我还是文学青年时，惠特曼似乎是在中国最知名的美国诗人。未能免俗，我有本他的诗集，Leaves of Grass。是大陆盗版影印基于该诗集第一版的Penguin平装本。说实话，我不是很能欣赏他的诗。

在《北京某宾馆：鹿和马》中引用了惠特曼的诗，为Song of Myself的第32节。全文如下

I think I could turn and live awhile with animals.…they are so placid and self-contained,

I stand and look at them half the day long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition,

They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,

They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,

Not one is dissatisfied….not one is demented with the mania of owning things,

Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,

Not one is respectable or industrious over the whole earth.

So they show their relations to me and I accept them;

They bring me tokens of myself….they evince them plainly in their possession.

I do not know where they get those tokens,

I must have passed that way untold times ago and negligently dropt them?

Myself moving forward thenand now and forever,

Gathering and showing more always and with velocity,

Infinite and omnigenous,and the like of these among them,

Not too exclusive toward the reachers of my remembrancers,

Picking out here one thatshould be my aime,

Choosing to go with him on brotherly terms.

A gigantic beauty of astallion, fresh and responsive to my caresses,

Head high in the forehead, wide between the ears,

Limbs glossy and supple, tail dusting the ground,

Eyes well apart and full of sparkling wickedness….ears finely cut and flexibly moving.

His nostrils dilate….my heels embrace him….his well-built limbs tremble with pleasure….we speed around and return.

I but use you a moment and then I resign you stallion….and do not need your paces, and out-gallopthem?

And myself as I stand or sit pass faster than you.

网上找到的汉译，可能不是第一版。个别词句与英文有差异。

我想我能够转而和动物生活在一起，它们是这样淡泊又自满自足，
我站着将它们观察了很久很久。

它们并不为它们的处境挥汗又哀号，
它们并不为自己的罪过哭泣而在黑暗中通宵不眠，
它们并不议论它们对上帝应尽的责任而使我生厌，
没有一个感到不满足，没有一个犯有严重的占有狂，
没有一个向另一个屈膝，也不向一个生活在数千年前的同类屈膝，
整个地球上没有哪一个是体面的或愁苦的。

它们向我如此表明了和我的关系，我接受了下来，
它们给我带来的是我自己的各种代号，并且明白地告诉我已在它们的掌握之中。

我惊讶那些代号它们是从哪里得来的，
莫非我曾经老早走过那地方，漫不经心地把它们丢下了。

彼时此时乃至永远，我自己总在向前移动着，
一直在以高速度收集并展示着更多的东西，
无穷无尽，无所不包，在它们中间也有和它们类似的，
并不过分排斥我的记忆所及，
还在这里选中了我所喜爱的一个；此时和他像兄弟般在一起行动。

一匹雄壮健美的骏马，精神抖擞，对我的抚爱又有所反应，
它额骨高耸，两耳之间宽广，
肢体光滑而又柔顺，尾巴扫地，
两眼闪烁着机警，耳朵轮廓俊美，灵巧地抖动着。

我的两踵抱紧它时它的鼻孔张开，
我们飞跑一圈而还归时它那匀称的肢体因喜悦而微微颤抖。

我只使用了你一分钟就即刻将你交出，骏马啊，
我自己能超出你的速度时又何需请你代步？
即使我在站着或坐下时也比你更加快速。