The Pathway

  • Archangels were I God should go
  •  Unhook the stars out of the sky
  •  And in a sudden hurry fly
  • And spread them in a shining row—
  • A shining pathway as were meet.
  •  I had alone my life for thee;
  •  Tread gently tread most tenderly
  • My life is under thy sad feet.
August 5th
1891

路径

  • 我若是上帝,大天使就该去
  •  把星星都从天空中摘下来,
  •  忽然间又都急匆匆飞起来,
  • 把它们散布成闪亮的一溜——
  • 一条恰恰好闪亮的路径。
  •  我只有生命可以献给你;
  •  轻轻地踩啊,最轻柔地踩,
  • 你悲伤的脚下是我的生命。
1891年
8月5日

傅浩 译

In The Rosy Cross manuscript album (see above, poem 31) this poem follows immediately after “To a Sister of the Cross and the Rose” and, like that lyric, combines erotic and esoteric meanings. A very similar version called “Your Pathway” appears in the Flame of the Spirit manuscript collection as well, where it is dated July 5, 1891. In The Rosy Cross, Yeats crossed out “July” and substituted “August.”

George Bornstein—