Was Smith? Was Jones? Were you?

Was Smith? Was Jones? Were you?

或许，两百年前

我是个快乐无忧的牧师

宣扬永恒的判决

同时照看我的胡桃生长；

可是，唉，生逢邪恶年代

我去哪里寻找那样舒适的港湾

看我唇髭疯长

没有一点僧侣的样子；

当时局向好

我们轻易便兴高采烈

于是哄骗不安分的思想入睡

并把它们安放在树荫深处；

一切无知的声名，我们愿意背负

世间的乐趣？就当它们不存在好了

藏身在苹果树干上的金翅鸟

就能让我的敌人们胆战心惊；

少女的小腹，还有杏子般的乳房

浮现在阴凉的小溪之上

拂晓时分，有马匹和鸭子列队飞行

一切原来只是一场梦；

不准再做这样的梦

我们荒废欢乐，或将其埋葬

特种钢打造出马匹

矮小的肥佬骑着它招摇过市；

而我只是条蠕虫，永远不知道转变方向

太监用不着三妻六妾

在牧师和政治委员之间

我像尤金·阿拉姆一样行进；

政治委员描绘着一幅蓝图

我却分心去听广播

牧师答应我一辆奥斯丁七号

这是杜吉常用的筹码；

我梦到我住在大理石宫殿里

梦醒后总在想它何日成真

我没有那么好命，生在那样的年代

那么史密斯有吗？琼斯有吗？

还有你，你有吗？

A happy vicar I might have been
Two hundred years ago
To preach upon eternal doom
And watch my walnuts grow;

But born, alas, in an evil time,
I missed that pleasant haven,
For the hair has grown on my upper lip
And the clergy are all clean-shaven.

And later still the times were good,
We were so easy to please,
We rocked our troubled thoughts to sleep
On the bosoms of the trees.

All ignorant we dared to own
The joys we now dissemble;
The greenfinch on the apple bough
Could make my enemies tremble.

But girl's bellies and apricots,
Roach in a shaded stream,
Horses, ducks in flight at dawn,
All these are a dream.

It is forbidden to dream again;
We maim our joys or hide them:
Horses are made of chromium steel
And little fat men shall ride them.

I am the worm who never turned,
The eunuch without a harem;
Between the priest and the commissar
I walk like Eugene Aram;

And the commissar is telling my fortune
While the radio plays,
But the priest has promised an Austin Seven,
For Duggie always pays.

I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls,
And woke to find it true;
I wasn't born for an age like this;
Was Smith? Was Jones? Were you?