威斯坦·休·奥登(Wystan Hugh Auden,1907年2月21日——1973年9月29日),20世纪上半叶最有影响的英美诗人之一,是继威廉·巴特勒·叶芝和托马斯·艾略特之后英国的重要诗人。奥登的长诗《焦虑的时代》(The Age of Anxiety,1947)1948年获得普利策奖,《阿基里斯之盾》(1955)被认为是奥登战后所写的最为感人的诗集,获国家图书奖,获国家文学奖。
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message ‘He is Dead’.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.