I read poetry all the time and write about it frequently and take poems apart to see how they work because I'm a word person. I understand the world best, most fully, in words rather than, say, pictures or numbers, and when I have a new experience or a new feeling, I'm a little frustrated until I can try to put it into words. I think I've always been that way. I devoured science fiction as a child. I still do. And I found poems by Andrew Marvell and Matthew Arnold and Emily Dickinson and William Butler Yeats because they were quoted in science fiction, and I loved their sounds and I went on to read about ottava rima and medial caesuras and enjambment and all that other technical stuff that you care about if you already care about poems, because poems already made me happier and sadder and more alive. And I became a poetry critic because I wanted to know how and why.
我从未停止过读诗, 经常写诗, 句句细读, 品味诗歌的奥妙, 因为,我为文字而生。 唯落于文字,我才能完全理解世界, 而不是通过图片或数字, 每每有了新的经历,新的感受, 只有表达成文字, 我才会心安。 一直以来,概莫能外。 小时候,科幻小说,我嗜之如命,至今依然。 科幻小说引用了安德鲁•马维尔, 马修•阿诺德,艾米莉•迪金森, 威廉•巴特勒•叶芝等诗人的诗歌, 我便与他们笔下美丽的篇章相遇, 我深爱着这些无声的音符, 进而,我认识了八行诗体, 居中停顿、跨行连续 等等诗歌艺术形式, 如果你也深爱诗歌,你一定知道这些概念, 因为诗歌赋予我欢乐,带给我忧伤, 也让我发现更多生命的意义。 为探索其中的奥妙, 我做了一名诗评人。
Now, poetry isn't one thing that serves one purpose any more than music or computer programming serve one purpose. The greek word poem, it just means "a made thing," and poetry is a set of techniques, ways of making patterns that put emotions into words. The more techniques you know, the more things you can make, and the more patterns you can recognize in things you might already like or love.
诗歌的作用, 并不比音乐或电脑编程多, 一个就够了。 「诗歌」,在希腊语里的意思是「人造的东西」, 以一定的艺术技巧, 按照音节、声调和韵律等体裁、格式要求, 把情感在文字中呈现出来,这就是诗歌。 知道越多的艺术技巧, 悟出的感受会越多, 那些原本就喜爱的事情, 你会从另外的角度发现它们的美。
That said, poetry does seem to be especially good at certain things. For example, we are all going to die. Poetry can help us live with that. Poems are made of words, nothing but words. The particulars in poems are like the particularities, the personalities, that distinguish people from one another. Poems are easy to share, easy to pass on, and when you read a poem, you can imagine someone's speaking to you or for you, maybe even someone far away or someone made up or someone deceased. That's why we can go to poems when we want to remember something or someone, to celebrate or to look beyond death or to say goodbye, and that's one reason poems can seem important, even to people who aren't me, who don't so much live in a world of words. The poet Frank O'Hara said, "If you don't need poetry, bully for you," but he also said when he didn't want to be alive anymore, the thought that he wouldn't write any more poems had stopped him. Poetry helps me want to be alive, and I want to show you why by showing you how, how a couple of poems react to the fact that we're alive in one place at one time in one culture, and in another we won't be alive at all.
也就是说,在某些方面, 诗歌的确是无法取代的。 比如,我们终将逝去。 诗歌让我们坦然接受这一事实。 诗歌由词语组成,除此之外,别无他物。 诗歌的独特性, 要从细节上去把握, 要结合诗人的性格去体会, 诗歌易于分享,便于传播, 品读一首诗歌, 宛如有人在你耳旁,为你诵读, 此人,或远, 或幻,或在天国。 这就是为何,每当我们缅怀这人,那事, 便会拾起一篇篇诗文, 或纪念,或超脱, 或道别, 诗歌为何不可或缺,这就是原因之一, 即便对于那些不像我这样 生活在文字堆砌成的世界的人。 诗人弗兰克•欧哈拉曾说, 「你说不需要诗歌,你真了不起。」 但他曾坦言,当有了不想活下去的念头时, 一想到这意味着没法再写诗, 就不会再有那种念头了。 诗歌让我热爱生命, 我为你诵读一些诗歌,你就会明白, 你会从这些诗歌中感受到, 此次此刻我们在此呼吸行走, 而在另一个世界里我们可能根本没有感觉。
So here's one of the first poems I memorized. It could address a child or an adult.
这是我记诵的第一首诗歌, 无关乎年龄,皆可品读。
"From far, from eve and morning
「来自远方 来自黄昏和清晨
From yon twelve-winded sky,
来自十二重高天的好风轻扬
The stuff of life to knit me
飘来生命气息的吹拂
Blew hither; here am I.
吹在我身上
Now — for a breath I tarry
快 趁生命气息逗留
Nor yet disperse apart —
盘桓未去
Take my hand quick and tell me,
拉住我的手
What have you in your heart.
告诉我你的心声
Speak now, and I will answer;
告诉我,我便能回答
How shall I help you, say;
告诉我,我怎样才能够帮助你
Ere to the wind's twelve quarters
在我向那十二风彼方行进
I take my endless way."
踏上无尽旅途的前夕」
[A. E. Housman]
[A E 霍斯曼 《趁生命气息逗留》]
Now, this poem has appealed to science fiction writers. It's furnished at least three science fiction titles, I think because it says poems can brings us news from the future or the past or across the world, because their patterns can seem to tell you what's in somebody's heart. It says poems can bring people together temporarily, which I think is true, and it sticks in my head not just because it rhymes but for how it rhymes, cleanly and simply on the two and four, "say" and "way," with anticipatory hints on the one and three, "answer" and "quarters," as if the poem itself were coming together. It plays up the fact that we die by exaggerating the speed of our lives. A few years on Earth become one speech, one breath. It's a poem about loneliness -- the "I" in the poem feels no connection will last — and it might look like a plea for help 'til you get to the word "help," where this "I" facing you, taking your hand, is more like a teacher or a genie, or at least that's what he wants to believe. It would not be the first time a poet had written the poem that he wanted to hear.
这首诗吸引了 科幻小说作家的目光, 三篇科幻小说题目的灵感皆来源于此, 因为,这首诗带我们遥望远方, 回首往昔, 跨越疆土; 因为,透过字里行间, 仿佛触碰到了心灵, 诗歌让我们萍水相逢, 诚然, 对此我深信不疑,不只因为诗歌的韵律美, 还在于美的方式, 第二和第四节工整而简洁, 「叙述」和「方式」 第一和第三节往往不出预料, 「解释」和「四格」, 诗歌仿佛浑然天成, 对死亡的话题驾轻就熟, 加速了时光的脚步, 人间数年,在诗人的笔下, 一呼一吸,弹指挥过, 这首诗写的是孤独—— 诗中的「我」无处寻觅关怀, 在读到「帮助」这个词之前, 「我」仿佛在祈求帮助, 「我」与你相顾无言,唯执子之手, 如一位师长,又如一个精灵, 抑或,如他所想所愿。 这不是第一首描述 其内心希冀聆听的诗歌。
Now, this next poem really changed what I liked and what I read and what I felt I could read as an adult. It might not make any sense to you if you haven't seen it before.
下一首,彻底地改变了 我所读,所感, 改变了书能带给我的领悟。 如果你不曾读过此诗, 你就体会不到其中深意。
"The Garden"
《伊甸园》
"Oleander: coral
「夹竹桃:珊瑚
from lipstick ads in the 50's.
50年代的口红广告
Fruit of the tree of such knowledge
认知树的果实
To smack (thin air)
拍打 (轻薄空气)
meaning kiss or hit.
是轻吻,还是击打
It appears
看上去
in the guise of outworn usages
它披裹陈旧的假衣
because we are bad?
因为我们很坏吗?
Big masculine threat,
阳刚的威武
insinuating and slangy."
曲意逢迎,俚语滔滔」
[Rae Armantrout]
[雷•阿尔曼特劳特]
Now, I found this poem in an anthology of almost equally confusing poems in 1989. I just heard that there were these scandalous writers called Language poets who didn't make any sense, and I wanted to go and see for myself what they were like, and some of them didn't do much for me, but this writer, Rae Armantrout, did an awful lot, and I kept reading her until I felt I knew what was going on, as I do with this poem.
1989年,我在一本篇篇让人如此费解的诗选中, 读到了这首诗。 当时,我听说这些「可耻」的作者 被称作语言诗派,写的诗很不着调, 我就想亲自摸索,一探究竟。 很多诗人对我的理解没带来多少帮助, 除了这位,雷•阿尔曼特劳特, 我获益良多,自此对她的作品爱不释卷, 直到体会到了字里行间的曼妙, 正如这首诗。
It's about the Garden of Eden and the Fall and the Biblical story of the Fall, in which sex as we know it and death and guilt come into the world at the same time. It's also about how appearances deceive, how our culture can sweep us along into doing and saying things we didn't intend or don't like, and Armantrout's style is trying to help us stop or slow down. "Smack" can mean "kiss" as in air kisses, as in lip-smacking, but that can lead to "smack" as in "hit" as in domestic abuse, because sexual attraction can seem threatening. The red that means fertility can also mean poison. Oleander is poisonous. And outworn usages like "smack" for "kiss" or "hit" can help us see how our unacknowledged assumptions can make us believe we are bad, either because sex is sinful or because we tolerate so much sexism. We let guys tell women what to do. The poem reacts to old lipstick ads, and its edginess about statement, its reversals and halts, have everything to do with resisting the language of ads that want to tell us so easily what to want, what to do, what to think. That resistance is a lot of the point of the poem, which shows me, Armantrout shows me what it's like to hear grave threats and mortal dishonesty in the language of everyday life, and once she's done that, I think she can show other people, women and men, what it's like to feel that way and say to other people, women and men who feel so alienated or so threatened that they're not alone.
这首诗讲述的是伊甸园和堕落的故事, (译者注:圣经•创世纪•第3章, 亚当和夏娃偷食禁果而被逐出伊甸园) 我们知道, 性、死亡和罪恶 与此同时降落到凡世中。 诗中也描绘了外表如何欺骗双眼, 文化如何席卷我们, 去做、去说那些我们本不打算或不喜欢做的事情, 阿尔曼特劳特的笔风, 让我们舒缓步伐,或停下脚步。 「拍打」可以是亲吻空气 或唇唇欲动的「亲吻」, 也可以是家庭暴力中的 「击打」, 因为性诱惑看起来是极具威胁的。 意味着丰饶的「红色」, 也可以表示「毒药」, 夹竹桃是有毒的。 陈旧的用法,如「拍打」指「亲吻」 或「击打」,让我们认识到 不足的认知会让我们做出 「自己很坏」的假设, 或因为性是罪恶的, 或因为我们忍受了太多的性别歧视。 让男人告诉女人该做些什么。 这首诗提到了旧时口红广告, 其犀利的言辞, 迂回、停顿等手法,与抵制那些 如此简单地告诉我们如何去渴望、 如何去做、如何去想的广告用语 紧密相连。 诗中诸多笔墨都着力于这种抵制, 阿尔曼特劳特让我看到, 日常生活中听到凶狠的威胁声和 普世大众的谎言是怎样一番感受, 她既然能让我感受到, 我想她也可以让其他人——无论男女——感受到, 那是一种怎样的感受, 然后告诉其他人——无论男女——, 那些感觉被疏远的,或那些被威胁的人们 他们并不孤单
Now, how do I know that I'm right about this somewhat confusing poem? Well in this case, I emailed the poet a draft of my talk and she said, "Yeah, yeah, that's about it." Yeah. (Laughter) (Applause) But usually, you can't know. You never know. You can't be sure, and that's okay. All we can do we is listen to poems and look at poems and guess and see if they can bring us what we need, and if you're wrong about some part of a poem, nothing bad will happen. Now, this next poem is older than Armantrout's, but a little younger than A. E. Housman's.
对于这首令人费解的诗, 我怎么知道我的解读是正确的呢? 我发了封邮件给作者,告诉他我的想法, 她说,「没错,没错,就是如此。」 太好了。(笑声)(掌声) 但通常来讲,你摸不到作者的心思,永远摸不透。 你不确定解读得正确与否,但没关系。 我们能做的只是聆听诗歌, 品味诗歌,琢磨诗句的意义, 看看诗歌能否带给我们需要的感触, 如果对诗歌的某部分理解得不到位, 一点关系都没有。 下面这首诗要比阿尔曼特劳特的那首年代更久远, 但稍稍晚于A E 霍斯曼的那首诗。
"The Brave Man"
《勇敢的人》
"The sun, that brave man,
「太阳,勇敢的人
Comes through boughs that lie in wait,
透过安然而待的枝桠
That brave man.
那勇敢的人
Green and gloomy eyes
双眼暗绿,沉郁
In dark forms of the grass
芳草阴暗
Run away.
逃跑吧
The good stars,
明媚星辰
Pale helms and spiky spurs,
苍苍头盔,尖尖靴刺
Run away.
逃跑吧
Fears of my bed,
故土的畏惧
Fears of life and fears of death,
生命的畏惧,死亡的畏惧
Run away.
逃跑吧
That brave man comes up
勇敢的人挺身而出
From below and walks without meditation,
从低谷走来,不再冥思
That brave man."
勇敢的人」
[Wallace Stevens]
[华莱士•史蒂文斯]
Now, the sun in this poem, in Wallace Stevens' poem, seems so grave because the person in the poem is so afraid. The sun comes up in the morning through branches, dispels the dew, the eyes, on the grass, and defeats stars envisioned as armies. "Brave" has its old sense of showy as well as its modern sense, courage. This sun is not afraid to show his face. But the person in the poem is afraid. He might have been up all night. That is the reveal Stevens saves for that fourth stanza, where run away has become a refrain. This person might want to run away too, but fortified by the sun's example, he might just rise. Stevens saves that sonically odd word "meditation" for the end. Unlike the sun, human beings think. We meditate on past and future, life and death, above and below. And it can make us afraid.
「太阳」在这首诗里, 在这首史蒂文斯的诗里,看起来如此黯淡, 因为诗中描绘的那个人心存畏惧。 早上太阳升起,阳光透过枝桠, 露水消散,刺痛双眼,照耀在芳草上, 星辰被比作军队。 「勇敢」不但有它光辉的一面, 也有现代的意义,勇气。 太阳不畏展示自己, 但诗中描绘的那个人心存畏惧。 他也许整夜无眠。 这是第四节所显示出来的线索, 「逃跑吧」成了一种约束。 这个人或许也想逃跑, 但受太阳鼓舞, 他或许就挺身而出了。 史蒂文斯把「冥思」这个奇怪的词 放在最后。 太阳不曾思考,但人类思考。 我们冥思过去和未来,生命与死亡, 雄起还是消沉。 冥思会让我们畏缩。
Poems, the patterns in poems, show us not just what somebody thought or what someone did or what happened but what it was like to be a person like that, to be so anxious, so lonely, so inquisitive, so goofy, so preposterous, so brave. That's why poems can seem at once so durable, so personal, and so ephemeral, like something inside and outside you at once. The Scottish poet Denise Riley compares poetry to a needle, a sliver of outside I cradle inside, and the American poet Terrance Hayes wrote six poems called "Wind in a Box." One of them asks, "Tell me, what am I going to do when I'm dead?" And the answer is that he'll stay with us or won't stay with us inside us as wind, as air, as words.
诗歌,通过诗歌的格式, 我们不仅可以得知他人的想法, 或他人的作为、发生的故事, 还可以知晓成为一个像那样的人 是怎样一种感受, 是焦虑不安,孤单寂寞,天真好奇, 还是萌萌傻傻,荒谬不堪,勇敢无畏。 这就是为何,某一瞬间, 诗歌可以看起来悠然致远, 蕴含作者独特印迹,又转瞬即逝, 就好像那一瞬,它与你的思想交织,进进出出。 苏格兰诗人丹尼斯•赖利将诗歌比作一根针, 银面裹于外层,我在其中游曳。 美国诗人特朗斯•海耶斯 写过名为「盒中风」的六首诗, 其中一首中这样问到, 「告诉我,我死后,身在何方?」 答案就是,他会在我们身边, 或者不在,而在我们内心,如轻风, 如空气,如诗歌。
It is easier than ever to find poems that might stay inside you, that might stay with you, from long, long ago, or from right this minute, from far away or from right close to where you live, almost no matter where you live. Poems can help you say, help you show how you're feeling, but they can also introduce you to feelings, ways of being in the world, people, very much unlike you, maybe even people from long, long ago. Some poems even tell you that that is what they can do. That's what John Keats is doing in his most mysterious, perhaps, poem. It's mysterious because it's probably unfinished, he probably left it unfinished, and because it might be meant for a character in a play, but it might just be Keats' thinking about what his own writing, his handwriting, could do, and in it I hear, at least I hear, mortality, and I hear the power of older poetic techniques, and I have the feeling, you might have the feeling, of meeting even for an instant, almost becoming, someone else from long ago, someone quite memorable.
诗歌非常容易融进 你的内心,伴随你左右, 或许是很久之前,或许就在此时, 或许在遥远的地方,或许就在眼前, 无论你在何方。 诗歌能帮助你,帮助你表达情感, 也可以让你触碰不曾体验的情感, 让你见到不曾领悟到的世界, 让你跟那些与你不同的人相见, 也许是很遥远,遥远的人, 有些诗歌甚至会直白地告诉你, 这就是诗歌的意图。 这就是约翰•济慈在他那 或许是最神秘的诗里所写到的吧。 之所以神秘,是因为它很有可能还没有完成, 很有可能,他始终都没为它划上句号, 也许它代表了 一出戏中的某个角色, 但也有可能,这正是济慈认为 他的诗歌、 他的文字所能实现的, 在他的文字中,我,起码是我嗅到了命运的气息, 我也感受到了更古老的诗歌艺术技巧的波涌, 我有一种感受,你或许也会有这种感受, 在那一瞬,亦真亦幻, 与久远的人相遇, 那记忆犹新的人。
"This living hand, now warm and capable
「这只活生生的手,现在还温热
Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold
还能紧握,假如一旦冷却,
And in the icy silence of the tomb,
在寂静的坟墓里,它还会经常出没
So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights
在你的岁月里,使你夜梦寒颤,
That thou would wish thine own heart dry of blood
以至你也希望自己的心血流干
So in my veins red life might stream again,
让生命在我红色血管里重新流动,
And thou be conscience-calm’d -- see here it is --
你也会感到心安——瞧这双手——
I hold it towards you."
我向你伸出。」
Thanks.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(掌声)