The River of Life

Thomas Campbell

THE MORE we live, more brief appear

Our life’s succeeding stages:

A day to childhood seems a year,

And years like passing ages.

The gladsome current of our youth,

Ere passion yet disorders¹,

Steals lingering like a river smooth

Along its grassy² borders.

But as the care-worn cheeks grow wan³,

And sorrow’s shafts⁴ fly thicker,

Ye Stars, that measure life to man,

Why seem your courses quicker?

When joys have lost their bloom and breath

And life itself is vapid⁵,

Why, as we reach the Falls of Death,

Feel we its tide more rapid?

It may be strange—yet who would change

Time’s course to slower speeding,

When one by one our friends have gone

And left our bosoms⁶ bleeding?

Heaven gives our years of fading strength

Indemnifying fleetness;

And those of youth, a seeming length,

Proportion’d to their sweetness.

人生越老，岁月越短，

生命的历程似在飞换;

儿时的一天如同一载，

一载如同几个朝代。

青春的热情尚未衰退，

愉悦的流泉但觉迟迟，

有如一道草原中的绿溪，

静悄悄的蜿蜒着流泻。

但待颊上的红霞退尽，

忧愁的征箭越飞越频，

星星呦星星，你们大小司命，

你们的运行为何越来越迅?

当快感失去了花时和吸引，

生命本身有如一个空瓶，

当我快要临到死境，

为什么退潮更加猛进?

怪诞呀，可能是怪诞——

谁要不想把日程放慢，

友人的谢世接二连三，

胸中的伤痛如荼如炭。

是天，使我们日渐衰竭的暮年

得到迅速消失的补偿，

是天，使青年时代的快乐，

得到相应的貌似延长。