母亲的儿子
【英】鲁迪亚德·吉卜林 著
威廉·熊良銋 译
我做了个梦——可怕的梦——
这个梦永无休止,
我见到一个人精神已失常,
他却是我母亲的儿子。
他们把他送进精神病院,
那简直是一座坟墓:
他们不让你睡在楼上,
也不允许你刮胡须。
不是疾病也不是犯罪
使他沦落到了这里,
而是因为我母亲的儿子
承受了常人担不起的压力。
充满吵闹,对死的恐惧,
无眠,伤痛,寒冷,
他们向我母亲儿子的杯中
灌进了它容不下的折腾。
他们摧残他的身心,
却又要他忍辱偷生,
他们还向我母亲的儿子
索要常人付不起的捐赠。
就因为他还没有死,
没有出院,也没有病,
他们对我母亲的儿子
久拖慢磨,使他不得安宁……
没人知道他何时能康复——
所以他要只能呆在那里:
尽管戴有眼镜留有胡子,
我明白那人正是我自己!
The Mother's Son
(‘Fairy-kist’)
Written by Rudyard Kipling
Translated by William Xiong
I have a dream - a dreadful dream-
A dream that is never done,
I watch a man go out of his mind,
And he is My Mother's Son.
They pushed him into a Mental Home,
And that is like the grave:
For they do not let you sleep upstairs,
And you're not allowed to shave.
And it was not disease or crime
Which got him landed there,
But because They laid on My Mother's Son
More than a man could bear.
What with noise, and fear of death,
Waking, and wounds and cold,
They filled the Cup for My Mother's Son
Fuller than it could hold.
They broke his body and his mind
And yet They made him live,
And They asked more of My Mother's Son
Than any man could give.
For, just because he had not died,
Nor been discharged nor sick,
They dragged it out with My Mother's Son
Longer than he could stick....
And no one knows when he'll get well-
So, there he'll have to be:
And, 'spite of the beard in the looking-glass,
I know that man is me!
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