自己之歌（节选）

Walt Whitman

佚 名（译）

I think I could turn and live with animals,

They are so placid and self-contain'd,

I stand and look at them long and 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 unhappy over the whole earth.

我想我可以和这些动物们一起，

它们是如此温和，自给自足，

有时候我可以久久地站着观察它们。

它们不出汗，也不抱怨生存条件，

晚上它们也不躺下休息，而是为它们的罪过而哭泣，

它们向造物主陈述自己的职责，这一点都不让我讨厌，

没有谁是不满意的，

没有谁因为占有欲而发狂，

没有谁向谁屈尊下跪，或是盲目崇拜着它们几千年前的祖先，

在这片大地上，没有谁是值得尊重或悲伤的。