During the first year that Mr. Wordsworth and I were neighbours, our conversations turns frequently on the two cardinal points of poetry, the power of exciting the sympathy of the reader by a faithful adherence to the truth of nature, and the power of giving the interest of novelty by the modifying colours of imagination. The sudden charm which accidents of light and shade, which moonlight or sunset, diffused over a known and familiar landscape, appeared to represent the practicability of combining both. These are the poetry of nature. The thought suggested itself (to which of us I do not recollect) that a series of poems might be composed of two sorts. In the one, the poems might be composed of two sorts. In the one, the incidents and agents were to be, in part at least, supernatural; and the excellence aimed at was to consist in the interesting of the affections by the dramatic truth of such emotions, as would naturally accompany such situations, supposing them real. And real in this sense they have been to every human being who, from whatever source of delusion, has at any time believed himself under supernatural agency. For the second class, subjects were to be chosen form ordinary life; the characters and incidents were to be such as will be found in every village and its vicinity where there is a meditative and feeling mind to seek after them, or tot notice them when they present themselves.
我与华兹华斯先生结邻而居的第一年，我们的谈话常常转 向诗歌中两个根本问题:一是信守自然的真实以激发读着共鸣的力量，一是发挥想象，改变事物的原有色彩，赋予事物新奇趣昧的力量。月光与落日的余辉，变幻莫侧的光与影，慢射在 你一向熟悉的景物上，却呈现出意想不到的魅力，这现象似乎可以表明，使上述两种力量互相结合是可行的。这些都是大自然的诗歌，因此我们产生了一种想法(我已记不起是他还是我想到的)，可以合两类诗歌为一集。一类，其事件和人物至少将是部分地超自然的。如此情境自然会触发种种情感，将超自然的情境设想为其实情境，这种情感戏剧性的真实使情感饶有趣味，正是这类诗歌所企求的特色。在这个意义上，任何一个出于形形色色的幻觉随时都相信自己处于超自然的力量支配之下的人，都曾以为这种超自然情景是真实的。另一类，题材选自日常生活，人物和事件是每一个村庄或你近地区都可发现的，只须一颗易感善思的心灵去寻找，或者当其出现时能够发觉。
In this idea originated the plan of the “Lyrical Ballads”; in which it was agreed that my endeavours should be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic; yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith. Mr. Wordsworth, on the other hand, was to propose to himself s his object, to give the charm of novelty to things of every day, and to excite a feeling analogous to the supernatural, by awakening the mind’s attention from the lethargy of custom, and directing it to the loveliness and the wonders of the world before us; an inexhaustible treasure, but for which, in consequence of the film of familiarity and selfish solicitude, we have eyes, yet see not, ears that hear not, and hearts that neither fell nor understand.
抒情歌谣集》的计划即产生于上述现点。经商定:我的努力方向是写超身然的或至少是传奇式的人物和性格，但须从我们的内心世界引出人类的情趣和类似的真实，以充分促使读者于一时之间相信想象的幻影，即构成诗的信念。另一方面，华兹华斯先生为自己提出的目标是:赋于日常生活以新的魅力， 并从习惯性的冷漠中唤醒心灵的注意力，引导心灵注意现实世界可爱之处和奇迹，以激发一种类似超自然的感情。现实世界本来是取之不尽的宝藏，只是由于我们对它过分熟悉，并且只关心个人利害，因此形成隔膜，结果对它视而不见，听而不闻， 心里既无感觉也不理解。
With this view I wrote the “Ancient Mariner”, and was preparing among other poems, the “Dark Ladie”, and the “Christabel”, in which I should have more nearly realized my ideal than I had done in my first attempt. But Mr. Wordsworth’s industry had proved so much more successful, and the number of his poems so much greater, that my compositions, instead of forming a balance, appeared rather an interpolation of heterogeneous matter. Mr. Wordsworth added two or three poems written in his own character, in the impassioned, lofty, and sustained diction which is characteristic of his genius. In this form the “Lyrical Ballads” were published; and were presented by him as an experiment, whether subjects, which from their nature rejected the usual ornaments and extracolloquial style fo poems in general, might not be so managed in the language of ordinary life as to produce the pleasurable interest which it is the peculiar business of poetry to impart.
本着这种观点我写了《老船夫》并准备写另一些诗，其甲包括《黑夫人》和《克里司塔贝尔》，在后一篇诗里，我本应比第一次尝试更能接近实砚我的理想。而华兹华斯先生的勤奋证明远比我成功，他的诗比我的多得多，因此我的作品不仅不能与之保持平衡，且颇似凭空抽入的异类。华兹华斯先生还添进两三首体现他本人风格的诗，措词热情、崇高，耐人寻味，最足以代表其天才的特色，《抒情歌谣集》就是以这样的面目出版的—那些由于本身的性质通常不宜运用一般的藻饰和过于通俗的风格来处理的题材，现在却用日常生活中的语言来表达，以求产生一种淮独诗歌所能给予的情趣。先论这一尝试是否成功， 他已把它作为一种试验献给读者了。
