As imperceptibly as grief

The summer lapsed away,

Too imperceptible, at last,

To seem like perfidy.

A quietness distilled,

5

As twilight long begun,

Or nature, spending with herself

Sequestered afternoon.

The dusk drew earlier in,

The morning foreign shone

10

A courteous, yet harrowing grace

As guest, that would be gone

And thus, without a wing

Or service of a keel,

Our summer made her light escape

15

Into the beautiful.

Line

Word or phrase

Annotation

1　

imperceptibly

不知不覺的。憂傷之去總在不之不覺中，所以正好用來比喻夏日的逸失

4

perfidy

原意為背信或不義。在暗地裡作些背叛的事情總是有意的，但夏日之逝，卻輕巧的不像有意要背信而去。

5-6

 distilled

被蒸餾出來。夏日去，則黃昏來得早，此時一片寂靜。此時的寂靜像是被蒸餾出來的。可見其寂靜之純。

7-8

spending... afternoon

漸漸耗盡的。sequestered小便隱退;扣押。夏去秋來，草木漸枯萎，萬物日蕭條，宛若漸漸消瘦的(spending)大自然把下午繫押了起來。

10

The morning foreign shone

清晨射出陌生的光芒。

11

A courteous, yet harrowing grace

拘謹而惱人的「優雅」。grace在美學上指消逝的大地之美，在神學上則是永生的暗示。

14

keel

(船的)龍骨。這兩行旨在說明夏日之去無形跡可循。既不用翅膀飛去，也不用小舟划去。其悄然驟逝的情況令人難以察覺。

16

 the beautiful

美的境地。在基督教的歌詠中，the beautiful指的是天堂。