我要給你禮物，
我的孩子，
因為我們都在
漂泊 於世界之河。
我們的生命將紛披離散，
我們的愛 將被遺忘，
但我不致愚蠢到 以為
禮物能夠收買你的心。
年輕是你的生命，
你的路途遙遠。
在一個乾旱的日子
你一口飲盡 我們給過你的愛
而轉身離去。
你有你的遊戲
與你的玩伴。
那有什麼不好，如果你
無暇想念我們。
是的，我們老了，
有足夠的閒暇
數計過往的日子，
在我們心裡 撫愛那些
從我們的手中 永遠消逝的東西。
河水一路吟唱 向前奔流，
沖潰一切障礙。
但山岳駐足
靜靜咀嚼記憶 用愛
遙送她遠行。
～黃武雄 2012/08 譯自泰戈爾《新月集》
原詩英文版（泰戈爾親譯）
THE GIFT*
I want to give you something,
my child, for we are drifting
in the stream of the world.
Our lives will be carried apart,
and our love forgotten.
But I am not so foolish as to hope
That I could buy your heart with my gifts.
Young is your life, your path long,
and you drink the love we bring you
at one draught and turn and
run away from us.
You have your play and your playmates.
What harm is there if you have no time or
thought for us.
We, indeed, have leisure enough
in old age to count the days that are past,
to cherish in our hearts what our hands
have lost forever.
The river runs swift with a song,
breaking through all barriers.
But the mountain stays and remembers,
and follows her with his love.
* fr. Rabindranath Tagore’s “THE CRESCENT MOON” (translated from the original Bengali by the author, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1913)
黃武雄教授文集 