《驶向拜占庭》是爱尔兰诗人叶芝最负盛名的长诗之一，写于1928年，是诗集《塔堡》中的第一首诗歌，也是象征主义的代表作之一。诗歌寄托了诗人希望通过艺术追求不朽的愿望。《驶向拜占庭》表现了诗人对灵与肉、永恒与生命之间矛盾对立的独特领会，表达了他在年华老去之后，希望通过艺术追求不朽的愿望。全诗的抒情活动建立在有生命的生物和永恒的艺术与理性产品两组象征上，前者暗示有限的生命、物欲和自然，后者象征超自然的不朽、永恒，核心象征“拜占庭”。
w.b. yeats - sailing to byzantium
驶向拜占庭 ---- 叶芝
查良铮译
that is no country for old men. the young
in one another's arms, birds in the trees
- those dying generations - at their song,
the salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
caught in that sensual music all neglect
monuments of unageing intellect.
an aged man is but a paltry thing,
a tattered coat upon a stick, unless
soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
for every tatter in its mortal dress,
nor is there singing school but studying
monuments of its own magnificence;
and therefore i have sailed the seas and come
to the holy city of byzantium.
o sages standing in god's holy fire
as in the gold mosaic of a wall,
come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
and be the singing-masters of my soul.
consume my heart away; sick with desire
and fastened to a dying animal
it knows not what it is; and gather me
into the artifice of eternity.
once out of nature i shall never take
my bodily form from any natural thing,
but such a form as grecian goldsmiths make
of hammered gold and gold enamelling
to keep a drowsy emperor awake;
or set upon a golden bough to sing
to lords and ladies of byzantium
of what is past, or passing, or to come.
。