Night on the Prairies
by Walt Whitman

Night on the prairies,
The supper is over, the fire on the ground burns low,
The wearied emigrants sleep, wrapt in their blankets;
I walk by myself--I stand and look at the stars, which I think now
never realized before.
Now I absorb immortality and peace,
I admire death and test propositions.
How plenteous! how spiritual! how resume!
The same old man and soul--the same old aspirations, and the same content.
I was thinking the day most splendid till I saw what the not-day
exhibited,
I was thinking this globe enough till there sprang out so noiseless
around me myriads of other globes.
Now while the great thoughts of space and eternity fill me I will
measure myself by them,
And now touch'd with the lives of other globes arrived as far along
as those of the earth,
Or waiting to arrive, or pass'd on farther than those of the earth,
I henceforth no more ignore them than I ignore my own life,
Or the lives of the earth arrived as far as mine, or waiting to arrive.
O I see now that life cannot exhibit all to me, as the day cannot,
I see that I am to wait for what will be exhibited by death.

草原之夜

在草原上的夜里，

晚餐过了，火在地上轻轻地燃烧，

疲倦了的移民裹着他们的毯子睡着了，

我独自漫游，——我站着观望现在想来我以前从没有注意过的

星星。

现在我吸取永生和和平，

我羡慕死，我考查各种问题。

多么丰饶！多么高尚！多么简明哟！

同样的一个老人和灵魂——同样的旧有的渴望，同样的满足。

直到我看见非白天所展示的一切，我一直以为白天最为光辉灿

烂，

直到在我的周围无声地涌现出千万个其他的地球，我一直以为

这个地球已经很足够。

现在空间和永恒的伟大思想己充满了我，我要以它们来测量我

自己，

现在我接触到别的星球的生命，这生命跟大地上的生命一样来

自遥远的地方，

或是将要来到，或是已经超过了大地上的生命，

此后我将不再漠视它们，正如我不漠视我自己的生命，

或者那些在大地上跟我一样进展的，或将要来到的生命。

啊，我现在看出生命不能向我展示出所有的一切，白天也不能

展示出所有的一切，

我看出我得等待那将由死展示出来的东西。