Cyprian
- Cyprian—
- I live in this lake-girt tropic island
- Never a human eye has seen it
- Never a boat has touched its magic strand.
- Long centuries ago I pitied man
- And passed o’er the world a spirit of unrest
- And rebellion ’gainst the race of sleeping gods,
- But men were mad and thought that they were blest
- Misery was but a toll for living
- That Olympian Zeus was good and slept
- That the devil of the robber nation
- Was good though they for all ages wept.
- Yet though I am cursed with immortality
- I was molden with a human nature.
- With the centuries old age came on me
- And weary of flying from the wrath of nations
- I long since crossed the mountains
- Seeking some peace from the world’s throbbing
- And sought out a little plaining fountain
- Blaming because no nymph had decked his valley.
- And then I spoke a word to it, a word of might,
- And it heard the oreads’ language
- It spread a lake of glittering light.
- Then once more I spoke that tongue
- And there rose a stately island
- Bright with the radiance of its flowers
- And I stood upon its dry stream.
居普良
- 居普良——
- 我在这湖水环绕的热带岛上住，
- 从来没有人看见过这座岛屿，
- 从来没有船接触过它魔幻的滩涂。
- 久远的世纪以前我怜悯人类，
- 给尘世派去一个不安的精神
- 和一场对抗沉睡神族的反叛，
- 但人们疯了，以为他们有福分，
- 苦难不过是为生活缴纳的税款，
- 奥林匹亚的宙斯仁慈且酣眠，
- 强盗国家的魔鬼心地善良，
- 尽管他们已经哭泣了千百年。
- 虽然我遭受诅咒求死不得，
- 但是我体内糅合着人类天性。
- 千百年过去，衰老降临我身上；
- 厌倦了逃避万国的忿怒暴行，
- 我很久以前就已越过群山，
- 寻求安宁，以躲避尘世的喧嚣，
- 找到了一处喋喋抱怨的泉眼，
- 它抱怨是因为无女仙装点山涧。
- 于是我对它说了句有力的话，
- 它就听到了山林女仙的语言，
- 涌流汇聚成一片闪光的水洼。
- 然后我再度说出那种语言，
- 那里就升起一座庄严的岛屿，
- 岛上鲜花烂漫光景明媚；
- 我伫立在岛上干涸的泉流之上。
傅浩 译
附
girt: past participle of gird, surround; encircle.
blest: blessed.
they: 指"But men were mad and thought that they were blest"中的men.
stately: having a dignified, unhurried, and grand manner; majestic in manner and appearance.
维护者注——
据理查德·埃尔曼说，叶芝写此诗时年十八岁（《叶芝：其人其面具》，麦克米伦，1948年，页31）。手稿上标明“第一场”，表明这是一部诗剧中的一段独白。发言者居普良可能是个虚构人物，因为历史和传说中诸多同名者的事迹都与此处的描写不符。
宙斯：古希腊神话中的主神，居于奥林匹斯山上。
强盗国家：也许暗指英国，其在爱尔兰殖民统治长达七百年之久。
叶芝诗集（增订本） 2018 ——
Cyprian’s monologue exemplifies well Yeats’s early interest in dramatic poetry. Although the manuscript labels this speech “Scene 1” and identifies Cyprian as speaker, the rest of the play is not known and may never have existed, with the monologue being a free-standing poem in its own right. Its themes of rebellion, isolation, and the lake-girt island all reflect Yeats’s early interest in Shelley, while the use of classical mythology is typical of his poetry before he met John O’Leary in 1885. In Yeats: The Man and the Masks (New York: Norton, reprinted 1979), p. 32, Richard Ellmann says that Yeats wrote these lines “in the middle of his eighteenth year.”
Zeus: Zeus was chief of the Greek gods, who dwelled on Mount Olympus.
robber nation: Although the poem is set in Classical times, the account of the “robber nation” causing men to weep for ages may suggest England in its relation to Ireland.
oreads: In Greek mythology, oreads were nymphs associated with mountains and caves.
George Bornstein—