牛顿颂（Ode to Newton）

作者：埃德蒙*哈雷（Edmund Halley）

译者：郑中（Zheng Zhong）

【原注】致这位著名人物，艾萨克*牛顿，和他在数学和物理学领域内的研究成果，我们时代和民族的非凡荣誉。

Lo, for your gaze, the pattern of the skies!

What balance of the mass, what reckonings

Divine! Here ponder too the Laws which God,

Framing the universe, set not aside

But made the fixed foundations of his work.

啊，你凝眸天空的图形！

多么质量均衡，多么妙算神机！

沉思构造宇宙的定律

而没有将上帝搁置不理

但他研究的基础已奠定

The inmost places of the heavens, now gained,

Break into view, nor longer hidden is

The force that turns the farthest orb. The sun

Exalted on his throne bids all things tend

Toward him by inclination and descent,

Nor suffers that the courses of the stars

Be straight, as through the boundless void they move,

But with himself as centre speeds them on

In motionless ellipses. Now we know

The sharply veering ways of comets, once

A source of dread, nor longer do we quail

Beneath appearances of bearded stars.

已镌刻在天宫深处

映现视野，不再隐藏的是

旋转最遥远天体的力

太阳高居王位

企图将万物斜扯而去

也不允许行星

经无垠的太空直线飞去

但它自身的中心速度

制约在不动的椭圆内

我们才明白彗星的拐径

在它出现的天空之下

人类不再畏惧

At last we learn wherefore the silver moon

Once seemed to travel with unequal steps,

As if she scorned to suit her pace to numbers-

Till now made clear to no astronomer;

Why, though the Seasons go and then return,

The Hours move ever forward on their way;

Explained too are the forces of the deep,

How roaming Cynthia bestirs the tides,

Whereby the surf, exposes shoals of sand

Suspected by the sailors, now in turn

Driving its billows high upon the beach.

于是我们仰望明月

她曾以非常的速度旅行

好像不屑温柔的步履

迄今没有天文学家知情

为什么随四季交替

时间总在天衢上行进

只有解释为深邃的力

漫游的月神如何涌起潮汐

为何浪花翻卷，沙渍搁浅

令多少水手天问，斗转星移

惊涛拍岸，狂澜迭起

Matters that vexed the minds of ancient seers,

And for our learned doctors often led

To loud and vain contention, now are seen

In reason's light, the clouds of ignorance

Dispelled at last by science. Those on whom

Delusion cast its gloomy pall of doubt,

Upborne now on the wings that genius lends,

May penetrate the mansions of the gods

And scale the heights of heaven. O mortal men,

Arise! And, casting off your earthly cares,

Learn ye the potency of the heaven-born mind,

Its thought and life far from the herd withdrawn!

物质，折磨先知的心灵

给学识渊博的学者

留下激烈而无谓的争议

现在见到了理性之光

愚昧的乌云终为科学驱散

谬识投下厌倦而怀疑的阴影

且凭借那天才之翼，腾空翔起

可洞窥上帝的宫殿

可测量天堂的穹顶

噢！俯瞰人间！一忘万古尘姻

敬服心灵天赋的伟力

让思想与生命特立独行！

The man who through the tables of the laws

Once banished theft and murder, who suppressed

Adultery and crimes of broken faith,

And put the roving peoples into cities

Girt round with walls, was founder of the state,

While he who blessed the race with Ceres' gift,

Who pressed from grapes an anodyne to care,

Or showed how on the tissue made from reeds

Growing beside the Nile one may inscribe

Symbols of sound and so present the voice

For sight to grasp, did lighten human lot,

Offsetting thus the miseries of life

With some felicity. But now, behold,

Admitted to the banquets of the gods,

We contemplate the polities of heaven;

And spelling out the secrets of the earth,

Discern the changeless order of the world

And all the aeons of its history.

他遍览群科条律

他惩治亵渎信仰的盗杀奸淫

他将身着粗纱的平民移入城市

砌起城墙，创建邦国

他的欢乐可与谷神媲美

他将葡萄渣作为护理的止痛剂

才干卓著，扶危济困

尼罗河旁，一种刻写的音节符号

不断增长，成为现在的言语

从发现到理解，显耀多少人物

当卸下生命的苦痛

带着快乐几许

看呀，加入了众神的宴会

我们思索天国的政治

然后阐明大地的秘密

揭示出世界的永恒秩序

这就是他全部的历史

Then ye who now on heavenly nectar fare,

Come celebrate with me in song the name

Of Newton, to the Muses dear; for he

Unlocked the hidden treasuries of Truth:

So richly through his mind had Phoebus cast

The radiance of his own divinity.

Nearer the gods no mortal may approach.

耶！他正在虔诚地咀英饮蜜

与我同唱牛顿之歌吧

献给亲爱的缪斯，因为

已打开了深处真理的秘密

他整个灵魂何等丰裕

日神洒下宗教的光辉

比于众神之列，凡人无可接近