北岛·《回答》及英译 Bei Dao The Answer 卑鄙是卑鄙者的通行证， Baseness is a passport for the base, 高尚是高尚者的墓志铭， Honour an epitaph for the honourable. 看吧，在那镀金的天空中， See how the gilded sky teems 飘满了死者弯曲的倒影。 With the twisted shadows of the dead. 冰川纪过去了， The ice age is over, 为什么到处都是冰凌？ So why does ice still bind the world? 好望角发现了， The Cape of Good Hope has been discovered, 为什么死海里千帆相竞？ So why is the Dead Sea still thick with sails? 我来到这个世界上， I come into this world 只带着纸、绳索和身影， Carrying only paper, rope and a shadow, 为了在审判前， To proclaim before judgment is passed 宣读那些被判决的声音。 This plea of the judged: 告诉你吧，世界 Listen to me, world, 我——不——相——信！ I—do—not—believe! 纵使你脚下有一千名挑战者， If a thousand challengers lie beneath your feet 那就把我算作第一千零一名。 Then I am number one thousand and one. 我不相信天是蓝的， I don't believe the sky is blue; 我不相信雷的回声， I don't believe the thunder's roar; 我不相信梦是假的， I don't believe that dreams are false; 我不相信死无报应。 I don't believe that death has no revenge. 如果海洋注定要决堤， If the ocean is destined to breach the dike; 就让所有的苦水都注入我心中， Then let its bitter water pour into my soul; 如果陆地注定要上升， If the land is destined to rise, 就让人类重新选择生存的峰顶。 Then let mankind choose a new mountain for survival. 新的转机和闪闪星斗， The vast unobstructed firmament 正在缀满没有遮拦的天空。 Is lit with glimmering stars; 那是五千年的象形文字， They are a new turning: 那是未来人们凝视的眼睛。 These hieroglyphs of the ages, These staring eyes of the future. 1976年4月 Apr-76 文字材料来源于网络，还没看到纸质版本，故无法提供详细出处（欢迎朋友们指正），共享。
You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth. For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life's procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite. When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison? Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune. But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth's furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born, And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life, And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life's inmost secret. But if you in your pain call birth an affliction and the support of the flesh a curse written upon your brow, then I answer that naught but the sweat of your brow shall wash away that which is written. You have been told also that life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary. And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge, And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge, And all knowledge is vain save when there is work, And all work is empty save when there is love; And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God. And what is it to work with love? It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth. It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house. It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit. It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit, And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching. Often have I heard you say, as if speaking in sleep, "He who works in marble, and finds the shape of his own soul in the stone, is nobler than he who ploughs the soil. And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man, is more than he who makes the sandals for our feet." But I say, not in sleep but in the overwakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass; And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving. Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger. And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine. And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man's ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.
大年初一带着学生出来到新西兰开会，因为有一个和奥克兰大学的合作项目，这次他们举办 AMN6 国际会议，就提前说好了来做个报告，顺便也把合作项目推进下，会议是大年初二正式开始，于是带了两个合作项目有关的学生大年初一出发，其中一个还要在这里多待上 1 个月的时间。 第一次参加这个会，没想到这个会上来了很多大腕，报告十分精彩，也就很开心了。 今天是情人节，没有国内的喧闹，会场上的讲座依旧精彩，上午第一个邀请报告是来自 IBM 的 Don Eigler ，大名鼎鼎，这次的内容 “Spin Excitation Spectroscopy” 也是这两年的经典工作，讲的很精彩，一会儿学生推我，说： “ 老师，你看怎么前面这个老先生是不是昨天做大会报告的诺贝尔奖得主霍夫曼教授？ ” 我仔细看看，前面一排正在认真听报告的那位头发稀疏的老先生可不就是霍夫曼先生吗？昨天他的讲座太精彩了，题目充满诗意“The Chemical Imagination at work in very tight space”，内容丰富，讲的非常幽默、生动，且挥洒自如，大师范儿！当时真是全场沸腾呀，我仔细听了也仔细看了，还认真上网查了他的介绍： 1981 年的诺贝尔化学奖，还是一位诗人和科普作家！他聪明绝顶又平易近人的形象已经牢牢记住了，我跟学生确认： “ 真是他！ ” 老人家桌子上还开着他的电脑，侧头听得正津津有味呢！结束的时候，我们落在后面，看到老先生一个人走到前面去了，学生想去打招呼又有些胆怯，我就带他们过去，说： “ 霍夫曼先生，您好！我是来自中国北京大学的张海霞，您昨天的报告非常精彩，大家都受益匪浅，这是我的学 .....” 老先生很高兴地与我们一一握手，还详细询问大家的研究工作以及中国的现状，原来他上次来中国已经是 30 年前了！最后，很高兴地跟我们合影，还说：今后几年会去的，是呀，一定要来呀！中国的孩子如果能听到您讲科普多好呀！还有您那些美好的诗句，会给他们多么大的激励和激发呀！ 学生们激动地离开了，也许是第一次这么近距离地接近这位经历听起来像是传奇一样的诺贝尔奖获得者，多少有些不能平静。等我坐到会场里听 Neil Ashcroft 报告的时候，发现霍夫曼先生也来了， Neil 是著名的《固体物理学》的作者，与霍夫曼先生是多年合作伙伴也是好朋友， Neil 的讲座也非常地精彩，把超导这么的话题讲得十分轻松，幽默和启发无处不在，还有诗句和名言穿插其中，等到结论的时候，总结的浅显易懂又入木三分，真是如沐春风的感觉！不仅感觉自己做一个好老师的路还很长，要进步的地方还很多很多！ 这个情人节，真是幸运呀，遇到这两位科学大师并亲自聆听到他们的精彩报告，晚上新西兰学生Tim又请我们去他家里度过了一个非常温馨的节日，不仅欣赏了新西兰的美景，也见识了新西兰的风土人情，真是一个别样的情人节，一个开心的情人节！ 分享一首霍夫曼先生的诗： THEORETICAL CHEMISTRY I would sit just there, in the quiet shade of the live oaks. It was a scholar's dream, but I, intent to find the way across the ravine, wasn't there to write poetry. You see, that thick lush growth stopped progress here, but I could spot a road gathering on the other side. That's where we had to go. I brought my field glasses, a topographic map. From above, the gully looked much like a low-growing jungle hugging the land; the cows had gotten across, I saw tracks in and tried to follow them. But it didn't work, bushes closed in, there was poison oak, vines with rows of sharp red thorns. I came back day after day, trying, tracing paths back from the other side. For I knew a pattern, the right way, had to be there. In the end I found one, but what's bothered me since is that I didn't follow the paths that are hidden there, the way I should have,but I hacked a rough piece of a new one through. The other day I met a friend who's run into the same wild terrain. Starting out from a hill nearby, he found a different way. But I told you there was only one. Tim家附近的one tree Hill 美丽新西兰 合影
标签: 诗人
