文学使人不朽的思想在莎士比亚Sonnet 18中的体现

 

魏晋时期，文学趋于自觉，曹丕于《典论·论文》中称颂“文章”为“经国之大业，不朽之盛事”：“年寿有时而尽，乐荣止乎其身，二者必至之常期，末若文章之无穷。是以古之作者，寄身于翰墨，见意于篇籍，不假良史之辞，不托飞驰之势，而声名自传于后。”而在建安以前，文学地位并不独立，文学观寄寓道德于其中。扬雄斥汉赋为“童子雕虫篆刻”（《法言·吾子》），曹植也认为“辞赋小道，固未足以揄扬大义，彰示来世也”（《与杨德祖书》）。曹丕的《论文》自文学自身高度评价其存在价值，将其提高至前所未有的重要地位。莎士比亚在其十四行诗Sonnet 18中也表达了类似的思想。

 

Sonnet 18

 

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,                                   5

And often is his gold complexion dimmed.

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed.

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,                                     10

Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

 

这首诗歌以设问开篇，第一行提出问题：Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? 第二行却没有直接给出答案，只是说友人比夏季更可爱温婉。夏季是英国一年之中最好的季节，阳光明媚，温度适宜，因此莎士比亚在此将友人比喻为夏日。但自然界美好的夏日远非完美，第三至六行陈述了其存在的不足之处：夏日虽好，却有狂风大作之时，使五月的娇蕊遭受摧折。有时烈日当头，炙热难耐，加上时期太过短暂，难以久留，而乌云也会时时遮蔽太阳。夏日如此，人世间美的事物亦如是。第七、八行从美好的夏日延伸至世间任何美的事物。夏日虽美好，然而难称完美无缺。世间任何美的事物也会因不测之祸或四季更迭而终有陨零之时，再美的花朵会凋谢，再美的女郎会色衰。诗人在第三至八行列举了夏日的不足之处，又慨叹岁月嬗代，厄运难测，每一种美终会转瞬即逝，笔触沉重，一抑再抑。然而自第九行But thy eternal summer shall not fade开始笔势陡转，境界顿开，与前文形成强烈的对比。自然界的夏日有种种缺憾，世间美的事物也终有凋陨之时，而你的夏日会永存不衰（thy eternal summer），你所拥有的美会超越时空之限，连死神也对你奈何不得。第九、十、十一这三行层层递进，步步深入。诗人在第十二行中一语道破了坚信友人之美会亘古不朽的原因：你会借助我的诗篇而永葆青春（When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st）。第十三、十四行说明了友人在诗篇中永生的条件：只要人们有嘴可以呼吸，便可以朗读这首诗歌；只要人们有眼可以视物，便可以阅读这首诗歌。至此，诗篇又进入一个新的层次：真正伟大不朽的是这首诗篇，它可与时间相抗衡，从而使你的青春和美丽亘古长青。

 

古往今来，人们认为时间最为可怕，无人能战胜时间，帝王将相也概莫能免。文艺复兴时期诗人的作品中也多有时间无情、生命短暂的反映。斯宾塞（Edmund Spenser，1552—1599）在《仙后》（The Faerie Queene）中写道：All things decay in time, and to their end do draw. ( Canto VI, xl) （万物于时间中腐烂，并走向终点），Great enimy to it, and to all the rest, /…/ Is wicked Time, who with his scyth addrest, / Does mow the flowring herbes and goodly things, / And all their glory to the ground downe flings. ( Canto VI, xxxix)（邪恶时间是百合和万物之敌，手执长柄镰刀肆意攻击，将芳草繁花和美好铲刈，使所有的灿烂委倒于地）。马维尔（Andrew Marvell, 1621—1678）也写道：But at my back I always hear / Time’s winged chariot hurrying near; / And yonder all before us lie / Deserts of vast eternity. / Thy beauty shall no more be found, / Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound / My echoing song. (To His Coy Mistress) （但是在我背后我总听到/时间的战车插翅飞奔，逼近了，/而在那前方，在我们面前，却展现/一片永恒的沙漠，寥廓、无限。/在那里，再也找不到你的美，/在你的汉白玉的寝宫里再也不会/回荡着我的歌声。杨周翰译）

再如Robert Herrick (1591–1674)这首很有名的《致妙龄少女：莫误青春》：

 

To the Virgins, to make much of Time

 

GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may,

Old Time is still a-flying:

And this same flower that smiles to-day

To-morrow will be dying.

 

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,

The higher he 's a-getting,

The sooner will his race be run,

And nearer he 's to setting.

 

That age is best which is the first,

When youth and blood are warmer;

But being spent, the worse, and worst

Times still succeed the former.

 

Then be not coy, but use your time,

And while ye may, go marry:

For having lost but once your prime,

You may for ever tarry.

 

趁早吧，快采那玫瑰花苞，

时间老人永在飞翔；

同一朵花儿今天还在微笑，

明天就会枯萎死亡。

 

这旭日，空中华灯一盏，

总是在冉冉升高，

万里行程很快就要走完，

日近西沉黄昏到。

 

人生最美好的是妙龄韶华，

这时青春热血在燃烧；

虚度了，往后就是每况愈下，

青春美景再也难寻找。

 

因此，别害臊，享用你的妙龄时光吧，

趁早和你的意中人结婚；

因为一旦失去了最美妙的时光，

你或许永远要感到悔恨。

（何功杰 译）

 

与To the Virgins, to make much of Time异曲同工的还有Edmund Waller(1606—1687)的这一首：

 

Go, lovely rose!

Go, lovely rose!
Tell her that wastes her time and me
That now she knows,
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be.

Tell her that's young,
And shuns to have her graces spied,
That hadst thou sprung
In deserts, where no men abide,
Thou must have uncommended died.

Small is the worth
Of beauty from the light retired;
Bid her come forth,
Suffer herself to be desired,
And not blush so to be admired.

Then die! that she
The common fate of all things rare
May read in thee;
How small a part of time they share
That are so wondrous sweet and fair!

 

去，可爱的玫瑰，
告诉她，她浪费青春也令我憔悴
她现在应懂得，
当我把她比作你，她看起来是多
可爱又多娇美。

告诉她年轻时
把她的魅力掩藏，不向世人展示，
你从那荒漠里
盛开时，那地方没人居住，你谢世
一定无人惋惜。

从明亮处退出
美丽的价值锐减而会所剩无几；
请她快走出来，
让自己受到大家的赞赏与喜爱，
不必羞对仰慕。

然后死去，以至
人们只要见你
就看到她和所有妖娆的生命变黄：
多短的一段时间那些生命能分享
那么美好甜蜜！

 

莎士比亚的十四行诗中更是表达了时间对青春、美貌、友谊、爱情的摧折：When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,/And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field, / Thy youth's proud livery so gazed on now, / Will be a totter'd weed of small worth held. (Sonnet 2) （当四十个冬天围攻你的朱颜，/在你美的园地挖下深的战壕，/青春的华服，那么被人艳羡，/将成褴褛的败絮，谁也不要瞧。梁宗岱译）Those hours, that with gentle work did frame/The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell,/Will play the tyrants to the very same/And that unfair which fairly doth excel; (Sonnet 5)（那些时辰曾经用轻盈的细工/织就这众目共注的可爱明眸，/终有天对它摆出魔王的面孔，/把绝代佳丽剁成龙锺的老丑。梁宗岱译）Where wasteful Time debateth with decay/To change your day of youth to sullied night. (Sonnet 15) （眼见残暴的时光与腐朽同谋，/要把你青春的白昼化作黑夜。梁宗岱译） Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,/…/And do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,/To the wide world and all her fading sweets; (Sonnet 19)（饕餮的时光，去磨钝雄狮的爪/……/而且，捷足的时光，尽肆意摧残/这大千世界和它易谢的芳菲；梁宗岱译） Against my love shall be as I am now,/With Time's injurious hand crushed and o'erworn; (Sonnet 63)（像我现在一样，我爱人将不免/被时光的毒手所粉碎和消耗；梁宗岱译）这些诗句表明了时间的残酷无情，可以摧毁世间一切美好的事物。

 

面对时间破坏一切的力量，诗人们一直在寻找着与之抗衡的方式。在十四行诗集的前十七首诗中，莎士比亚在赞美友人青春与美貌的同时，规劝友人早日结婚，通过传宗接代使他的美繁衍无绝。 From fairest creatures we desire increase, / That thereby beauty's rose might never die, / But as the riper should by time decease, / His tender heir might bear his memory. (Sonnet 1) （那美丽绝世的尤物，我们愿其蕃衍，/如能这样果，美的玫瑰就永不会凋残；/大凡成熟了的，到时候都要谢世，/就靠妙年的后裔来流传他的丰姿。杨熙龄译）How much more praise deserv'd thy beauty's use,/If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine/Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse,'/Proving his beauty by succession thine!/This were to be new made when thou art old,/And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold. (Sonnet 2) （你的美的用途会更值得赞美，/如果你能够说，“我这宁馨小童 /将总结我的账，宽恕我的老迈，” /证实他的美在继承你的血统！/这将使你在衰老的暮年更生，/并使你垂冷的血液感到重温。梁宗岱译）Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest/Now is the time that face should form another;/Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,/Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother. (Sonnet 3) （照照镜子，告诉你那镜中的脸庞，/说现在这庞儿应该另造一副；/如果你不赶快为它重修殿堂，/就欺骗世界，剥掉母亲的幸福。梁宗岱译）Ten times thy self were happier than thou art,/If ten of thine ten times refigured thee:/Then what could death do if thou shouldst depart,/Leaving thee living in posterity? (Sonnet 6) （十倍你自己比你现在更快乐，/　如果你有十个儿子来重现你：/　这样，即使你长辞，死将奈你何， /既然你继续活在你的后裔里？梁宗岱译）Make thee another self for love of me,/That beauty still may live in thine or thee. (Sonnet 10)（另造一个你吧，你若是真爱我，/让美在你儿子或你身上永活。梁宗岱译）And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence/Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence. (Sonnet 12)（没什么抵挡得住时光的毒手，/除了生育，当他来要把你拘走。梁宗岱译）

 

对付时间这一敌人，除了繁衍后代以使生命延续之外，诗歌和艺术也能使生命之树长青，使被歌颂者获得永生。在Sonnet 18中，莎士比亚表达了“唯有文学可以同时间抗衡的思想，文学既是人所创造的业绩，因此这又是宣告人的伟大与不朽”（王佐良《英国文学名篇选注》），这一思想上的觉醒与文艺复兴大有关系。在文艺复兴时期之前，即在基督教信仰控制下的中世纪，人们的思想长期受到禁锢，认为人是生来有罪的，而在文艺复兴时期却将人提升到天使的地位，在文学作品中进行歌颂和赞美。这种文学使人不朽的思想在莎士比亚的多首十四行诗中都有表现。And all in war with Time for love of you,/As he takes from you, I engraft you new. (Sonnet 15)（为了你的爱我将和时光争持：/他摧折你，我要把你重新接枝。梁宗岱译）Yet, do thy worst old Time: despite thy wrong,/My love shall in my verse ever live young. (Sonnet 19)（但，尽管猖狂，老时光，凭你多狠，/　我的爱在我诗里将万古长青。梁宗岱译）So, till the judgment that yourself arise,/You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes. (Sonnet 55)（这样，直到最后审判把你唤醒，/你长在诗里和情人眼里辉映。梁宗岱译）And yet to times in hope, my verse shall stand/Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand. (Sonnet 60)（可是我的诗未来将屹立千古， /歌颂你的美德，不管它多残酷！梁宗岱译）His beauty shall in these black lines be seen,/And they shall live, and he in them still green. (Sonnet 63)（他的丰韵将在这些诗里现形，/墨迹长在，而他也将万古长青。梁宗岱译）　O! none, unless this miracle have might,/That in black ink my love may still shine bright. (Sonnet 65)（哦，没有谁，除非这奇迹有力量： /我的爱在翰墨里永久放光芒。梁宗岱译）

 

莎士比亚这种通过艺术的生命力实现自我和灵魂的永恒的思想并非一种个人的自负，而是对文学不朽的信念（It implies not egotism on the part of the poet, but a faith in the permanence of poetry.）。现在看来，莎士比亚并没有夸口，这些诗歌在几百年之后的今天依然为我们所阅读，并将继续流传下去，他歌颂的对象确实在诗篇中得到了永生。正如塞缪尔·约翰逊（Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784）所言：“时间的洪流不停地冲刷其他诗人容易瓦解的建筑，但是对于莎士比亚硬如磐石的作品却不会造成损伤”（“The stream of time, which is continually washing the dissoluble fabrics of other poets, passes without injury by the adamant of Shakespeare.”）（《莎士比亚集》前言）。

 

莎士比亚这种文学可以使人不朽的思想在文艺复兴时间颇为盛行，如Edmund Spenser 的这一首：

 

Sonnet LXXV from Amoretti

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away:
Again I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tide and made my pains his prey.
Vain man (said she) that dost in vain assay
A mortal thing so to immortalize;
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eke my name be wiped out likewise.
Not so, quoth I; let baser things devise
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame;
My verse your virtues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens write your glorious name:
Where, when as Death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew.

 

有一天我把她的名字写在沙滩上，

大浪冲来就把它洗掉。

我把她的名字再一次写上，

潮水又使我的辛苦成为徒劳。

“妄想者，”她说，“何必空把心操，

想叫一个必朽的人变成不朽！

我知道我将腐烂如秋草，

我的名字也将化为乌有。”

“不会，”我说，“让卑劣者费尽计谋

而仍归一死，你却会声名长存，

因为我的诗笔会使你的品德永留，

还会在天上书写你的荣名。

死亡虽能把全世界征服，

我们的爱情却会使生命不枯。”

（王佐良 译）

 

还有Michael Drayton (1563—1631)的这一首：

 

How many paltry, foolish, painted things,

That now in coaches trouble every street,

Shall be forgotten, whom no poet sings,

Ere they be well wrapp'd in their winding-sheet?

Where I to thee eternity shall give,

When nothing else remaineth of these days,

And queens hereafter shall be glad to live

Upon the alms of thy superfluous praise.

Virgins and matrons reading these my rhymes

Shall be so much delighted with thy story,

That they shall grieve they liv'd not in these times

To have seen thee, their sex's only glory.

So shalt thou fly above the vulgar throng,

Still to survive in my immortal song.

 

这种思想甚至可以追溯到更远的时代。“在罗马奥古斯都时代，诗人平达罗斯歌咏的人物传世不朽的同时，诗人自己也获得同样的不朽之名。贺拉斯、萨福、奥维德、荷马、得拉克、塔索、龙沙，以及莎士比亚以前的斯宾塞、丹尼尔、锡德尼、康斯特布尔、德雷顿、杜倍雷等，走的都是这样的路子。”（罗益民《莎士比亚十四行诗中的三个主题》）