Ode de Autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
　Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun 1;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
　With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves 2 run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
　And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
　　To swell the gourd 3, and plump the hazel shells
　With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
　　For summer has o'er 4-brimm'd their clammy cells 5.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store 6?
　Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary 7 floor,
　Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing 8 wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow9 sound asleep,
　Drows'd10 with the fume of poppies11, while thy hook
　　Spares the next swath 12 and all its twined13 flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner14 thou dost keep
　Steady thy laden head across a brook;
　Or by a cyder-press15, with patient look,
　　Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of spring?? Ay, where are they?
　Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, -
While barred clouds 16 bloom the soft-dying day,
　And touch the stubble 17-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
　Among the river sallows 18, borne aloft 19
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
　　And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn20;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
　The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft21;
　　And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

1. 這邊是指「使萬物成熟的太陽」，在第一詩節太陽和秋日合作無間，讓萬物成熟。[Back]

2. "thatch-eves" 意指用來遮蔽的茅草樹葉外層，懸掛突出於屋頂之上。[Back]

3. "gourd" 是指一些瓢瓜類的植物，像是南瓜、小黃瓜。[Back]

4. "o'er" 是 "over"的簡稱，這邊"o'er-brimm'd "是形容「滿溢」的程度。[Back]

5. 這邊的 "cells" 是指蜂巢內的黏濕方格。[Back]

6. 這裡是指大量的收穫物，"store"意近「倉庫」。[Back]

7. "granary"有「倉庫」之意。[Back]

8. "winnowing"是指簸穀所產生的氣流。[Back]

9. "furrow"是指犁過的田地。[Back]

10. 等於"drowsed"，被催眠而昏沉的感覺。[Back]

11. "poppies"是罌粟花的種子。[Back]

12. "swath"是田裡犁過的痕跡。[Back]

13. 等於"twisted"被輾過變形的。[Back]

14. "gleaner"是拾穗的人。[Back]

15. "cyder-press"指的是壓製蘋果汁的過程。[Back]

16. 形容細長而平行綿延的雲層像是欄杆一般。[Back]

17. "stubble"是稻穗收割後剩餘的根株。[Back]

18. "sallows"這邊等同"willow"柳樹的意思。[Back]

19. "borne aloft"是只被風吹的很高。[Back]

20. "bourn"是一塊領域一個範圍。[Back]

21. "croft"是一小塊封閉的土地。[Back]