ONE WORD IS TOO OFTEN PROFANED 

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

 One word is too often profaned

For me to profane it,

One feeling too falsely disdain'd

For thee to disdain it;

One hope is too like despair

For prudence to smother,

And pity from thee more dear

Than that from another.

 

I can give not what men call love,

But wilt thou accept not

The worship the heart lifts above

And the Heavens reject not, --

The desire of the moth for the star,

Of  the night for the morrow,

The devotion to something afar

From the sphere of our sorrow?

 

http://www.bartleby.com/106/203.html

 

有一个被人经常亵渎的字   王佐良 译

 

有一个被人经常亵渎的字，我无心再来亵渎；

有一种被人假意鄙薄的感情，你不会也来鄙薄。

有一种希望太似绝望，又何须再加提防！

你的怜悯无人能比，温暖了我的心房。

 

我拿不出人们所称的爱情，但不知你肯否接受

这颗心儿能献的崇敬？连天公也不会拒而不收！

犹如飞蛾扑向星星，又如黑夜追求黎明，

这一种思慕远处之情，早已跳出了人间的苦境！

 

雪莱简介：

波西·比希·雪莱（1792-1822）出身于贵族家庭，1810年10月进入牛津大学，半年后，因印发《无神论的必然性》（The Necessity of Atheism）小册子而被开除。离开学校后，雪莱来到伦敦，结识了哈丽特（Harriat Westbrook）并与之结婚。1812年，雪莱到爱尔兰，为激励爱尔兰人民争取自由而活动和写作。1814 年 7月雪莱与妻子哈丽雅特分手，不久与玛丽·戈德温（Marry Goldwin , 即著名女作家Marry Shelley）结合。1818年，雪莱被迫离开英国，到意大利定居。1822年，雪莱在海上遇难，时年30岁。雪莱一生创作勤奋，在去意大利前创作的重要诗作有长诗《麦布女王》（Queen Mab, 1813）和《伊斯兰的反叛》（The Revolt of Islam, 1817）。在意大利生活的最后几年是他创作最旺盛的时期，他先后完成了诗剧《解放了的普罗米修斯》（Prometheus Unbound, 1819）和《钦契》（The Cenci, 1819），以及悼念济慈的《阿多尼》（Adonais, 1821）等。此外雪莱还创作了大量充满激情的政治诗歌和脍炙人口的抒情诗，如《1819年的英国》（“England in 1819”, 1819）和《西风颂》（“Ode to the West Wind”, 1819）等。雪莱的文论著作有《诗辩》（A Defence of Poetry, 1821）。

 

 

 

To——

 

                                          Shelley

 

One word is too often profaned           有一个字经常被人亵渎

   For me to profane it,                   我不会再来亵渎

One feeling too falsely distain'd          有一种感情被人假意鄙薄

   For thee to distain it;                 你也不会再来鄙薄

One hope is too like despair             有一种希望太似绝望

   For prudence to smother,                何须再加提防！

And pity from thee more dear             你的怜悯之情无人能比，

   Than that from another.                 温暖着我的心。

I can not give what men call love:        我不能给你人们所称的爱情

   But wilt thou accept not                但不知你能否接受

The worship the heart lifts above          这颗心对你的仰慕之情

   And the heavens reject not,             连上天也不会拒绝。

And the desire of the moth for the star,      犹如飞蛾扑向星星，

   Of the night for the morrow             又如黑夜追求黎明。

The devotion to something afar           这种思慕之情，

   From the sphere of our sorrow.          早已跳出了人间的苦境！

 

 

"One Word Is Too Often Profaned"is a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, written in 1822 and published in 1824 (see 1822 in poetry). This poem was probably intended for Jane Williams. It expresses Shelley's deep and genuine devotion for Jane.

Shelley met Jane Williams and her husband, Edward Ellerker Williams in Pisa sometime in 1821. The Williams befriended Percy Bysshe and Mary Shelley and they all frequently met Lord Byron who also lived in Pisa at that time.

Shelley developed a very strong affection towards Jane Williams and addressed a number of poems to her. In most of these poems, Shelley projects his love for Jane in a spiritual and devotional manner. This poem is an example of that. Shelley's affection towards Jane was known to her husband and also to Mary Shelley. But since Shelley always projected this relationship in a platonic manner, Edward Williams and Mary Shelley did not seem to have been afflicted by jealousy regarding this relationship. In fact, Mary Shelley was quite fond of Jane and Edward Williams and Shelley enjoyed Edward's company too. Shelley and Edward Williams drowned while on a boating trip on 8 July, 1822. ^[1]

Shelley wrote a number of poems devoted to Jane including With a Guitar, To Jane, One Word is Too Often Profaned, To Jane: The Invitation, To Jane: The Recollection and To Jane: The Keen Stars Were Twinkling. ^[2]

In One Word is Too Often Profaned, Shelley rejects the use of the word Love to describe his relationship with Jane. He says that this word has been so often profaned or misused that he will not use it to describe this relationship. He then goes on to say that the usage of this word may be rejected by Jane herself and that his feelings for her are too pure to be falsely disdained. He then uses the word pity and says that the feeling of pity from Jane is more dear than love from any other woman. At this point he starts elevating Jane's stature to something larger than other women of the world. Shelley then chooses to employ the word worship to describe his devotion towards Jane. He says that the feeling of worship that he feels towards Jane is something that is uplifting and is also moral(and the heavens reject not). And then he describes the nature of his devotion: it is the devotion of a moth for a star or what the night feels towards the next morning. He describes his devotion as something that lies beyond worldly existence and strife(the sphere of our sorrow). It should be noted here that Shelley uses the sentence I cannot give what men call love which shows that he himself is not averse to the use of the word love but since it has been misused often by men all around to describe ordinary and worldly feelings, so he will not use this word for Jane.

The metrical feet used in the poem are a mixture of anapests and iambs. The first line of each couplet contains three accents and the second line contains two.^[3]

This poem has at times been printed with the titles To --- and Love.

References

1.     Symonds, John Addington.. "Percy Bysshe Shelley". Project Gutenberg. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4555. 

2.   Shelley, Percy B.. "Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley". Project Gutenberg. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4798. 

3.   Fowler, J.H (1904). Notes to Palgrave's Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics.. London: Macmillan and co. OCLC 68137444. http://books.google.com/books?id=wHwoAAAAMAAJ.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Word_is_Too_Often_Profaned