Ode to Heaven

Ode to Heaven

Palace-roof of cloudless nights,
Paradise of golden lights,
Deep, Immeasurable, Vast,
Which art mnow, and which wert then;
Of the present and the past,
Of the eternal Where and When,
Presence chamber, Temple, Home,
Ever-canopying Dome
Of acts and ages yet to come!

Glorious shapes have life in thee--
Earth and all Earth's company,
Living globes which ever throng
Thy deep chasms and wildernesses,
And green worlds that glide along,
And swift stars with flashing tresses,
And icy moons most cold and bright,
And mighty suns, beyond the Night,
Atoms[1] of intensest light!

Even thy name is as a God,
Heaven! for thou art the abode
Of that Power which is the glass
Wherein man his nature sees;--
Generations as they pass
Worship thee with bended knees--
Their unremaining Gods and they
Like a river roll away--
Thou remainest such-- always!--

Thou art but the Mind's first chamber,
Round which its young fancies[2] clamber
Like weak insects in a cave
Lighted up by stalacties;
But the portal of the grave,
Where a world of new delights
Will make thy best glories seem
But a dim and noonday gleam
From the shadow of a dream

Peace! the abyss is wreathed with scorn
At your presumption, Atom-- born![3]
What is Heaven? and what are ye
Who its belief expanse inherit?
What are suns and spheres which flee
With the instinct of that spirit
Of which ye are but a part?
Drops which Nature's mighty heart
Drives through thinnest veins. Depart!

What is Heaven? a globe of dew
Filling in the morning new
Some eyed flower[5] whose young leaves waken
On an unimagined world.
Constellated suns unshaken,
Orbits measureless, are furled
In that frail and fading sphere
With ten millon gathered there
To tremble, gleam, and disappear!--


Appendix:
[1] The smallest conceivable portions or fragments of anything.
[2] Fantasies
[3] Born of one of the dust particles rendered visible by light, a mote in a sunbeam.
[4] Probably a flower such as the daisy or the cosmos.
[5] In lines 45-54 the entire visible universe is seen as a microcosm existing as a tiny part of a dewdrop in an infinitely bigger universe.

我的译文:

天堂颂

无云的夜空在穹顶盘旋
散发着金色光芒的宫殿
像一个巨大的,深不可测的谜团
如旧时模样,而今华丽依然
过去与现在交接
在不朽的时间,地点
精灵的居所,神庙是他们的家园
那曾用华盖装点的圆屋顶下
新的时代正要来临

在你光辉的外表下潜藏生命
那是大地和所有它的伙伴,所一同孕育
曾遍布生机的星球
深深的坑洞,还有荒野
这绿色的世界在滑行
飞速移动的繁星,好似她闪光的柔发
还有最冷,最明亮的那冰冻了的月亮
还有强大的太阳,它的热量胜过暗夜的阴凉
惊叹这满溢热情之光的原子

就算有神明一样的名字
天堂!对你而言,是家
拥有如镜子般的力量
那里,人的天性暴露无遗
一代又一代人,经过时
屈膝向你表达敬意
他们的,从不停歇的上帝
像流水一样,匆匆远去
但你一定要留下来,如你经常的那样

你是思想首选的居所
它周围,轻狂的充满幻想的攀爬者
渺小的,好像禁锢笼子中软弱的昆虫
钟乳石反射的光芒照亮
某个墓穴的入口
那儿,有一个新的极乐世界
它会让最美的天堂看起来像
或是昏暗的,或如正午时分的光亮
它们诞生于,梦的阴影之下

安静!这无底深渊中萦绕着轻狂
在你的傲慢中,原子诞生
天堂是什么?而你呢
谁继承它博大精深的信仰
流亡中的太阳与无数天体又是什么
充满精神力的,生命体
而你只是其中的一小部分
还落下了自然这强大的心
驶过叶脉之最细微处,奔向死亡

天堂是什么?露珠布满星球的
又一个,崭新的清晨
注视着那花儿,它们新生的叶子正苏醒萌发
在这超越想象的世界
星座守护的太阳,不可动摇
被卷起的,无从测度的运行轨道
在那脆弱的,枯萎了的星球上
千万生命汇聚于此
而它们只知颤抖,它们昙花一现,而后死亡!