The Canonization

 John Donne (1572-1631)

FOR God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love;

Or chide my palsy, or my gout;

My five gray hairs, or ruin'd fortune, flout;

With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve;

Take you a course, get you a place,

.Observe his Honor, or his Grace;

Or the king's real1., or his stamp'd face

Contemplate; what you will, approve, 2..

So you will let me love.

Alas! Alas! who's injured by my love?

What merchant's ships have my sighs drown'd?

Who says my tears have overflow'd his ground?

When did my colds a forward spring remove?³.

When did the heats which my veins fill

Add one more to the plaguy bill?⁴.

Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still  

Litigious men⁵.., which quarrels move,

Though she and I do love.

Call's what you will, we are made such by love ;

Call her one, me another fly,

We're tapers too, and at our own cost die,.

And we in us find th' eagle and the dove.6

The phoenix riddle hath more wit

By us:7 we two being one, are it;

So, to one neutral thing both sexes fit.

We die and rise the same, and prove

Mysterious by this love.

We can die by it, if not live by love,

And if unfit for tomb or hearse

Our legend be, it will be fit for verse;

And if no piece of chronicle we prove,

We'll build in sonnets pretty rooms;8.

As well a well-wrought urn becomes

The greatest ashes, as half-acre tombs,

And by these hymns, all shall approve

Us canonized for love;

And thus invoke us, "You, whom reverend love

Made one another's hermitage ;

You, to whom love was peace, that now is rage ;

Who did the whole world's soul contract,9 and drove

Into the glasses of your eyes

(So made such mirrors, and such spies10,

That they did all to you epitomize)

Countries, towns, courts: Beg from above

A pattern of your love."¹¹

爱情的圣徒

  约翰·邓恩

 

看在上帝面上，住嘴，让我爱，

要嘛责骂我的疯瘫，或我的痛风病；

嘲笑我的五根灰发，或我的蹇命，

用财富去改善你的状况，用艺术去改善你的心态，

去找你的门路，去做你的事情，

注意阁下的面子，或去讨阁下的欢心；

关注国王本人，或钱币上的面像，

你愿干啥都可以，好好想想，

只要你让我爱。

 

哎呀呀！我们相爱能把谁伤害？

什么商贾的船被我的叹息掀翻？

谁说我的泪水淹没了他的地盘？

我的冷寂什么时候妨碍了春天的到来？

什么时候我血管中的热流

导致瘟疫名单中死者增多？

士兵照样打仗，律师照样寻求

爱打官司的人，鼓动吵架，

尽管她和我相爱。

 

爱把我们造成这样，任你称我们什么都可以；

称她是一只飞蛾，我是另一只，

我们也是蜡烛，为自己的付出而死，

我们发现我们既是鹰隼也是鸽子。

凤凰之谜因我们更加奇异：

我们俩合二为一就是凤凰一只；

所以，对于一个中性事物两性都合适。

我们死后能复活，我们的爱

证实了这种神秘。

 

我们可以为爱而死，倘若不能为爱而活，

假如我们的传奇不适宜

入坟墓或进柩车，就让它进入诗里；

如果在编年史中没有印证的记录，

我们就在十四行诗中建立美好的住地：

一只精致的骨灰盒也同样适宜

最伟大的骨灰，不亚于半亩墓地，

通过这些赞美诗，所有人都会同意

追认我们为爱的圣徒。

 

这样为我们祈祷吧：“愿至尊的爱情

把你们变成彼此的隐居地；

爱情是你们的和平，如今激情洋溢；

愿你们把整个世界的灵魂变成缩影，

把乡村，城镇，宫廷

都拉进你的眼睛

（你的眼睛是反射镜和望远镜

展示一切缩影）：祈求上苍

把你们的爱情树为榜样。” 

【Analytical Reading】

　　In reading this poem, what is worth our attention is the poet’s use of the special slang meaning of "die" in developing the metaphor that the lovers have become saints.

　　In the punning terminology of the 17th century, to“die”was to perform the sex act and experience orgasm. According to the old superstition， intercourse shortens life. That is what the images of “fly” and “capers” suggest. But since the lovers are two being one like the legendary phoenix, they could, therefore, expect rebirth and, be canonized.

    With many erotic puns (especially the equation of death and orgasm) and much sexual lore, Donne here in the poem presents a tissue of exaggerations that confirm the strength of his love.

    The poem is made up of five stanzas. In stanza 1, the speaker urges an unnamed person to go about his own business and stop interfering with his love. He asks in stanza 2, who is injured by my love? What activities are interfered with? In stanza 3, the poet compares the lovers to both flies (the ephemeral moth) and self-consuming tapers that attracts the moth. Donne hints here that love can not only make the lovers "die" but can also make them rise again, thus giving meaning to death and rebirth of the phoenix from its own ashes. In stanza 4, the lovers' legend will be immortalized in verse because "a well-wrought urn"（that is, a well-wroght poem like a sonnet）is as fitting for "the greatest ashes" as an impressive tomb. In stanza 5, the canonized lovers shall be the pattern for all who created their own world and religion of love.

    In art the argumentative method is still used in a dramatic way, the language is colloquial and the tone witty.With the line length irregular, there is a regular rhyme scheme with each stanza: abbacccaa, which shows again Donne’s creative quality in poetic forms.

选自 何功杰：【英语诗歌导读】