Assurance
By William Stafford

You will never be alone, you hear so deep
a sound when autumn comes. Yellow
pulls across the hills and thrums,
or the silence after lightning before it says
its names- and then the clouds' wide-mouthed
apologies. You were aimed from birth:
you will never be alone. Rain
will come, a gutter filled, an Amazon,
long aisles- you never heard so deep a sound,
moss on rock, and years. You turn your head-
that's what the silence meant: you're not alone.
The whole wide world pours down.


慰藉
威廉·斯塔福德 作

忒绿 译

你不会再孤单，你听见秋天来临时
那样低沉的声音。金黄
弥漫群山，瑟瑟低鸣，
或是闪电之后、尚未说出自己名字之前的
静默—— 然后是云彩张开大口表达的
歉意。你从出生便被瞄定：
你不会再孤单。雨
就会降临，溢满的天沟，（仿佛）一条亚马逊，
漫长的廊道—— 你从未听过如此低沉的声音、
石上的青苔、还有光阴。你转过头——
那正是静默所指：你并不孤单。
整个浩瀚的世界倾泻而下。


简析：

与其将这首诗解读为悲伤中的安慰，不如将其视为在越来越关注个人主义的文化中拒绝以自我为中心的孤独。