整个上午我坐在学校校医室里，
数着宣告下课的一下下钟声。
两点钟，我的邻居用车送我回家。

在门廊里．我遇见父亲在哭泣——
平常遇到丧事，他总能从容对付——
大个子伊文斯说这是个严重打击。

我进屋时婴儿咕咕叫着，笑着
摆动摇篮，我感到窘迫
当老年人站起来和我握手，

告诉我他们“为我受苦而难过”，
有人低声对陌生人说，我是老大，
在学校做事，我母亲握着我的手

边咳嗽边发出无泪的气愤的叹息。
十点钟，救护车到了，运来
护士们止了血、包扎好了的尸体。

第二天早晨我走进屋去，雪花莲
和蜡烛使床榻得到慰藉。六周来
我还是第一次见到他。如今，脸苍白，

他左太阳穴上有紫色的血块，
他躺在四尺长的木箱里就像躺在儿童床里，
并无血淋淋的伤痕，汽车的保险杆利索地把他击
倒了。

一只四尺长的木箱，每年一尺长。

I sat all morning in the college sick bay
Counting bells knelling classes to a close.
At two o'clock our neighbors drove me home.

In the porch I met my father crying--
He had always taken funerals in his stride--
And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.

The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram
When I came in, and I was embarrassed
By old men standing up to shake my hand

And tell me they were "sorry for my trouble,"
Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,
Away at school, as my mother held my hand

In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.
At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived
With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.

Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops
And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him
For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,

Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,
He lay in the four foot box as in his cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.

A four foot box, a foot for every year.