咱们先不看中译文有没有诗味，且看英译文的最后一句“postponed to never”, 我的理解是：现代人生活匆忙，即使有与植物谈心的念头，也腾不出时间，夙愿永无实现之日。然而张译文把它译成了“任何时候都不能耽搁”（翻译成译文应该是 “never to be postponed”），意思与英译文大为不同，口气也自然从“叹惋”变成了“劝诫”。不过，说心里话，这几句真得不好译，思来想去，只得出如下的模样，恳请方家指正。
As long as nothing can be known for sure
(no signals have been picked up yet),
as long as Earth is still unlike
the nearer and more distant planets,
as long as there's neither hide nor hair
of other grasses graced by other winds,
of other treetops bearing other crowns,
other animals as well-grounded as our own,
as long as only the local echo
has been known to speak in syllables,
as long as we still haven't heard word
of better or worse mozarts,
platos, edisons somewhere,
as long as our inhuman crimes
are still committed only between humans,
as long as our kindness
is still incomparable,
peerless even in its imperfection,
as long as our heads packed with illusions
still pass for the only heads so packed,
as long as the roofs of our mouths alone
still raise voices to high heavens--
let's act like very special guests of honor
at the district-firemen's ball
dance to the beat of the local oompah band,
and pretend that it's the ball
to end all balls.
I can't speak for others--
for me this is
misery and happiness enough:
just this sleepy backwater
where even the stars have time to burn
while winking at us
unintentionally.
translated by Clare Cavanagh &
Stanislaw Baranczak