最俊秀的詩人

零七年一月一日, 去Grantchester吃午飯時, 我又看到Rupert Brooke的照片。
仍然需要很費力, 才能把目光移開。
他是英國最俊秀的詩人。

Grantchester是劍橋城外的一條小村莊, 非常有名。
劍橋學生散步、 野餐, 都常到Grantchester去。
從劍橋市中心出發, 大概是一個小時的步程吧。
Grantchester出了不少名人, 很多都是從劍橋搬過去避世的。
Grantchester的康河邊有一家茶館(Tea Garden), 叫The Orchard, 詩人Rupert Brooke, 哲學家 Russell 和 Wittgenstein, 作家Virginia Woolf等, 都曾經是常客。

***

Retrospect
Rupert Brooke

In your arms was still delight,
Quiet as a street at night;
And thoughts of you, I do remember,
Were green leaves in a darkened chamber,
Were dark clouds in a moonless sky.
Love, in you, went passing by,
Penetrative, remote, and rare,
Like a bird in the wide air,
And, as the bird, it left no trace
In the heaven of your face.
In your stupidity I found
The sweet hush after a sweet sound.
All about you was the light
That dims the greying end of night;
Desire was the unrisen sun,
Joy the day not yet begun,
With tree whispering to tree,
Without wind, quietly.
Wisdom slept within your hair,
And Long-Suffering was there,
And, in the flowing of your dress,
Undiscerning Tenderness.
And when you thought, it seemed to me,
Infinitely, and like a sea,
About the slight world you had known
Your vast unconsciousness was thrown. . . .

O haven without wave or tide!
Silence, in which all songs have died!
Holy book, where hearts are still!
And home at length under the hill!
O mother quiet, breasts of peace,
Where love itself would faint and cease!
O infinite deep I never knew,
I would come back, come back to you,
Find you, as a pool unstirred,
Kneel down by you, and never a word,
Lay my head, and nothing said,
In your hands, ungarlanded;
And a long watch you would keep;
And I should sleep, and I should sleep!

Mataiea, January 1914.