When Great Trees Falls
當大樹倒下
by Maya Angelou
瑪雅·安杰羅

When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.

當大樹倒下，
遠山巖石也會瑟瑟，
雄獅低伏于
深深草叢，
無所畏懼的大象，
亦腳步忡忡。

When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.

當大樹倒下，
林間小獸
不由得蜷縮屏息，
所有感官
浸蝕于無可名狀的驚悸。

When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.

當偉大的靈魂逝去，
連空氣都變得稀薄無力，
讓人窒息。
雙眸一瞥間，
盡是痛徹肌理。
回憶，驟然清晰的回憶，
反復
咀嚼著，
未曾出口的
溫柔話語，
無法兌現的
攜手共旅。

Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold
caves.

當偉大的靈魂逝去，
將我們縈繞的
現實剝離，
讓我們需要滋養的
靈魂委頓，
曾沐過光輝的，
萬千思緒
亦分崩離析。
甚至沒有瘋狂的情緒，
只剩下不可言說
木然冰冷的黑暗空虛。

And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.

然而，當偉大的靈魂逝去
總有一天
平和終將重歸心底，
在不經意的一瞬，
周身充盈著
溫暖電流般的慰藉。
重拾的感官，煥然一新，
在耳邊低語。
因他們的存在，永遠不會被抹去。
而我們仍將繼續，
帶著他們留下的印記
向著光亮繼續。

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