Jack Gilbert 的“I dream of lost vocabularies that might express some of what we no longer can.”這句話意思是我夢到已經消逝的詞匯，它們可能表達了某些我們再也無法表達的東西。
傑克·吉爾伯特（Jack Gilbert, 1925-2012），美國當代詩人，著有《大火》、《拒絕天堂》、《獨壹無二的舞蹈》等五部詩集。曾獲耶魯青年詩人獎、全國書評界獎、洛杉磯時報圖書獎等多種詩歌獎項。
《THE FORGOTTEN DIALECT OF THE HEART》譯文：
THE FORGOTTEN DIALECT OF THE HEART
被遺忘的內心方言
How astonishing it is that language can almost mean,and frightening that it does not quite.
多麽令人驚訝，語言幾乎總能有意義，多麽讓人害怕，它並不完全有意義。
Love, we say,God, we say, Rome and Michiko, we write, and the words Get it wrong.?
愛，我們說，上帝，我們說，羅馬和美智子，我們寫，而詞語誤解了它。
We say bread and it means according to which nation.?
我們說面包，它的意義取決於哪壹個民族。
French has no word for home,and we have no word for strict pleasure.?
法語沒有壹個詞表示家，我們沒有壹個詞表示嚴格的快樂。
A people in northern India is dying out because their ancient tongue has no words for endearment.?
印度北部有壹個民族即將滅絕，因為他們古老的語言裏沒有親愛這類詞語。
I dream of lost vocabularies that might express some of what we no longer can.?
我夢到已經消逝的詞匯，它們可能表達了某些我們再也無法表達的東西。
Maybe the Etruscan texts would finally explain why the couples on their tombs are smiling.
也許伊特魯裏亞的文本最終會解釋為什麽墳墓上的那對夫婦正在微笑。
And maybe not.
也許不會解釋。
When the thousands of mysterious Sumerian tablets were translated,they seemed to be business records.?
當數以千計神秘的蘇美爾匾牌被破譯的時候，它們似乎是商業記錄。
But what if they are poems or psalms?
但如果是詩文或聖歌呢？
My joy is the same as twelve Ethiopian goats standing silent in the morning light.?
我的喜悅如同十二只埃塞俄比亞山羊靜立在清晨的陽光裏。
O Lord, thou art slabs of salt and ingots of copper,as grand as ripe barley lithe under the wind's labor.
噢，主啊，妳是鹽板和銅錠，壯麗如成熟的麥子在風的吹動中彎曲。
Her breasts are six white oxen loaded with bolts of long-fibered Egyptian cotton.?
她的胸脯是六頭白色公牛，系著埃及長纖維韁繩。
My love is a hundred pitchers of honey.?
我的愛是壹百罐蜂蜜。
Shiploads of thuya are what my body wants to say to your body.?
大量的金鐘柏是我的身體想對妳的身體的述說。
Giraffes are this desire in the dark.?
長頸鹿是黑夜裏的這種欲望。
Perhaps the spiral Minoan script is not a language but a map.
或許，螺旋狀的米諾斯文字不是壹種語言而是壹幅地圖。
What we feel most has no name but amber, archers, cinnamon, horses and birds.
我們感受最多的沒有名字，除了琥珀，人馬座，樟樹，馬和鳥。