The Banyan Tree
榕树

by Rabindranath Tagore 
from The Crescent Moon

Translated by Zheng Zhenduo

O you shaggy-headed banyan tree standing on the bank of the pond, have you forgotten the little child, like the birds that have nested in your branches and left you?
喂，你站在池边的蓬头的榕树，你可曾忘记了那小小的孩子，就像那在你的枝上筑巢又离开了你的鸟儿似的孩子？

Do you not remember how he sat at the window and wondered at the tangle of your roots that plunged underground?
你不记得他怎样坐在窗内，诧异地望着你深入地下的纠缠的树根么？

The women would come to fill their jars in the pond, and your huge black shadow would wriggle on the water like sleep struggling to wake up.
妇人们常到池边，汲了满罐的水去，你的大黑影便在水面上摇动，好象睡着的人挣扎着要醒来似的。

Sunlight danced on the ripples like restless tiny shuttles weaving golden tapestry.
日光在微波上跳舞，好象不停不息的小梭在织着金色的花毡。

Two ducks swam by the weedy margin above their shadows, and the child would sit still and think.
两只鸭子挨着芦苇，在芦苇影子上游来游去，孩子静静地坐在那里想着。

He longed to be the wind and blow through your rustling branches, to be your shadow and lengthen with the day on the water, to be a bird and perch on your top-most twig, and to float like those ducks among the weeds and shadows.
他想做风，吹过你萧萧的枝杈；想做你的影子，在水面上，随了日光而俱长；想做一只鸟儿，栖息在你的最高枝上；还想做那两只鸭，在芦苇与阴影中间游来游去。

【沪江小编】《新月集》主要译自1903年出版的孟加拉文诗集《儿童集》，也有的是用英文直接创作的。其中的诗作多以儿童视角创作，将儿童心理描绘得惟妙惟肖而动人心弦。诗集为读者呈现了一个纯净的童真世界，也处处洋溢着南亚独特的自然风情和浓郁的生活气息。

Banyan Tree是菩提树，也叫印度榕树，常生长在水边，它蓬松的树冠是鸟儿安乐的家园，它投下的大片树荫为地下的生灵送去清凉，像一位慈爱的长辈呵护着自己的子孙。孩子一定常常坐在窗前，水边，出神地凝望这棵大树，像注视一位亲人、朋友一般，充满依恋的感情。