We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon;
How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver,
Streaking the darkness radiantly!-yet soon
Night closes round, and they are lost forever:
Or like forgotten lyres, whose dissonant strings
Give various response to each varying blast,
To whose frail frame no second motion brings
One mood or modulation like the last.
We rest. -A dream has power to poison sleep;
We rise. -One wandering thought pollutes the day;
We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep;
Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away:
It is the same! -For, be it joy or sorrow,
The path of its departure still is free:
Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow;
Nought may endure but Mutability.
江枫教授同名译本－
我们恰似荫蔽午夜明月的朵朵浮云，
发光、颤动、疾驰，何等活跃，
给黑暗划出明亮的条纹，然而转瞬，
夜幕收起，也就从此影失形消。
又似被忘却的琴，参差不齐的弦索
给多变的振动以多变的响应，
在这脆弱的乐器上，任何两次弹拨，
都奏不出同一种情致和声韵。
我们入睡，一个梦就足以毒害安息，
我们起身，一念遐思又会败坏一天；
感觉、构想、推理、欢笑或是悲啼，
抱紧心爱的灾难，摒弃恼人的忧烦：
全都一样！因为不论是喜、是恼，
离去的衢道，永远开敞；
人世间的明日绝不会雷同于今朝，
万古不变的，独有无常。
