這一首是我比較常教的，因為效果真的很好。
CLOUDS AND WAVES
Mother, the folk who live up in the clouds call out to me--
”We play from the time we wake till the day ends.
We play with the golden dawn, we play with the silver moon.
I ask, ”But, how am I to get up to you?” They answer, ”Come to
the edge of the earth, lift up your hands to the sky, and you
will be taken up into the clouds.”
”My mother is waiting for me at home,” I say. ”How can I leave
her and come?”
Then they smile and float away.
But I know a nicer game than that, mother.
I shall be the cloud and you the moon.
I shall cover you with both my hands, and our house-top will be
the blue sky.
The folk who live in the waves call out to me--
”We sing from morning till night; on and on we travel and know
not where we pass.”
I ask, ”But, how am I to join you?” They tell me, ”Come to the
edge of the shore and stand with your eyes tight shut, and you
will be carried out upon the waves.”
I say, ”My mother always wants me at home in the evening--how can
I leave her and go?”
Then they smile, dance and pass by.
But I know a better game than that.
I will be the waves and you will be a strange shore.
I shall roll on and on and on, and break upon your lap with
laughter.
And no one in the world will know where we both are.
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唸這一首總是讓我很開心
SUPERIOR
Mother, your baby is silly! She is so absurdly childish!
She does not know the difference between the lights in the
streets and the stars.
When we play at eating with pebbles, she thinks they are real
food, and tries to put them into her mouth.
When I open a book before her and ask her to learn her a, b, c,
she tears the leaves with her hands and roars for joy at nothing;
this is your baby’s way of doing her lesson.
When I shake my head at her in anger and scold her and call her
naughty, she laughs and thinks it great fun.
Everybody knows that father is away, but if in play I call aloud
”Father,” she looks about her in excitement and thinks that
father is near.
When I hold my class with the donkeys that our washerman brings
to carry away the clothes and I warn her that I am the
schoolmaster, she will scream for no reason and call me dada.
Your baby wants to catch the moon. She is so funny; she calls
Ganesh Gunush. [Ganesh, a common name in India, also that of
the god with the elephant’s head.]
Mother, your baby is silly, she is so absurdly childish!
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這一首讓人忍俊不已
THE LITTLE BIG MAN
I am small because I am a little child. I shall be big when I am
as old as my father is.
My teacher will come and say, ”It is late, bring your slate and
your books.”
I shall tell him, ”Do you not know I am as big as father? And I
must not have lessons any more.”
My master will wonder and say, ”He can leave his books if he
likes, for he is grown up.”
I shall dress myself and walk to the fair where the crowd is
thick.
My uncle will come rushing up to me and say, ”You will get lost,
my boy; let me carry you.”
I shall answer, ”Can’t you see, uncle, I am as big as father. I
must go to the fair alone.”
Uncle will say, ”Yes, he can go wherever he likes, for he is
grown up.”
Mother will come from her bath when I am giving money to my
nurse, for I shall know how to open the box with my key.
Mother will say, ”What are you about, naughty child?”
I shall tell her, ”Mother, don’t you know, I am as big as father,
and I must give silver to my nurse.”
Mother will say to herself, ”He can give money to whom he likes,
for he is grown up.”
In the holiday time in October father will come home and,
thinking that I am still a baby, will bring for me from the town
little shoes and small silken frocks.
I shall say, ”Father, give them to my dada (elder brother), for I am
as big as you are.”
Father will think and say, ”He can buy his own clothes if he
likes, for he is grown up.”
總之，有機會可以在課堂上教泰戈爾的老師真是世界上最幸福的人類了。
我也希望我的學生記得的我就是講台上念著《新月集》的樣子。
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Read more poems from this e-text:
http://www.eldritchpress.org/rt/cmoon.htm不太看得懂的中譯:
http://www.xs007.com/waiguo/t/taigeer/000/001.htm
