14 首人人应知晓的英语经典诗歌

武夷山

    ThoughtCo网站2019年7月发表过女诗人Suzy Hazelwood的文章 Classic Poems Everyone Should Know（人人应知晓的英语古典诗歌）。

    这类选单必然是主观性的，说不上哪一家的选单就更高明，只要上榜的诗歌确实不错，就可以了。下面给出这个单子，供英语爱好者参考。

    Suzy Hazelwood说，经典诗歌是英语文学传统的一部分，它们迁延在我们记忆中，形塑着我们的思想。

1. Christopher Marlowe的 The Passionate Shepherd to His Love (1598)

   该诗头两句最为著名。由于语音变化，love与prove现在不押韵了。

下面是该诗原文与译文的对照，来自百度的Christopher Marlowe词条：

Come live with me and be my love 来，与我同住，做我的爱人

And we will all pleasures prove 我们将证实所有的欢乐

That valleys, groves, hills, fields 冈峦丛林，溪谷田野

Woods, or steepy mountain yields 和危岩峭壁的群山所滋生的

And we will sit upon the rocks 我们将并肩坐在那山石上

Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks 看牧童喂他的羊群

By shallow rivers to whose falls 在浅流小溪旁，与流水相抑扬

Melodious birds sing madrigals 悦耳的小鸟齐声鸣唱情歌

And I will make thee a bed of roses 在那里我要为你砌玫瑰花床

And a thousand fragrant poises 和无数芳香馥郁的花束

A cap of flowers, and a kirtle 制一顶饰有花朵的帽子，一件短裙

Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle 每一处都绣满爱神木的叶子

A gown made of the finest wool 一件上好羊毛织成的长袍

Which from our pretty lambs we pull 从我们漂亮的小羊身上采下

Fair lined slippers for the cold 寒冬时为你送上里衬舒适的拖鞋

With buckles of the purest gold 缝上纯金制成的扣结

A belt of the straw and ivy buds 麦秆与长青藤做你的腰带

With coral clasps and amber studs 珊瑚为钩， 琥珀为钮

If these pleasures may thee move 倘使这些欢乐打动了你

Come live with me and be my love 来， 与我同住， 做我的爱人

The shepherds' swains shall dance and sing 牧童要成群为你歌舞

For thy delight each May morning 在每个五月的清晨为了使你愉悦

If these delights thy mind may move 倘使这些欢乐令你动心

Then come live with me and be my love 来， 与我同住， 做我的爱人

2. 莎士比亚的Sonnet 29 (1609)

 When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state

And trouble deal heaven with my bootless cries

And look upon myself and curse my fate,

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,

Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,

With what I most enjoy contented least;

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,

Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

Like to the lark at break of day arising

From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;

For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

    以下译文来自网络（http://www.kekenet.com/read/200803/32544.shtml）：

当我受尽命运和人们的白眼，

暗暗地哀悼自己的身世飘零，

徒用呼吁去干扰聋瞆的昊天，

顾盼着身影，诅咒自己的生辰，

愿我和另一个一样富于希望，

面貌相似，又和他一样广交游，

希求这人的渊博，那人的内行，

最赏心的乐事觉得最不对头；

可是，当我正要这样看轻自己，

忽然想起了你，于是我的精神，

便像云雀破晓从阴霾的大地

振翮上升，高唱着圣歌在天门：

一想起你的爱使我那么富有，

和帝王换位我也不屑于屈就。

3. 苏格兰诗人彭斯的A Red, Red Rose (1794)

    我们常听到的Auld Lang Syne（友谊地久天长，原义为“久已逝去的日子”）便是他写的诗。下面的中英文对照来自百度。

A Red, Red Rose 译诗：一朵红红的玫瑰

by Robert Burns王佐良译

O, my Luve's like a red, red rose, 啊，我的爱人象朵红红的玫瑰啊，

That's newly sprung in June; 六月里迎风初开，

O, my Luve's like the melodie , 啊，我的爱人象支甜甜的曲子，

That's sweetly played in tune. 奏得合拍又和谐。

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,我的好姑娘，多么美丽的人儿！

So deep in luve am I; 请看我，多么深挚的爱情！

And I will luve thee still, my dear,亲爱的，我永远爱你，

Till a' the seas gang dry. 纵使大海干涸水流尽。

Till a'the seas gang dry, my dear,亲爱的，纵使大海干涸水流尽，

And the rocks melt wi' the sun; 太阳将岩石烧作灰尘，

I will luve thee still, my dear, 亲爱的，我永远爱你，

While the sands o' life shall run. 只要我一息犹存。

And fare thee weel, my only Luve! 珍重吧，我唯一的爱人，

And fare thee weel,a while! 珍重吧，让我们暂时别离，

And I will come again, my Luve, 但我定要回来，

Though it were ten thousand mile.哪怕千里万里！

 4. 布莱克的The Tyger (1794)

THE TIGER

by: William Blake (威廉姆布莱克1757-1827)

Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright ①

In the forests of the night!

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry? ②

In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes? ③

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art ④

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand, & what dread feet?

What the hammer? What the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? What dread grasp?

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,

And water'd heaven with their tears,

Did he smile his work to see? ⑤

Did he who made the lamb make thee? ⑥

Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright

In the forests of the night!

What immortal hand or eye

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

郭沫若译文

老虎！老虎！黑夜的森林中

燃烧着的煌煌的火光，

是怎样的神手或天眼

造出了你这样的威武堂堂？

你炯炯的两眼中的火

燃烧在多远的天空或深渊？

他乘着怎样的翅膀搏击？

用怎样的手夺来火焰？

又是怎样的膂力，怎样的技巧，

把你的心脏的筋肉捏成？

当你的心脏开始搏动时，

使用怎样猛的手腕和脚胫？

是怎样的槌？怎样的链子？

在怎样的熔炉中炼成你的脑筋？

是怎样的铁砧？怎样的铁臂

敢于捉着这可怖的凶神？

群星投下了他们的投枪。

用它们的眼泪润湿了穹苍，

他是否微笑着欣赏他的作品？

他创造了你，也创造了羔羊？

老虎！老虎！黑夜的森林中

燃烧着的煌煌的火光，

是怎样的神手或天眼

造出了你这样的威武堂堂？

5. Samuel Taylor Coleridge（柯勒律治） 的Kubla Khan (1797)（忽必烈汗）

 Kubla Khan

BY SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Or, a vision in a dream. A Fragment.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

   Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round;

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;

And here were forests ancient as the hills,

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!

A savage place! as holy and enchanted

As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted

By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,

A mighty fountain momently was forced:

Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst

Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,

Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:

And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever

It flung up momently the sacred river.

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion

Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,

Then reached the caverns measureless to man,

And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean;

And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far

Ancestral voices prophesying war!

   The shadow of the dome of pleasure

   Floated midway on the waves;

   Where was heard the mingled measure

   From the fountain and the caves.

It was a miracle of rare device,

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

   A damsel with a dulcimer

   In a vision once I saw:

   It was an Abyssinian maid

   And on her dulcimer she played,

   Singing of Mount Abora.

   Could I revive within me

   Her symphony and song,

   To such a deep delight ’twould win me,

That with music loud and long,

I would build that dome in air,

That sunny dome! those caves of ice!

And all who heard should see them there,

And all should cry, Beware! Beware!

His flashing eyes, his floating hair!

Weave a circle round him thrice,

And close your eyes with holy dread

For he on honey-dew hath fed,

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

 “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree”

6. 华兹华斯的I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (1804)

    笔者曾翻译过此诗，见“水仙花（武夷山和郭沫若的两个翻译版本）”http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-1557-14364.html

William Wordsworth

Daffodils

I wander'd lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretch'd in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

水仙

华兹华斯

（武夷山译）

像飘浮在山谷上的白云

我孤独地徜徉，

突然我看见一群

一群水仙金黄；

在树下，在湖畔，

乘风舞蹈抖颤。

连绵如浩浩群星

在银河中闪烁眨眼，

它们向远处伸展不尽

沿着海湾的边缘：

十万朵我一眼尽收

在欢快舞蹈中摆头。

波浪在花旁舞蹈，

可水仙的高兴胜过活泼的波浪：

诗人憋不住要欢笑

因为有这么可爱的伴当。

我凝望――凝望――但很少关注

这景象给了我什么好处：

我常常卧在榻上

时而空虚笼罩时而愁思无限，

心中忽把那些水仙回想，

心乃孤寂之乐园；

那时我心充满愉悦，

随水仙一起舞蹈腾跃。

7.John Keats（济慈）的Ode on a Grecian Urn (1820)

Ode on a Grecian Urn 

BY JOHN KEATS

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,

       Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,

Sylvan historian, who canst thus express

       A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:

What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape

       Of deities or mortals, or of both,

               In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?

       What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?

What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?

               What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

       Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;

Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,

       Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:

Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave

       Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;

               Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,

Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve;

       She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,

               For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed

         Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;

And, happy melodist, unwearied,

         For ever piping songs for ever new;

More happy love! more happy, happy love!

         For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,

                For ever panting, and for ever young;

All breathing human passion far above,

         That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,

                A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.

Who are these coming to the sacrifice?

         To what green altar, O mysterious priest,

Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,

         And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?

What little town by river or sea shore,

         Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,

                Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?

And, little town, thy streets for evermore

         Will silent be; and not a soul to tell

                Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.

O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede

         Of marble men and maidens overwrought,

With forest branches and the trodden weed;

         Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought

As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!

         When old age shall this generation waste,

                Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe

Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,

         "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all

                Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

 "a friend to man, to whom thou say’st,
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'"

8. Emily Dickinson（迪金森）的I taste a liquor never brewed (#214)

 I taste a liquor never brewed (214)

Emily Dickinson - 1830-1886

I taste a liquor never brewed – 
From Tankards scooped in Pearl – 
Not all the Frankfort Berries
Yield such an Alcohol!

Inebriate of air – am I – 
And Debauchee of Dew – 
Reeling – thro' endless summer days – 
From inns of molten Blue – 

When "Landlords" turn the drunken Bee
Out of the Foxglove's door – 
When Butterflies – renounce their "drams" – 
I shall but drink the more!

Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats – 
And Saints – to windows run – 
To see the little Tippler
Leaning against the – Sun!

 “I taste a liquor never brewed—
From Tankards scooped in Pearl—...”

9. Lewis Carroll的 Jabberwocky (1871)

    《爱丽丝漫游仙境》的作者刘易斯.卡洛尔写的这首诗是无意义滑稽诗的一个例子。

Jabberwocky

BY LEWIS CARROLL

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

      And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

      The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

      The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand;

      Long time the manxome foe he sought—

So rested he by the Tumtum tree

      And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,

      The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

      And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through

      The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head

      He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?

      Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”

      He chortled in his joy.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

      And the mome raths outgrabe.

“’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe....”

10. Walt Whitman （惠特曼）的I Hear America Singing (1900)

11.T.S. Eliot的 The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)

“Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table....”

    该诗很长，全文见链接https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/44212/the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock

12. William Butler Yeats（叶芝）的The Second Coming (1920)

Turning and turning in the widening gyre   

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst   

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.   

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out   

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert   

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,   

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,   

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it   

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.   

The darkness drops again; but now I know   

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,   

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,   

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

13. Langston Hughes（兰斯顿.休斯）的Harlem (1951)

 What happens to a dream deferred?

      Does it dry up

      like a raisin in the sun?

      Or fester like a sore—

      And then run?

      Does it stink like rotten meat?

      Or crust and sugar over—

      like a syrupy sweet?

      Maybe it just sags

      like a heavy load.

      Or does it explode?

14. Maya Angelou的Still I Rise (1978)

    笔者翻译过这首诗（http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-1557-986470.html）：

玛雅. 安杰罗诗一首：我要奋起

武夷山 译

by Maya Angelou

你们书写历史的时候,

也许用恶毒的谎言将我诋詈。

你们也许将我踏入尘土

但我仍会像尘土一样扬起。

我的漂亮是否让你不安?

为什么你愁容满面?

因为我走起路来精气神十足，

好比油井在我家里运转。

就像日月地球的互作用，

一定引起潮汐，

就像希望高翔，

我仍会奋起。

你想看到我失望悲观？

看到我低下头颅，低眉顺眼？

看到我肩膀下垂如泪珠落下，

看到我被灵魂的哭泣所摧残。

我的傲气是否冒犯了你？

你还真别把它往心里放。

因为我就喜欢开怀大笑，

仿佛我家后院挖出了金矿。

你可以用恶言恶语向我射击，

你投来的目光可以如刀锋犀利，

你可以用仇恨来夺我的命，

但我仍要奋起。

我的性感是否让你不安？

黑人的美是否让你吃惊？

我的舞蹈吸引人们的目光，

仿佛我两腿之间有钻石在闪耀晶莹。

冲破历史屈辱之牢房，

我奋起！

摆脱植根于痛苦之过去，

我奋起！

我是黑色的海洋，浩荡汹涌，

激情四射，我在海潮中悸动。

将恐怖惧怕之夜抛在脑后，

我奋起！

投入万分清澄的曙色，

我奋起！

携带着祖先传留下的厚礼，

我便是被奴役者的梦想和希冀。

我奋起！

奋起！

奋起！！！

Still I Rise

by Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

博主：玛雅.安杰罗是我很喜欢的黑人女诗人, 我佩服她在种族歧视的氛围里绝不低下高傲的头。我原先写过的关于她的博文如下：

1. 玛雅.安杰罗的传奇生涯，http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-1557-28590.html

2. 黑人女作家玛雅·安杰卢逝世世,http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-1557-800961.html

3. 美国黑人女诗人玛雅.安吉罗 (1928-  )诗一首，http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-1557-28349.html