莎翁第七十三首十四行诗赏析

何功杰

【学习和了解一点有关英语诗歌艺术的理论知识并非是为了装点门面，而是为了认识、分析和欣赏英语诗歌的需要，对于想做一个自觉的英诗翻译者来说，也是很有助益的。本人在我的博客中已经上传过一些中英文的诗歌分析文章，以后还将继续上传这方面的赏析文章，毫无顾忌地献出我过去的教学笔记，供网友参考，欢迎批评指正。】

                                                             Sonnet 73(1)

That time of year thou may’st2 in me behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

Bare ruin’d choirs where late3 the sweet birds sang.

In me thou see'st3 the twilight of such day,

As after sunset fadeth4 in the west;

Which by and by black night doth take away,

Death’s second self5, that seals up all in rest.

In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire,

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,

As the deathbed whereon it must expire,

Consumed with that which it was nourished by:

This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,

To love that well, which thou must leave ere long6.

 

参考译诗:

 

十四行诗 第七三首

 

那样时令你可在我身上看到：

几片黄叶挂在枝头随风飘荡，

或枝头空空，只有寒风呼啸，

歌坛败落，不再有鸟儿歌唱。

在我身上你可看见暮色沉沉，

宛如夕阳离去，退入了西天，

不久将进入黑夜——死神的化身，

连同世界万物，一起封进长眠。

你可在我身上看见这样的火焰：

躺在自己青春余烬上闪着微光，

像躺在死床上一样，气息奄奄，

不久将同燃烧的物质一道消亡。

你所见的一切应激起你更强的爱，

好好爱我吧，不久你我必将分开。

    This sonnet conveys an intensely strong passion for the speaker’s beloved. The poet says:

In me you see that time of year when a few yellow leaves or none or few hang on the branches, shaking in the cold, like bare, ruined choirs, where there were no birds singing now. In me you see such twilight as that after the sun has faded in the west, and, by and by black night — death — will seal up all. In me you see the glow of embers of my youth like the ashes on a deathbed, which will be dying out and consumed altogether. ——You have seen all these in me that should rouse your strong love of me. Love me well or we will part before long.

    This sonnet is typical of Shakespearean sonnet in form: three quatrains of iambic pentameter plus a heroic couplet with a rhyme pattern of abab cdcd efef gg.(The rhyme pattern altered a little in the Chinese translation.) The structural design is clear. The thought division matches exactly the metrical movement and the rhyme pattern. Each of the three quatrains develops an image of being late or of approaching extinction. The first quatrain (lines 1-4) compares the speaker's life to the end of the year—winter, an image of bare, lifeless boughs after a vital summer; the second quatrain (lines 5-8) compares the speaker's life to the end of a day—night, an image of “Death's second self”; and the third quatrain (lines 9-12) compares his ending life to a dying fire. The three quatrains, or the three images, are three metaphorical statements: the speaker assumes that he is fading as the year does in winter, that he approaches the end as the day does, and that he grows dim and nears extinction as a dying fire. The images of the year and the day are both metaphors for the duration of a man’s lifetime; the image of fire has to do with the vital essence of life. The three images are equally and successively at work. They proceed from the declining of the year to the fading of the day to the expiring of a fire, bringing the metaphorical point closer and closer to the subject as the poem progresses, preparing for the conclusion in the couplet: now that you have seen all the dreary and plaintive scenes in me, therefore you must love me more, or we will soon part and you will lose me forever.

    The general mood of this sonnet is that of despair and sadness evoked by passionate love. Though we find no response from the beloved, the speaker's strong passion of love is apparent. He is pining with love. By assuming that his life is approaching to the end as the three images suggest, the speaker is to invite his lover's sympathy and to love him more. The richness of this sonnet derives from both its metaphorical involutions and from the clarity of its structure.

(本诗还有本人的中文品读,见〈英美名诗品读〉，何功杰主编，上海交通大学出版社，2002年）