London Bridge

From a Railway Carriage
by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94)
Railway Rhymes edited by Peter Ashley, Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets

Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle,
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.

Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,
All by himself and gathering brambles;
Here is a tramp who stands and gazes,
And there is the green for stringing the daisies!
Here is a cart run away in the road
Lumping along with man and load;
And here is a mill, and there is a river:
Each a glimpse and gone for ever!

星期六那天，我終於在月台上停下來，每天都經過都轉車的站，夕陽是粉紅色的天空。忽然忘了這裡是陰沈的倫敦。可惜照片裡面的火車模糊到若不加說明，幾年後我會忘了這是London Bridge的月台。