1—When a new movement in art attains a certain fashion, it is advisable to find out what its advocates are aiming at, for, however farfetched and unreasonable their principles may seem today, it is possible that in years to come they may be regarded as normal.
2—With regard to Futurist poetry, however, the case is rather difficult, for whatever Futurist poetry may be—even admitting that the theory on which it is based may be right—it can hardly be classed as Literature.
译文：
当一场新的艺术运动成为某种时尚时，明智的做法是弄清其倡导者的目的所在，因为无论其基本观点在今天看来是多么牵强和无理，将来都有可能被视为正常。然而，就未来派诗歌而言，情况却相当困难，因为无论未来派诗歌为何物，即便承认其理论根据可能正确，也很难将它归入文学。
二
1—This, in brief, is what the Futurist says: for a century, past conditions of life have been conditionally speeding up, till now we live in a world of noise and violence and speed.
2—Consequently, our feelings, thoughts and emotions have undergone a corresponding change.
3—This speeding up of life, says the Futurist, requires a new form of expression.
4—We must speed up our literature too, if we want to interpret modern stress.
5—We must pour out a large stream of essential words, unhampered by stops,or qualifying adjectives, or finite verbs.
6—Instead of describing sounds we must make up words that imitate them; we must use many sizes of type and different colored inks on the same page, and shorten or lengthen words at will.
译文：
总而言之，未来主义者这样宣称：一个世纪以来，昔日的生活状况一直在有条件地加速，直至目前我们生活在一个充斥着噪声、暴力和速度的世界之中。因此，我们的感觉、思想和情绪都经历了相应的变化。未来主义者声称，生活的这种加速需要一种全新的表达形式。如果我们想诠释现代生活的压力，就必须也加快文学的步伐。我们必须大量使用基本词汇，摆脱句号、修饰性形容词及限定动词的羁绊。我们不是要描绘声音，而是必须造出模仿声音的词语；我们必须在同一张纸上使用不同型号的字体和不同颜色的墨水，并任意缩短或加长词语。
三
1—Certainly their descriptions of battles are confused.
2—But it is a little upsetting to read in the explanatory notes that a certain line describes a fight between a Turkish and a Bulgarian officer on a bridge off which they both fall into the river —and then to find that the line consists of the noise of their falling and the weights of the officers: “Pluff! Pluff! A hundred and eighty-five kilograms.”
译文：
诚然，他们对战斗的描述混乱难懂。但是读到一句描写战斗的诗行的注解时，则有点令人心烦，注解中说该诗描写了一名土耳其军官和一名保加利亚军官在一座桥上发生了搏斗，结果双双从桥上掉入河中。后来发现这一行诗由军官落水的声音和他们的体重组成：“扑通!扑通!100公斤和85公斤。”
四
1—This, though it fulfills the laws and requirements of Futurist poetry, can hardly be classed as Literature.
2—All the same, no thinking man can refuse to accept their first proposition: that a great change in our emotional life calls for a change of expression.
3—The whole question is really this: have we essentially changed?
译文：
虽然这种写法符合未来派诗歌的规则和要求，但很难将其归入文学之列。尽管如此，任何一个有思想的人都不会拒绝接受他们的理论前提：我们情感生活的巨大变化要求表达方式也随之变化。实际上完整的问题是：我们从根本上改变了吗?
