃在
学者平静的书页。
学者拿笔
反复掂量这块骨头，
又一次写下那些字。
又一次它们闹腾并且叫喊，
从人类的头脑
不死的仇恨铃铛一样震荡出来。
‘我爱她少女时；
我憎爱那个妻子
温暖别人的床：
他可要小心生命！’
学者的手停下；
他的笔变成了刀子
在活着的骨头上镌刻
这残酷的古老的叫喊。
坐下并读他自己
阴暗的惨痛。
一千年过去
墨迹未干。
并且，用外国腔，
一个人，不是他，
读并心绞痛
看到这古旧的悲伤，
并且想：当我已为粪土，
骨头会为我镌刻说什么话？
来源链接
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_49d9930201000569.html
