The Spirit Wooed

by Philip Larkin

Once I believed in you,

And then you came,

Unquestionably new, as fame

Had said you were. But that was long ago.

You launched no argument,

Yet I obeyed,

Straightaway, the instrument you played

Distant Down sidestreets, keeping different time,

And never questioned what

You fascinate

In me; if good or not, the state

You pressed towards. There was no need to know.

Grave pristine absolutes

Walked in my mind:

So that I was not mute, or blind,

As years before or since. My only crime

Was holding you too dear.

Was that the cause

You daily came less near—a pause

Longer than life, if you decide it so?

所追求的靈魂

菲利普·拉金（著）

從前 我信了你

你便來臨

毋庸置疑

如傳聞中一般的新

——即便 那是很久前的事了

你不曾表明什么

而我卻一味遵循

你的心弦 毫不修飾 彈奏了

一曲可以在任何街頭巷尾、

任何時間傳唱的樂音

不曾懷疑是什么

令我為你 著迷

好也罷 不好也罷

（只要是）你給的 我無需辨明

莊嚴(yán)而渾然天成的絕對

行走在我的腦海

使我不致于沉默不語

也不盲目

邇來以及往后 我唯一的罪

——就是將你抓得太緊

是否這

就是你漸行漸遠(yuǎn)的原因

只一回停留

（是否你決意如此）就長過一生？