What Are Years?

by Marianne Moore

玛丽安·摩尔(Marianne Moore)，1887年11月15号出生于美国密苏里州的柯克伍德城，美国现代派女诗人，1952年获普利策诗歌奖，1972年2月5日去世。主要诗文 集有：《诗集》(Poems，1921年);《观察》(Observations, 1924年);《诗歌选集》(Selected Poems, 1935年);《何谓岁月》(What Are Years,1941年);《然而》(Nevertheless, 1944年);《诗和评论集》(Poetry and Criticism,1965年);《诗歌全集》(The Complete Poems,1967年)。翻译著作：拉封丹《寓言诗》(Fables of La Fontaine, 1954年)。

What is our innocence,

what is our guilt? All are

naked, none is safe. And whence

is courage: the unanswered question,

the resolute doubt, --

dumbly calling, deafly listening--that

in misfortune, even death,

encourages others

and in its defeat, stirs

the soul to be strong? He

sees deep and is glad, who

accedes to mortality

and in his imprisonment rises

upon himself as

the sea in a chasm, struggling to be

free and unable to be,

in its surrendering

finds its continuing.

So he who strongly feels,

behaves. The very bird,

grown taller as he sings, steels

his form straight up. Though he is captive,

his mighty singing

says, satisfaction is a lowly

thing, how pure a thing is joy.

This is mortality,

this is eternity.