CONCEIT, in literature, an elaborate poetic metaphor EXPRESSING an analogy or parallel between two things or situations that seem totally unlike. Though it can be brief, a conceit often forms the basis for an entire poem.

奇喻，在文学中，一种精心设计的诗意隐喻，表达看起来完全不同的两件事或状况之间的类比或相似的手法。尽管它可能很简短，但在许多情况下，奇喻是构成整首诗的基础。

The term, which originally meant “concept” or “idea”, came, during the Renaissance, to be applied to a special type of poetic metaphor, first used in the love sonnets of Petrarch. The Petrarchan conceit compares the beloved in great detail to some natural or familiar object. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130, which begins, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun,” is almost a satiric catalog of Petrarchan conventions.

该术语起初意味着“概念”或“想法”，在文艺复兴时期被用于一种特殊类型的诗意隐喻，首次用于彼特拉克的爱情十四行诗中。彼特拉克体的奇喻，把心爱的人极为详细地比作某些自然的或熟悉的对象。莎士比亚十四行诗的130首，开头写道“我女主人的双眼一点也不像太阳，”几乎就是彼特拉克体惯例的讽刺模式。

The conceit was widely used in the 17^th century by the English metaphysical poets, including John Donne, Henry Vaughan, and Richard Crashaw. The metaphysical conceit was highly intellectualized, with analogies taken from science, religion, and scholarship as well as everyday life. Its goal was to be witty and startling. Often, analogies were drawn with such exaggerated attention to detail as to seem deliberately grotesque.

在十七世纪，英国玄学派诗人广泛使用过奇喻，包括约翰·多恩，亨利·沃恩和理查德·克拉肖。玄学派的奇喻是高度理智化的，用科学、宗教和学术以及日常生活的事物进行类比。其目的是诙谐的，且惊人的。在许多情况下，用如此夸张的关注对细节进行类比，似乎是刻意地怪诞。

Severely condemned in the 18 century by Dr. Johnson, and in bad repute in the 19^th century, the conceit again became a respected poetic device in the 20^th century. Some of the best examples of its used in modern verse are found in the works of Emily Dickinson,T. S. Eliot, and Allen Tate.

在十八世纪，约翰逊博士严厉谴责过奇喻，它在十九世纪名声不佳，但在二十世纪，奇喻再次成为了一种受人尊敬的诗歌手法。在现代诗中使用的一些最好例子可在艾米莉·迪金森，T. S. 艾略特和艾伦·泰特的作品中找到。

                                           C. HUGH HOLMAN

                           Coauthor of “a Handbook to Literature”

                                            C. 休·霍尔曼

                                     “文学手册”的合著者

                                          2023年2月1日译

（译者注：该词条位列《大美百科全书》1985年版，第7卷，第497页）