我失去的青春 
 
送交者：qqmom 
 

我失去的青春 
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亨利·華滋沃斯·朗費羅［美國］ 

我常常想到那美麗的小城， 
它就坐落在海岸； 
我常常幻想走進那古老的小城， 
在它快樂的街道上來回步行， 
於是青春又回到我身邊。 
那北歐歌謠里的一句話， 
仍舊在我的記憶里迴蕩： 
“少年的願望好似風的願望， 
呵，青春的心思是多麼、多麼綿長。” 

我能看見小城參差的樹影， 
我眼前還忽而掠過 
環抱在它的海上遠遠閃來的光明 
和一列島嶼（它們為少年的夢 
作了樂園的守護者）。 
那支古老的歌的疊唱 
仍舊在對我低語、傾訴： 
“少年的願望好似風的願望， 
呵，青春的心思是多麼、多麼綿長。” 

我記得那烏黑的碼頭和停泊地， 
和海濤的自由奔騰， 
還有西班牙的水手留着髭鬚， 
還有船隻的可愛和神秘， 
大海是這般迷人！ 
那一段固執的歌聲 
仍舊在訴說和振盪： 
“少年的願望好似風的願望， 
呵，青春的心思是多麼、多麼綿長。” 

我記得海邊和山上的碉堡； 
在太陽初升的時候， 
傳過來大炮低沉的咆哮， 
鼓也在不停地咚咚地敲， 
號聲壯闊而又顫抖。 
那古老的歌的音調 
仍舊在我的心裡激盪： 
“少年的願望好似風的願望， 
呵，青春的心思是多麼、多麼綿長。” 

我記得戰爭在遠方的海上 
轟隆之聲傳過了水面！ 
我記得如何埋葬了戰死的船長， 
他們的墳墓就對着我們的戰場—— 
那一片寂靜的海灣。 
那悲哀之歌的音響 
痛楚地刺過了我的心： 
“少年的願望好似風的願望， 
呵，青春的心思是多麼、多麼綿長。” 

我能看見輕風拂着從林的圓頂， 
和狄嶺森林的蔭翳； 
於是舊日的友誼和青春的戀情 
帶着安息的樂音流往我心中， 
像是鴿子迴旋在寂靜里。 
那甜蜜的古老的歌 
仍舊在起伏和低唱： 
“少年的願望好似風的願望， 
呵，青春的心思是多麼、多麼綿長。” 

我記得那掠過學童的腦海的 
閃爍的光亮和幽暗； 
我記得有過心靈的歌唱和沉寂， 
一半是預言，一半是熱狂的 
枉然的追求與夢幻。 
而那任性的歌仍舊 
唱下去，仍舊在波盪： 
“少年的願望好似風的願望， 
呵，青春的心思是多麼、多麼綿長。” 

有一些事物我不想再傾吐； 
有一些夢想從不死亡； 
有一些懷念使心靈變為脆弱， 
它會給面頰帶來蒼白的顏色， 
使眼睛感到模糊。 
那致命的歌的一句話 
像一陣冷氣撲到我心上： 
“少年的願望好似風的願望， 
呵，青春的心思是多麼、多麼綿長。” 

我在那古老的小城所見的形體 
如今已顯得陌生， 
但鄉土的空氣確是純潔而甜蜜， 
而那蔭蔽每條熟悉的街道的 
樹木，當它們來回擺動， 
就唱出一支美麗的歌， 
這歌曲仍在嘆息和低唱： 
“少年的願望好似風的願望， 
呵，青春的心思是多麼、多麼綿長。” 

狄嶺森林幽靜、新鮮而美麗， 
我的心懷着一種 
近似痛楚的快樂飛回到那裡， 
而當我縈迴於那往日的夢跡， 
我又找到失去的青春。 
那奇異而美麗的歌， 
在樹林裡發出了迴響： 
“少年的願望好似風的願望， 
呵，青春的心思是多麼、多麼綿長。” 

（查良錚 譯） 

 
  
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

My Lost Youth


Often I think of the beautiful town 
That is seated by the sea; 
Often in thought go up and down 
The pleasant streets of that dear old town, 
And my youth comes back to me. 
And a verse of a Lapland song 
Is haunting my memory still: 
"A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 


can see the shadowy lines of its trees, 
And catch, in sudden gleams, 
The sheen of the far-surrounding seas, 
And islands that were the Hesperides 
Of all my boyish dreams. 
And the burden of that old song, 
It murmurs and whispers still: 
"A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 


I remember the black wharves and the slips, 
And the sea-tides tossing free; 
And Spanish sailors with bearded lips, 
And the beauty and mystery of the ships, 
And the magic of the sea. 
And the voice of that wayward song 
Is singing and saying still: 
"A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 


I remember the bulwarks by the shore, 
And the fort upon the hill; 
The sunrise gun, with its hollow roar, 
The drum-beat repeated o'er and o'er, 
And the bugle wild and shrill. 
And the music of that old song 
Throbs in my memory still: 
"A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 


I remember the sea-fight far away, 
How it thundered o'er the tide! 
And the dead captains, as they lay 
In their graves, o'erlooking the tranquil bay, 
Where they in battle died. 
And the sound of that mournful song 
Goes through me with a thrill: 
"A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 


I can see the breezy dome of groves, 
The shadows of Deering's Woods; 
And the friendships old and the early loves 
Come back with a Sabbath sound, as of doves 
In quiet neighborhoods. 
And the verse of that sweet old song, 
It flutters and murmurs still: 
"A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 


I remember the gleams and glooms that dart 
Across the school-boy's brain; 
The song and the silence in the heart, 
That in part are prophecies, and in part 
Are longings wild and vain. 
And the voice of that fitful song 
Sings on, and is never still: 
"A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 


There are things of which I may not speak; 
There are dreams that cannot die; 
There are thoughts that make the strong heart weak, 
And bring a pallor into the cheek, 
And a mist before the eye. 
And the words of that fatal song 
Come over me like a chill: 
"A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 


Strange to me now are the forms I meet 
When I visit the dear old town; 
But the native air is pure and sweet, 
And the trees that o'ershadow each well-known street, 
As they balance up and down, 
Are singing the beautiful song, 
Are sighing and whispering still: 
"A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 


And Deering's Woods are fresh and fair, 
And with joy that is almost pain 
My heart goes back to wander there, 
And among the dreams of the days that were, 
I find my lost youth again. 
And the strange and beautiful song, 
The groves are repeating it still: 
"A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 

Notes 

1] Portland, Maine. Today the Wadsworth-Longfellow House, at 485 Congress St., is a museum about the life and times of the poet and his family. "During one of his visits to Portland in 1846, Mr. Longfellow relates how he took a long walk round Munjoy's hill and down to the old Fort Lawrence. `I lay down,' he says, `in one of the embrasures and listened to the lashing, lulling sound of the sea just at my feet. It was a beautiful afternoon, and the harbor was full of white sails, coming and departing. Meditated a poem on the Old Fort.' It does not appear that any poem was then written, but the theme remained, and in 1855, when in Cambridge, he notes in his diary, March 29: `A day of pain; cowering over the fire. At night, as I lie in bed, a poem comes into my mind, -- a memory of Portand, -- my native town, the city by the sea.

Siede la terra dove nato fui

Sulla marina. [Dante, Inferno, V, 97-8.]

March 30. Wrote the poem; and am rather pleased with it, and with the bringing in of the two lines of the old Lapland song,

A boy's will is the wind's will,

And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."

Evidently from John Scheffer's History of Lapland (1674): "A Youth's desire is the desire of the wind, / All his essaies / Are long delaies, / No issue can they find." In 1913 Robert Frost called his first volume of poems A Boy's Will in an allusion to Longfellow's lines.

2] Lines that Longfellow in his diary likens to ones in Dante's Inferno V.97-98.

13] Hesperides: mythical garden at the very western limits of the world in which golden apples grew. The earth, Ge, offered them to Hera when she married Zeus.

37] sea-fight: in 1813, between the US ship Enterprise and the British ship Boxer, near Portland harbour, an engagement that led to the deaths of both captains, who were buried side-by-side in Munjoy Hill cemetery.

47] Deering's Woods: wooded parkland in modern Portland, Maine, known today as Deering Oaks (note courtesy of Judith Corbin Smith).

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Original text: The Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, with Bibliographical and Critical Notes, Riverside Edition (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1890), III, 41-44. PS 2250 E90 Robarts Library.

First publication date: 1858

Publication date note: In Birds of Passage

RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire

RP edition: RPO 1998.

Recent editing: 4:2002/4/4*1:2003/7/6

Composition date: 30 March 1855

Rhyme: abaabcdde