The Poet And The Bird

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

翻譯：潘學峰

有一人對一詩人說：“立即從我們當中滾出去！

每當我們在思考地上事，你都高唱神性。

即使站在門樓上的那隻褐色小夜鶯的叫，

都比你所有的歌曲悅耳動聽”

詩人走了，出去哭！---夜鶯也停止吟誦;

“現在，為什麼？奧！你這夜鶯，難道這就是你所有的甜蜜？”

我不會唱我地上的事，只想做詩聖，

讓那頂級和諧也包涵着陽光下的最低等。”

詩人走了，出去哭，---最終死在外，---

伴隨一片慟哭聲，鳥兒飛向墓冢，以死殉他情，---

當我上次來這時，我發誓，聽到了歌聲

那只是死去詩人的歌，而不是夜鶯的叫聲。

Said a people to a poet---" Go out from among us straightway!

While we are thinking earthly things, thou singest of divine.

There's a little fair brown nightingale, who, sitting in the gateways

Makes fitter music to our ears than any song of thine!"

The poet went out weeping---the nightingale ceased chanting;

"Now, wherefore, O thou nightingale, is all thy sweetness done?"

I cannot sing my earthly things, the heavenly poet wanting,

Whose highest harmony includes the lowest under sun."

The poet went out weeping,---and died abroad, bereft there---

The bird flew to his grave and died, amid a thousand wails:---

And, when I last came by the place, I swear the music left there

Was only of the poet's song, and not the nightingale's.

其實，即使布朗寧對這個問題也是閃爍其詞，她也明知道寫詩歌沒有什麼現實的“功用”！只是，對人靈性的一種主張和宣示。

所以，比較功力的說，藝術確實在我們的現實生活里找不到什麼實實在在的應用價值！

但是，即使如此，藝術對靈性的主張、宣示和推崇卻極大地放大了人的靈性的價值，而這卻可以增益人們的智慧！