The Chimney Sweeper 掃煙囪孩子

--William Blake --威廉.布萊克

The Chimney Sweeper is the title of two poems by William Blake, published in Songs of Innocence in 1789 and Songs of Experience in 1794.In the earlier poem, a young chimney sweeper recounts a dream had by one of his fellows, in which an angel rescues the boys from coffins and takes them to a sunny meadow; in the later poem, an apparently adult speaker encounters a child chimney sweeper abandoned in the snow while his parents are at church.

When my mother died I was very young, 我母親死的時候，我還小得很，

And my father sold me while yet my tongue 我父親把我拿出來賣給了別人，

Could scarcely cry ’weep! ’weep! ’weep! ’weep! 我當時還不大喊得清，“掃呀――掃!”

So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep. 我就掃你們煙囪，裹煤屑睡覺。

There’s little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head, 有個小托姆，頭發卷得像小羊頭，

That curled like a lamb’s back, was shaved: so I said, 剃光的時候，哭得好傷心，好難受，

"Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head’s bare, 我就說：“小托姆，不要緊，光了腦袋，

You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair." 打起來煤屑就不會糟踏你白頭發。”

And so he was quiet; and that very night, 他就安安靜靜了，當天夜里，

As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight, - 托姆睡著了，事情就來得稀奇，

That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack, 他看見千千萬萬的掃煙囪小孩

Were all of them locked up in coffins of black. 阿貓阿狗全都給鎖進了黑棺材。

And by came an angel who had a bright key, 后來來了個天使，拿了把金鑰匙，

And he opened the coffins and set them all free; 開棺材放出了孩子們(真是好天使!)

Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run, 他們就邊跳，邊笑，邊跑過草坪，

And wash in a river, and shine in the sun. 到河里洗了澡，太陽里曬得亮晶晶。

Then naked and white, all their bags left behind, 光光的，白白的，把袋子都拋個一，

They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind; 他們就升上了云端，在風里游戲;

And the angel told Tom, if he’d be a good boy, “只要你做個好孩子，”天使對托姆說，

He’d have God for his father, and never want joy. “上帝會做你的父親，你永遠快樂。”

And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark, 托姆就醒了;屋子里黑咕隆咚，

And got with our bags and our brushes to work. 我們就起來拿袋子、掃帚去做工。

Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm; 大清早盡管冷，托姆的心里可溫暖;

So if all do their duty they need not fear harm. 這叫做：各盡本分，就不怕災難。