What Are Years?

by Marianne Moore

瑪麗安·摩爾(Marianne Moore)，1887年11月15號出生于美國密蘇里州的柯克伍德城，美國現代派女詩人，1952年獲普利策詩歌獎，1972年2月5日去世。主要詩文 集有：《詩集》(Poems，1921年);《觀察》(Observations, 1924年);《詩歌選集》(Selected Poems, 1935年);《何謂歲月》(What Are Years,1941年);《然而》(Nevertheless, 1944年);《詩和評論集》(Poetry and Criticism,1965年);《詩歌全集》(The Complete Poems,1967年)。翻譯著作：拉封丹《寓言詩》(Fables of La Fontaine, 1954年)。

What is our innocence,

what is our guilt? All are

naked, none is safe. And whence

is courage: the unanswered question,

the resolute doubt, --

dumbly calling, deafly listening--that

in misfortune, even death,

encourages others

and in its defeat, stirs

the soul to be strong? He

sees deep and is glad, who

accedes to mortality

and in his imprisonment rises

upon himself as

the sea in a chasm, struggling to be

free and unable to be,

in its surrendering

finds its continuing.

So he who strongly feels,

behaves. The very bird,

grown taller as he sings, steels

his form straight up. Though he is captive,

his mighty singing

says, satisfaction is a lowly

thing, how pure a thing is joy.

This is mortality,

this is eternity.