人生不像树木那样生长

本·琼森

人生并不像树木那样生长

  体积长得越大并非越理想，

一棵橡树能活得很久，三百载，

最终倒下只是光秃秃的枯木柴：

五月的百合

一天也值得，

尽管它当天晚上就凋萎，

它是闪光的植物和花卉。

小小事物，我们能看到它的美好，

短短历程，可以使生命成为完瑶。

原诗:

It Is Not Growing Like a Tree

Ben Jonson (1572-1637)

It is not growing like a tree

In bulk, doth make man better be,

Or standing long an oak, three hundred yeas,

To fall a log at last, dry, bald and sere:

A lily a day

Is fairer in May.

Although it fall and die that night;

It was the plant and flower of light.

In small proportions we just beauties see,

And in short measures, life may perfect be.

Appreciation:

    This poem is an extraction from the seventh stanza of the ode To Immortal Memory and Friendship of That Noble Pair, Sir Lucius Cary and Sir H. Morison, printed in a poem collection entitled Underwoods (1640) by Ben Jonson. The central idea of this excerpt is that life is to be measured by its excellence, not by its length. It may be paraphrased as follows:

    A man becomes more excellent neither by simply growing in size as a tree grows, nor by merely living for a very long time as an oak does. An oak tree may live as long as hundreds of years, but it will die at length, old, withered, and wizened. A man should live as a lily does. A lily, though living only for a short period of time in spring, is far more estimable than the long-lived oak tree, and even though it dies at nightfall, it exhibits its essence, beauty and excellence. Thus we can see perfect beauty in a thing as small-sized and short-lived as a lily. Human life, too, may be most excellent though very brief.

    This stanza is perfect not only in idea, but also in imagery, form, rhythm, and the subtle combination of sound and sense. The image of the short-lived lily contrasting the image of the long-lived oak highlights the theme of this poem. The oak grows in size and lives as long as three hundreds years, but falls in the end merely as a piece of wood, dried up, "bald and sere"; while a lily in spring, though lasting for a very short period of time, perhaps, say, for only a day, lives in full bloom and offers the beauty of flower. Apparently, "lily of a day" represents "just beauty" of life and is worth recommendation.

The stanza's form, too, matches the idea wonderfully. The 10-line stanza is divided into two symmetrical parts by two shorter lines in the middle:

A lily of a day

Is fairer far in may.

These two lines are short and terse, representing the "small proportions" and "short measures" that Jonson speaks of in the last two lines. They contrast with the previous two lengthy and tedious lines about the long-lived but "dry, bald, and sere" oak:

Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,

To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere.

    Besides, the two short lines about the lily are easy, smooth and melodious in sound, while the two lines concerning the long-lived oak are harsh and jaw-breaking in reading. We can see, therefore, the sounds of each couplet match its sense respectively in a wonderful way. Moreover, even the rhyme scheme fits the idea in a perfect manner. This poem was written in couplets, and there is a circularity of rhyme scheme with the rhyming sounds of the first and the last couplets being the same. The circularity is complete in idea in the shift from "better be" to "perfect be". The whole stanza almost seems a spoken version of a compass. The last couplet is actually an epigram that can be taken as our life motto.