蔗尾蜂房

[以自我為中心]
--Stevie Smith

我幹嘛理會上帝的好壞
倘若祂對我並不好，
倘若祂聽不見我哭喊
也從不留心我午夜憂鬱的嘆息？
我何必管祂是否創造了羔羊，
或創造了金毛獅子，或喜歡爛泥的蛤蠣，
或踏步時爪上有肉墊的老虎，
或無腳蜥蜴最熟悉的肥沃土地？
祂創造了小貓頭鷹和狒狒，
祂創造了紅眼睛的鵜鶘，
祂創造了一切沉默、無人性的暴行，
對祂的意志無知無覺、安然自若，
被問題意識的火焰燒到還麻木不仁
這就是我的榮耀也是痛苦的禍根。
我幹嘛管天空是否是藍色，
幹嘛管上帝是否造了蚊蟲和大羚羊，
我幹嘛理會上帝的好壞
倘若祂對我並不好？


[Egocentric]

What care I if good God be
If he be not good to me,
If he will not hear my cry
Nor heed my melancholy midnight sigh?
What care I if he created Lamb,
And golden Lion, and mud-delighting Clam,
And Tiger stepping out on padded toe,
And the fecund earth the Blindworms know?
He made the infant Owl and the Baboon,
He made the ruby-orbed Pelican,
He made all silent inhumanity,
Nescient and quiescent to his will,
Unquickened by the questing conscious flame
That is my glory and my bitter bane.
What care I if Skies are blue,
If God created Gnat and Gnu,
What care I if good God be
If he be not good to me?