旅程指向城市时
（仿弥尔顿）
【英】鲁迪亚德·吉卜林 著
威廉·熊良銋 译
当他们吃完了酒肉，
不节制但象他这么想，
在默东开可怕玩笑，这盛宴
代表巨人高康大贪婪的典型，
以他们自己至高无上的名字，
他们在新的星空之下出发迷了路，
拐弯旋转；他们也不觉得，
在他们参加许多宴饮之后，
既非行程也非不良影响，直到霜冻
可怕地临头，受了欺骗。
这样，选择从支路捷径，
似乎是却不是一个最合理，
在最纯净的月夜撞到了墙上，
他们把赛车驱向那边，打火石
不接受发辫，它毫发无损——不是他们。
（注）弥尔顿，即约翰·弥尔顿（1608-74年），英国诗人、作家和公务员，其最有名的作品是《失乐园》和《复乐园》。
但象他，即庞大固埃，法国讽刺作家弗朗索瓦拉伯雷《巨人传》（高康大与庞大固埃）里的人名。
When the Journey Was Intended to the City
（Milton）
Written by Rudyard Kipling
Translated by William Xiong
W
hen that with meat and drink they had fulfilledNot temperately but like him conceived
In monstrous jest at Meudon, whose regale
Stands for exemplar of Gargantuan greed,
In his own name supreme, they issued forth
Beneath new firmaments and stars astray,
Circumvoluminant; nor had they felt
Neither the passage nor the sad effect
Of many cups partaken, till that frost
Wrought on them hideous, and their minds deceived.
Thus choosing from a progeny of roads,
That seemed but were not, one most reasonable,
Of purest moonlight fashioned on a wall,
Thither they urged their chariot whom that flint
But tressed received, itself unscathed — not they.
Notes: Milton, John Milton(1608-74),English poet, writer and public servant. His best-known works are Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained.
but like him, i.e. Pantagruel, in Gargantuen and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais(1494-1553), French satirist.
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