济慈：秋颂

济慈（1795-1821）是英国浪漫主义诗人中年纪最轻、人生最坎坷、但也是最有才华、最完美的诗人，他也是我最喜欢的英美诗人之一。济慈一生追求“真”和“美”，“美就是真，真就是美。”这是他的诗歌美学原则，也是他的生活原则。济慈在生命最后的一两年时间里写了六首著名的不朽颂诗，我在十几年年前出版的《英诗选读》中（安徽教育出版社，1998年）选收了他的六首短诗，其中就有五首是他的颂歌；为适应教学需要，该书中有详细的题解和注释，还有思考题，都是用英文写的；此外，还附有参考译诗。（该书挺受欢迎，可惜已经断版，不知网友身边有无此书？）在今后的一段时间里，我将陆续上传济慈的诗歌，与读者共享。

当下正值天高气爽、硕果累累的金秋时节，这里先上传他的一首名诗《秋颂》,译诗基本根据本人的《英诗选读》版本，“导读”部分转载自本人撰写的《英语诗歌导读》（2011年4月，苏州大学出版社）。这首诗有多种译本，这里除了上传我的拙译外， 还上传了老翻译家查良铮的译诗，供读者对照欣赏。

To Autumn

（1795-1821）

1

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;1

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run ;

To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,.

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For summer has o’er-brimm’d2their clammy cells.

   2

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; 3

Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,

Drowsd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers;4

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep;

Steady thy laden head across a brook;

Or by a cider-press,5 with patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

3

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,6

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn

Among the river-sallows,7 borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;8

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;9

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

 

 

秋 颂

约翰·济慈

一

雾蒙蒙的季节，硕果累累的金秋，

使万物成熟的太阳之知心密友；

你和太阳默谋着如何祝福、如何

让藤蔓挂满硕果，环绕屋檐四周；

用苹果压弯屋旁长满苔藓的果树，

用熟透的果汁把所有果实装满；

让葫芦膨胀，用甜蜜的果仁

鼓圆榛果；让蓓蕾越来越多，

叫迟开的花朵为蜜蜂开放，

直到他们以为日子会永远温暖；

 因为夏日填满了他们粘糊的蜂房。

二

谁没看见过你常常光顾谷仓？

  有时人们外出时会发现

 你无忧无虑地坐在打谷场上，

 任头发随扬谷的风轻轻飘扬；

 或在收割完一半的垄沟里酣睡，

 罂粟花香使你陶醉，搁下镰刀，

 留下一畦庄稼和缠结的花草；

 有时，你像一位拾穗者那样，

 头顶一筐谷穗从小溪里走过，

 或连续几小时站在榨果机旁

 耐心地看到流尽最后一滴果浆。

 三

 春天的歌在哪里，啊，在哪里？

 不要想念他们，你有自己的歌——

 当一天将逝，彩云如花开满天空，

 把满是残梗的田野染成玫瑰色彩，

 各种小昆虫会出现在河畔柳林里

 举行大合唱，音调哀惋，

 声音随风起落，时高时低；

 成熟的羊羔在山头上叫唤，

 蟋蟀在篱边歌唱，知更鸟

 在园林里啾啾，柔和而高亢，

 成群的燕子在空中鸣啭呢喃。

 查良铮译文： 

1 　　雾气洋溢、果实圆熟的秋， 　　你和成熟的太阳成为友伴； 　　你们密谋用累累的珠球， 　　缀满茅屋檐下的葡萄藤蔓； 　　使屋前的老树背负着苹果， 　　让熟味透进果实的心中， 　　使葫芦胀大，鼓起了榛子壳， 　　好塞进甜核；又为了蜜蜂 　　一次一次开放过迟的花朵， 　　使它们以为日子将永远暖和， 　　因为夏季早填满它们的粘巢。 2 　　谁不经常看见你伴着谷仓？ 　　在田野里也可以把你找到， 　　弥有时随意坐在打麦场上， 　　让发丝随着簸谷的风轻飘； 　　有时候，为罂粟花香所沉迷， 　　你倒卧在收割一半的田垄， 　　让镰刀歇在下一畦的花旁； 　　或者．像拾穗人越过小溪， 　　你昂首背着谷袋，投下倒影， 　　或者就在榨果架下坐几点钟， 　　你耐心地瞧着徐徐滴下的酒浆。 3 　　啊．春日的歌哪里去了？但不要 　　想这些吧，你也有你的音乐—— 　　当波状的云把将逝的一天映照， 　　以胭红抹上残梗散碎的田野， 　　这时啊，河柳下的一群小飞虫 　　就同奏哀音，它们忽而飞高， 　　忽而下落，随着微风的起灭； 　　篱下的蟋蟀在歌唱，在园中 　　红胸的知更鸟就群起呼哨； 　　而群羊在山圈里高声默默咩叫； 　　丛飞的燕子在天空呢喃不歇。 　　（查良铮译）

 

     【Analytical Reading】 

    Among Keats's odes, Ode to a Nightingale is the greatest, but To Autumn is the most perfect and often regarded as the most achieved of Keats's odes. The poem was composed on 19 September 1819 and published in 1820. It was occasioned by his Sunday walk in the field. The beautiful season of autumn struck him so much that on returning he composed upon it. It is an original, first-hand response to the experience of all aspects of autumn in concrete terms. Among his odes, this is one of the most joyful and exciting in mood.

    Autumn's beauty rests upon its mellow fruitfulness, and this poem succeeds chiefly in its vivid imagery in presenting its beauty of fruitfulness. The poem progresses from tactile images to visual, culminating in auditory.

    Stanza 1 focuses on the vegetable world, which is full of visual and tactile images evoking fullness and autumn harvest. In this stanza the poet describes the complete fruition of the vines, the apple trees, and so on. The poem begins from pre-harvesting and lush ripeness. In London， Autumn is the season full of mists as well as the season of bumper harvest. In the love-making image against the background of autumn mists, autumn and the sun work together to make things mature. They make secret plans to load the vines with fruit and wish them happiness. They also make the mossed cottage trees bend with apples and all fruits ripen to the core. They discuss how to cause the gourd to grow bigger and bigger and the hazel shells to become round with a sweet kernel. Besides, they make more and more buds open into flowers for the bees to gather honey for their cells, so that the bees will think that the warm days will last forever.

    Together with the clammy honey and lovemaking images, enforced by the euphonious sounds as m, f, s, l, etc., stanza 1 satisfies the reader with mellowness and fullness.

    Stanza 2 expands the personification of the first stanza and moves on to the repletion of harvest itself. This stanza focuses on the human activity in gathering the harvest, and the images are more visual. In stanza 1, autumn is personified as female in friendly conspiracy with the "mature sun"; in stanza 2, a girl that suggests a classic figure explicitly represents autumn. The “girl” (autumn) seen in varied postures is filled with a mood of repose, drowsiness and pensiveness while watching "the last oozings hour by hour". The language is highly symbolic in this stanza.

    The final stanza concludes with the choir of animals, birds and insects, as if in celebration. This stanza praises the music of autumn; therefore, the imagery in the last stanza is mainly auditory. The field is empty now and there is nothing left to feel or see. With the completion of harvest the season will soon be replaced by the bare winter. But there is still music of its own which forms a choir of harvest celebration. The general atmosphere is festival. The sound of this stanza is full of music, too. The last stanza also hints at the transience of time. Autumn, though a harvesting season and beautiful, is short and inevitably yields to the bare winter.

    The poem might be read as well as a movement from morning to noon to evening. If one connects it with the life of a man, he might read it symbolically as growth, maturity, death, and regeneration, though their interconnections are implicit. Taking Keats’ life into consideration, it is not without reason to read this poem this way, for this poem was written shortly before his death. So it is tempting to read the poem as a metaphor for his acceptance of the fate that will soon befall him. The circumstances of Keats’ life give the poem an added poignancy. In this reading, the poem is to a degree underlined with an undertone of melancholy; and the music in the last stanza can be taken as the dirge of the dying year which evokes a feeling of death and regeneration in the images of "dying day", "wailful choir…” "clouds bloom" and "gathering swallows twitter in the skies".

Rhetorical devices employed in this poem:

1. Apostrophe: "Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness!"

2. Personification: In stanza one autumn is represented as a female, a close bosom-friend of the maturing sun (loving-making image). In stanza two, autumn is compared to a girl in varied postures.

3. Allusion: In stanza two, the image of the girl is a classic figure. Each of the four figures has a slight suggestion of the class figure of Ceres.

4. Onomatopoeia: "full-gown lambs loud bleat", "hedge-crickets sing", "the redbreast whistles", and "gathering swallows twitter".

5. Rhetorical questions: "Who has not seen thee oft amid thy store?" "Where are the songs? Aye, where are they?

6.Sounds and meanings are subtly combined:

The use of large number of soft consonants, such as s, m, f, v, l, etc., combined with alliterations, bring about particular effects not only in strengthening the meaning but also in increasing the musicality of the poem: “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”, “For summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.”

                              [转贴自《英语诗歌导读》]