聆听着 The Listeners

沃尔特·德·拉·梅尔（Walter de la Mare 1873-1956），英国诗人、小说家。在他创作的诗歌中，以儿童诗和《聆听者》（1912）最为出名。
德·拉·梅尔的诗歌语言流畅，技巧娴熟，新意迭出。他喜欢写童年，他能使平淡无奇的事物蒙上神秘色彩，还常常透出一股淡淡的哀伤。其诗风简而不陋，奇而不怪，兼有叙事、描写和戏剧表现之美，诗中常带有超自然主义元素，往往给读者留有发挥想象的余地。其大量“儿童诗”单纯却不乏深意，德·拉·梅尔也像华兹华斯一样，把童年看得比成年，甚至少年时代都重要得多。他的诗歌和小说作品（儿童或成人），通常想象力丰富，饱含各种奇思妙想，给人一种梦境般的感觉。

‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller,
Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence 1)champed the grasses
Of the forest’s 2)ferny floor.
And a bird flew up out of the 3)turret,
Above the Traveller’s head:
And he 4)smote upon the door again a second time;
‘Is there anybody there?’ he said.
But no one descended to the Traveller;
No head from the leaf-fringed sill
Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,
Where he stood 5)perplexed and still.
But only a host of 6)phantom listeners
That dwelt in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of moonlight
To that voice from the world of men:
Stood 7)thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,
That goes down to the empty hall,
8)Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken
By the lonely Traveller’s call.
And he felt in his heart their strangeness,
Their stillness answering his cry,
While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
9)’Neath the starred and leafy sky;
For he suddenly smote on the door, even
Louder, and lifted his head:—
‘Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That I kept my word,’ he said.
Never the least stir made the listeners,
Though every word he 10)spake
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
From the one man left awake:
Ay, they heard his foot upon the 11)stirrup,
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence 12)surged softly backward,
When the plunging hoofs were gone.

“有人在吗？”旅行者问道，
月光下的门被咚咚敲响；
寂静中，他的马儿大声地在嚼
林子里满地的蕨草。
塔楼里飞出一只夜鸟，
从旅行者的头顶掠过：
他再一次用力敲打着门；
“可有人在？”他说。
但无人下楼应门；
也无人把头伸出枝叶盘绕的窗台
俯身看看他灰色的眼睛，
他犹疑地站在那里一动不动。
只有一群隐匿在这独屋中的
孤魂幻影
立于这宁静的月色之中
聆听这来自人类世界的声音：
静静地，淡淡的月光洒满
那通往下面空荡大厅的楼梯，
聆听被搅动的空气中传来的
外面孤独旅行者的声音。
他觉察到了他们的古怪，
还有他们回应自己的寂静，
他的马儿在枝叶婆娑的
星空下吃草，逡行；
他突然更用力地敲门，
并扬起头，提高了声音：——
“告诉他们我来过了，没有人应门，
就说我遵守了诺言，”他朗声说道。
聆听者们依旧没有半点反应，
尽管他说的每个字
在这寂静的房中黑影下回荡
直至那无眠人的耳旁：
唉，他们听到他登上了马镫，
还有踏在石板上的马蹄声，
当跳跃的马蹄声渐行渐远，
他们听到了寂静如潮般轻轻涌回。