自己之歌（節選）

Walt Whitman

佚 名（譯）

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.

我想我可以和這些動物們一起，

它們是如此溫和，自給自足，

有時候我可以久久地站著觀察它們。

它們不出汗，也不抱怨生存條件，

晚上它們也不躺下休息，而是為它們的罪過而哭泣，

它們向造物主陳述自己的職責，這一點都不讓我討厭，

沒有誰是不滿意的，

沒有誰因為占有欲而發狂，

沒有誰向誰屈尊下跪，或是盲目崇拜著它們幾千年前的祖先，

在這片大地上，沒有誰是值得尊重或悲傷的。