Wendell Erdman Berry - A Poem on Hope 歌词翻译

希望是难以拥有的，年纪越大越难
因为希望并非依赖愉悦的心情
并且在深夜之时，会做孤寂的梦
当下的你，也放弃了对未来的信念
对必将使我们惊喜的未来的信念
……而无法预料时，希望更难拥有
它不比愿望更实际，但不要犹豫不决
年轻人让老年人抱有希望。你会跟他们说些什么呢？
至少告诉他们你会对自己说的话

因为我们还没有去适应
我们的家乡，森林已被毁，田地已被侵蚀
河流污染了，山被推翻了。于是希望
只属于你的家乡，因你对你自己
拥有仅此一个家乡的认知而存在，因你
百般呵护你的家乡而存在，你
属于这里但这里并不属于你，
因为它一直存在于此，直到海枯石烂

你属于你的家乡，你知道这里也有
你的邻居：贫穷而疾病缠身的老人，
他们就像河里觅食的苍鹭一样来到这里
还有河里的鱼儿，还有像人一样
在河里捕鱼的苍鹭，还有在树丛里
趁着渔夫和苍鹭屏息时唱歌
的鸟儿，还有守卫土地的大树们
他们就像我们一样立于以此为生的大地，否则只能死亡

纵使权力或金钱也不能从你脑中抹去这些
常识。在当权者要求你忠于他时，在富有
的人剥削你的土地与劳动成果时，
常识不会让你听命于他们。
以这里其他人的常识与
同他们相处的方式来回答。用这种常识
来解释一切你需要解释的问题。因为常识
庄严地存在于你的意识以及其它一切可能的地方。
像你的家乡教你的那样，像它同你交流的
那样，与你的人类朋友们交流。
在他们开始听收音机之前
像你的同胞一样说属于你们的语言。
公开发表人们无法公开了解到的内容。

静静地、秘密地倾听那些
从书本或内心发出的声音
伫立而谛听那些属于河岸、
树林、广阔田野的声音。
这片土地有着独有的歌谣与谚语，
它们只会为自己而非他人发声。

在你脚下的土地上找到你的希望后，
让你对天堂的希望安息于你脚下的
这片土地。在夜晚与我们
无知、愤怒的黑暗消散后，
让它被自然洒下的光所照耀。
也让它被你内心的光亮照耀，
那是想象的光芒。通过它你能看见
世界不同地方的人们与你和你的同胞的
相似之处。它永远明示着对其他地方
的其他人，其他生物关怀的需要
正如你会希望他们能关爱你与你的家乡一样。

没有其他地方比这个世界更美好了。这个世界
也并不比它所包含的每一个地方更好。这些地方
最终也并不比在它们之中繁衍生息的人们
更好。当人们使自己内心的光亮
暗淡时，世界也会变得黑暗。

It is hard to have hope. It is harder as you grow old,
For hope must not depend on feeling good
And there is the dream of loneliness at absolute midnight.
You also have withdrawn belief in the present reality
Of the future, which surely will surprise us,
…And hope is harder when it cannot come by prediction
Any more than by wishing. But stop dithering.
The young ask the old to hope. What will you tell them?
Tell them at least what you say to yourself.

Because we have not made our lives to fit
Our places, the forests are ruined, the fields eroded,
The streams polluted, the mountains overturned. Hope
Then to belong to your place by your own knowledge
Of what it is that no other place is, and by
Your caring for it as you care for no other place, this
Place that you belong to though it is not yours,
For it was from the beginning and will be to the end

Belong to your place by knowledge of the others who are
Your neighbors in it: the old man, sick and poor,
Who comes like a heron to fish in the creek,
And the fish in the creek, and the heron who manlike
Fishes for the fish in the creek, and the birds who sing
In the trees in the silence of the fisherman
And the heron, and the trees that keep the land
They stand upon as we too must keep it, or die.

This knowledge cannot be taken from you by power
Or by wealth. It will stop your ears to the powerful
when they ask for your faith, and to the wealthy
when they ask for your land and your work.
Answer with knowledge of the others who are here
And how to be here with them. By this knowledge
Make the sense you need to make. By it stand
In the dignity of good sense, whatever may follow.
Speak to your fellow humans as your place
Has taught you to speak, as it has spoken to you.
Speak its dialect as your old compatriots spoke it
Before they had heard a radio. Speak
Publicly what cannot be taught or learned in public.

Listen privately, silently to the voices that rise up
From the pages of books and from your own heart.
Be still and listen to the voices that belong
To the streambanks and the trees and the open fields.
There are songs and sayings that belong to this place,
By which it speaks for itself and no other.

Found your hope, then, on the ground under your feet.
Your hope of Heaven, let it rest on the ground
Underfoot. Be it lighted by the light that falls
Freely upon it after the darkness of the nights
And the darkness of our ignorance and madness.
Let it be lighted also by the light that is within you,
Which is the light of imagination. By it you see
The likeness of people in other places to yourself
In your place. It lights invariably the need for care
Toward other people, other creatures, in other places
As you would ask them for care toward your place and you.

No place at last is better than the world. The world
Is no better than its places. Its places at last
Are no better than their people while their people
Continue in them. When the people make
Dark the light within them, the world darkens.