两首诗

许多世纪以前，有两个诗人在到雅典去的大路上相遇，彼此见面，很是高兴。

一个诗人间另一个诗人道："你最近在写什么？你的七弦竖琴如何配乐？"另一个诗人自豪地回答道："我刚写完我的最伟大的诗篇，也许是迄今用希腊文写的最伟大的诗篇。这是一首向至高无上的宙斯神祈祷的诗篇。"

于是他从斗篷下取出一卷羊皮纸，说道："哎，你瞧，我把诗稿带来了，我很高兴读给你听。来吧，让我们坐到那棵白扁柏的树荫下去。"

诗人便朗读他的诗。那是一首长诗。

另一个诗人友好地说道："这是一首伟大的诗篇。这诗将世代相传，你将因此扬名千古。"

第一个诗人平静地问道："那末你在最近的日子里写了些什么呢？"另一个诗人答道："我写得很少。只写了八行诗，纪念一个在花园里玩耍的孩子的。"接着他就背诵了那八行诗。

第一个诗人说："不赖，不赖。"

于是他们就分手了。

如今二千多年过去了，那八行诗仍在每个人的嘴里吟咏，大家喜爱它珍惜它。

那首长诗虽然也确实世世代代在图书馆里、在学者的藏书楼里传下来了；虽然记得这首诗，却既没有人爱它，又没有人读它。

The Two Poems

Many centuries ago, on a road to Athens, two poets met, and they were glad to see one another.

And one poet asked the other saying, "What have you composed of late, and how goes it with your lyre?"

And the other poet answered and said with pride, "I have but now finished the greatest of my poems, perchance the greatest poem yet written in Greek. It is an invocation to Zeus the Supreme."

Then he took from beneath his cloak a parchment, saying, "Here, behold, I have it with me, and I would fain read it to you. Come, let us sit in the shade of that white cypress."

And the poet read his poem. And it was a long poem.

And the other poet said in kindliness, "This is a great poem. It will live through the ages, and in it you shall be glorified."

And the first poet said calmly, "And what have you been writing these late days?"

And the other another, "I have written but little. Only eight lines in remembrance of a child playing in a garden." And he recited the lines.

The first poet said, "Not so bad; not so bad."

And they parted.

And now after two thousand years the eight lines of the one poet are read in every tongue, and are loved and cherished.

And though the other poem has indeed come down through the ages in libraries and in the cells of scholars, and though it is remembered, it is neither loved nor read.