喬安納的房間

這首詩的主角是老人們，他們說：「世事萬變，我們一個接一個逝去。」(line 2-3)

他們說：「美麗的事物都會流逝，就像水流一樣。」(line 8-9)

這兩句有沒有很像Robert Frost的詩” Nothing Gold Can Stay”？（下方有全詩） 留不住任何一個耀眼的事物，所有一切的美好都將逝去。

Frost是平鋪直敘把這個感慨講完，但葉慈的詩中有個敘述者，他看著這些老人在水邊欣賞著自己。這個意象來自於Narcissus在水邊自戀，最後掉到水裡變成水仙。

感嘆著年華逝去的只會是已經失去了年華的老人，講「想當年」的也是老人，所以好漢還是別提當年勇阿。

Nothing Gold Can Stay

by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf,

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day,

Nothing gold can stay.

The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water

by W. B. Yeats

I heard the old, old men say,

“Everything alters,

And one by one we drop away.”

They had hands like claws, and their knees

Were twisted like the old thorn-trees

By the waters.

I heard the old, old men say,

“All that’s beautiful drifts away,

Like the waters.”

【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。