喬安納的房間

這首詩寫在葉慈第一次向Maud Gonne求婚遭拒之後，她剛好在當時說了一句：「我希望自己可以變成海鷗。」葉慈回去就寫了這首熱情澎湃的詩，有多澎湃？看詩裡有幾個驚嘆號就知道。

流星(line 2)、百合和玫瑰(line 5)都是詩人眼中不恆久的代名詞，唯有白色的海鷗才可以超越時空與悲傷。葉慈寫了這首詩也許是為了要取悅美人，但他忘了他愛的這個美人是革命運動的狂熱者。對她來說，時間、空間、與悲傷都是她不願意忘記或遺棄的戰場。

只能說，追求美人還是要投其所好啊～

The White Birds

by William Butler Yeats

I would that we were, my beloved, white birds on the foam of the sea!

We tire of the flame of the meteor, before it can fade and flee;

And the flame of the blue star of twilight, hung low on the rim of the sky,

Has awakened in our hearts, my beloved, a sadness that may not die.

A weariness comes from those dreamers, dew-dabbled, the lily and rose;

Ah, dream not of them, my beloved, the flame of the meteor that goes,

Or the flame of the blue star that lingers hung low in the fall of the dew:

For I would we were changed to white birds on the wandering foam: I and you!

I am haunted by numberless islands, and many a Danaan shore,

Where Time would surely forget us, and Sorrow come near us no more;

Soon far from the rose and the lily, and fret of the flames would we be,

Were we only white birds, my beloved, buoyed out on the foam of the sea!

【喬安納說】

這首詩收錄在楊牧編譯的《葉慈詩選》中。文章中的翻譯是我隨意翻的。