偶然

但求有个复仇之神从天上喊我，

并且大笑着说：“受苦受难的东西！

要明白：你的痛苦就是我的娱乐，

你的爱之亏损就是我的恨之赢利！”

那时啊，我将默然忍受，坚持至死，

在不公正的神谴之下心如铁石；

同时又因我所流的全部眼泪

均由比我更强者判决，而稍感宽慰。

可惜，并无此事。为什么欢乐遭杀戮，

为什么播下的美好希望从未实现？

——是纯粹的偶然遮住了阳光雨露，

掷骰子的时运不掷欢欣却掷出悲叹……

这些盲目的裁判本来能在我的旅途

播撒幸福，并不比播撒痛苦更难。

1866年

A Confession to a Friend in Trouble

Your troubles shrink not, though I feel them less

Here, far away, than when I tarried near;

I even smile old smiles — with listlessness —

Yet smiles they are, not ghastly mockeries mere.

A thought too strange to house within my brain

Haunting its outer precincts I discern:

— That I will not show zeal again to learn

Your griefs,and, sharing them, renew my pain…

It goes, like murky bird or buccaneer

That shapes its lawless figure on the main,

And staunchness tends to banish utterly

The unseemly instinct that had lodgment here;

Yet, comrade old, can bitterer knowledge be

Than that, though banned, such instinct was in me!

1866