Mutability

Percy Bysshe Shelley

We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon;
How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver,
Streaking the darkness radiantly!--yet soon
Night closes round, and they are lost forever:

Or like forgotten lyres, whose dissonant strings
Give various response to each varying blast,
To whose frail frame no second motion brings
One mood or modulation like the last.

We rest.--A dream has power to poison sleep;
We rise.--One wandering thought pollutes the day;
We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep;
Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away:

It is the same!--For, be it joy or sorrow,
The path of its departure still is free:
Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow;
Nought may endure but Mutability. 

无常（第二首）

雪莱著  长风译

我们像午夜蔽月的云彩，

不住地飘飞，涌动；透出的光影

滑过夜空！——但很快

夜幕消退，它们就散失殆尽；

我们也像尘封的古琴，它失音的琴弦

在弹拨中发出参差不齐的音响，

羸弱琴身流淌出的情调和声线，

每一次演奏都不一样。

梦魇令人辗转反侧；

浮想让人食不甘味；

我们动情，梦想或者思考，哭泣或者欢笑；

拥抱多情的伤感，或者放弃各样的缠累；

不过如此！——因为世上的喜悦和悲伤

终将消失无踪；

昨日与明日也毫不一样；

唯一不变的是世事无常。