What Are Years?
by Marianne Moore
瑪麗安·摩爾(Marianne Moore)，1887年11月15號(hào)出生于美國(guó)密蘇里州的柯克伍德城，美國(guó)現(xiàn)代派女詩(shī)人，1952年獲普利策詩(shī)歌獎(jiǎng)，1972年2月5日去世。主要詩(shī)文 集有：《詩(shī)集》(Poems，1921年);《觀察》(Observations, 1924年);《詩(shī)歌選集》(Selected Poems, 1935年);《何謂歲月》(What Are Years,1941年);《然而》(Nevertheless, 1944年);《詩(shī)和評(píng)論集》(Poetry and Criticism,1965年);《詩(shī)歌全集》(The Complete Poems,1967年)。翻譯著作：拉封丹《寓言詩(shī)》(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.
