Laijon Liu 20140330
When you are young and rosy and full of
dreams
you should fill your camera with scenes
of cities
fashion in springs, and winds above the
peaks
a day of prime is more precious than
gold
when you are young and healthy and full
of pride
you should sail your own course, and
pick your own country
do not settle for norm, do not
surrender to fate
fortune awaits you for you stride brave
and true
if you are young and still madly
believe
then go, go places, go chase, go
embrace, go big
time is always on your side, storms are
always good
til you are old and gray and slumber,
and Be- Merry.
Note:
I love William Butler Yeats’ great
poem “When You Are Young”. I love his “Sail to Byzantium” too.
Some years ago I read his poems, both English and Chinese, and I felt
an urge of writing something similar, all good works inspire me,
great poets and their poems inspire young poets, great paintings
inspire latter painting masters, so artists, poets, pupils, soccer
players... have seen the magical product and sick moves then we must
copy, human nature, for me there are two purposes, 1) I learn from
copying it, forging it, dismantling it, reassembling it, enjoy the
process greatly and discover more depth of it. 2) to honor my idols,
like a little boy practices all his soccer stars’ dribbling tricks,
what my favorite poets done some good works that strike me and I must
imitate, honorable not, like sex and dish, well, sorry, I see it and
now I must try it... and my soccer friend Patti gave me a Yeats’
anthology, and I reread some poems this weekend, and dug some my
notes I wrote about “When You Are Old” years ago, reviewed it and
rewrote on the subway and eventually feel happy of my past desire
done tonight, with a mirroring poem in the same frame, of course
never dare to pair with the natural mastery, the flow of sense, and
originality and authority of my idol poet, but since I am still a
Chinese, famous of talents of forging a lot things nowadays, so I
guess I am glad to show some talents on copying poem to honor my idol Yeats.
When You Are Old
William Butler Yeats
When you are old and gray and full of
sleep
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true;
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead,
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
袁可嘉翻译的版本：
叶芝
多少人爱你青春欢畅的时辰，
爱慕你的美丽，假意或真心，
只有一个人爱你那朝圣者的灵魂，
爱你衰老了的脸上痛苦的皱纹；
爱慕你的美丽，假意或真心，
只有一个人爱你那朝圣者的灵魂，
爱你衰老了的脸上痛苦的皱纹；
垂下头来，在红光闪耀的炉子旁，
凄然地轻轻诉说那爱情的消逝，
在头顶的山上它缓缓踱着步子，
在一群星星中间隐藏着脸庞。
凄然地轻轻诉说那爱情的消逝，
在头顶的山上它缓缓踱着步子，
在一群星星中间隐藏着脸庞。
