主题：Andrew Marr：我们英国人——英国诗歌文学简史 -- 万年看客

与其他大多数乔治王时代的英国诗人不同，吉卜林将目光转向了紧接地气的街头口语，因此他的作品才如此清新。不过他并不是唯一这么做的诗人。出身苏格兰的约翰.戴维森是一名福音派教士的儿子，在格林诺克的高地人学院接受了理科教育，早年在苏格兰教书，后来搬到了伦敦。他的政治立场几乎与吉卜林完全相反，他对于科学的兴趣也赋予了他不同寻常的见解——他描写雪与天气的诗歌与其他同类型诗歌迥然不同——他与吉卜林的相同之处则在于两人都具有撰写歌谣的本能，也都听到了十九世纪末期英国民众的实际说话方式。以下是他的代表作《每周三十先令》（Thirty Bob a Week），诗中悲叹了一位伦敦小职员的日常生活。毋庸置疑，狄更斯笔下的一干人物正是此人的祖辈。像他这样的小人物在当时的小说里倒是很常见，可是在诗歌当中露面的机会就很少了。主人公慨叹自己既无天赋也无财富，只能终日蹉跎。他的形象像极了百余年后终日加班的九九六一族，但是内心却依然潜藏着几分傲气：

I couldn't touch a stop and turn a screw,

And set the blooming world a-work for me,

Like such as cut their teeth -- I hope, like you --

On the handle of a skeleton gold key;

I cut mine on a leek, which I eat it every week:

I'm a clerk at thirty bob as you can see.

我不能随意扭转通止开关

就让着繁华世界为我运作周旋；

有些人生来——希望你也是如此这般——

就叼着金质万能钥匙，不用操心金钱；

我生来就叼着洋葱，我每周的饭餐，

因为我是个周薪三十先令的文员。

But I don't allow it's luck and all a toss;

There's no such thing as being starred and crossed;

It's just the power of some to be a boss,

And the bally power of others to be bossed;

I face the music, sir; you bet I ain't a cur;

Strike me lucky if I don't believe I'm lost!

但我不允许抛硬币将命运决定，

不存在什么时运不济命犯星象；

有些人凭借能力发号施令，

当差卖力则是其他人的力量；

我不是杂种劣犬，我要直面困境，

我不相信失败，日后必然兴旺。

For like a mole I journey in the dark,

A-travelling along the underground

From my Pillar'd Halls and broad Suburbean Park,

To come the daily dull official round;

And home again at night with my pipe all alight,

A-scheming how to count ten bob a pound.

就像鼹鼠，我在黑暗中往来，

穿梭在地下每天两次；

从我那位于市郊的豪宅

每天来到沉闷的办公室；

夜晚下班叼着烟斗一路苦捱，

盘算着如何将一先令掰成两半度日。

And it's often very cold and very wet,

And my misses stitches towels for a hunks;

And the Pillar'd Halls is half of it to let--

Three rooms about the size of travelling trunks.

And we cough, my wife and I, to dislocate a sigh,

When the noisy little kids are in their bunks.

天气总是冰冷又湿漉漉，

给可怜鬼缝毛巾的是我婆娘；

我家宅邸与另一户合租，

旅行箱大小的是我家三间房；

老婆和我假装咳嗽，不肯将叹息发出，

乱叫唤的小家伙们已经上床。

But you never hear her do a growl or whine,

For she's made of flint and roses, very odd;

And I've got to cut my meaning rather fine,

Or I'd blubber, for I'm made of greens and sod:

So p'r'haps we are in Hell for all that I can tell,

And lost and damn'd and served up hot to God.

但是你从来不会听到她怨天怨地，

她是由燧石与玫瑰共同造就；

我也要平静地将各项开销减去，

否则就要乱说，因为我是由蔬菜与泥土拼凑；

所以就我看来我们似乎身在地狱，

趁热被端到上帝面前，失落且身负诅咒。

I ain't blaspheming, Mr. Silver-tongue;

I'm saying things a bit beyond your art:

Of all the rummy starts you ever sprung,

Thirty bob a week's the rummiest start!

With your science and your books and your the'ries about spooks,

Did you ever hear of looking in your heart？

我可没有亵渎神灵，您巧舌如白银，

对于您的技艺而言我可能话说得太宽；

您遇到过的所有困苦艰辛，

都不如只拿三十先令就得干满七天；

纵然您懂科学，您博览群书，您还会做法召魂，

但是您可曾检视过自己的心肝？

I didn't mean your pocket, Mr., no:

I mean that having children and a wife,

With thirty bob on which to come and go,

Isn't dancing to the tabor and the fife:

When it doesn't make you drink, by Heaven! it makes you think,

And notice curious items about life.

我可没说困难在于您的钱包，您只会说不，

我是说问题在于要养活孩子与老婆；

拿着区区三十先令开支用度，

可不比随着小鼓笛子起舞婀娜；

借酒浇愁之余，天哪，您一定会搜肠刮肚，

注意到贫困日常当中的各种没辙。

I step into my heart and there I meet

A god-almighty devil singing small,

Who would like to shout and whistle in the street,

And squelch the passers flat against the wall;

If the whole world was a cake he had the power to take,

He would take it, ask for more, and eat them all.

我步入我的心中，在那里遇到

一位强大如同神灵的魔鬼正在唱歌；

它肯定很乐意上街狂呼乱叫吹口哨，

将过路人拍成肉泥往墙上泼；

假如全世界是个蛋糕，它必定抢走吞掉，

倘若它有这力量，吃完了还要更多。

And I meet a sort of simpleton beside,

The kind that life is always giving beans;

With thirty bob a week to keep a bride

He fell in love and married in his teens:

At thirty bob he stuck; but he knows it isn't luck:

He knows the seas are deeper than tureens.

我还在魔鬼身边看到一个白痴傻兮兮，

生活曾经三番两次将他教训；

凭着每周三十先令他居然也敢娶妻，

少年时就忙不迭地恋爱结婚；

从此与三十先令为伍，但他知道这不是运气，

他知道大海要比盛满饭菜的汤盆更深。

And the god-almighty devil and the fool

That meet me in the High Street on the strike,

When I walk about my heart a-gathering wool,

Are my good and evil angels if you like.

And both of them together in every kind of weather

Ride me like a double-seated bike.

大能的魔鬼与白痴傻呵呵，

在大马路上拦住了忙着赚钱的我，

当时我正在白日梦游迷迷瞪瞪。

他们是我的善恶天使，倒不妨说

他们俩通力合作，无论下雨刮风，

驾驭我好像蹬一辆双人自行车。

That's rough a bit and needs its meaning curled.

But I have a high old hot un in my mind --

A most engrugious notion of the world,

That leaves your lightning 'rithmetic behind:

I give it at a glance when I say 'There ain't no chance,

Nor nothing of the lucky-lottery kind.'

上文有点粗糙，需要提炼一下意义，

但是我还有另一个有趣的想法——

可谓是全世界最夸张的主意，

远远抛开你那飞快的算法：

我瞥一眼就说“根本就谈不到运气，

谁相信机会谁就是在犯傻。”

And it's this way that I make it out to be:

No fathers, mothers, countres, climates -- none;

Not Adam was responsible for me,

Nor society, nor systems, nary one:

A little sleeping seed, I woke -- I did, indeed --

A million years before the blooming sun.

在我看来就是这样的情况，

无论父亲，母亲，国家、气候——一概与我无缘，

亚当从未将对于我的责任扛在身上，

无论社会，无论体制，与我全无牵连：

我这颗沉睡种子刚刚苏醒——确实是这样——

早在太阳发光之前一百万年。

I woke because I thought the time had come;

Beyond my will there was no other cause;

And everywhere I found myself at home,

Because I chose to be the thing I was;

And in whatever shape of mollusc or of ape

I always went according to the laws.

我醒来是因为时辰已至，

并无其他原因在我的意愿之外；

无论在哪里我都感觉自在惬意，

因为我决定自己是怎样的存在；

无论成为何等猿猴或者蛤蜊，

我的行为都不会将律法败坏。

I was the love that chose my mother out;

I joined two lives and from the union burst;

My weakness and my strength without a doubt

Are mine alone for ever from the first:

It's just the very same with a difference in the name

As 'Thy will be done.' You say it if you durst!

我就是母爱，从万千人中选中我的母亲，

是我让两条生命交汇，我的爆发源自两者结合；

我的弱点与我的力量全都毫无疑问

从永久的开端就都由我自己选择；

改换称谓之后的同一句经文，

“愿您意旨得行”，我看你可敢妄动口舌！

They say it daily up and down the land

As easy as you take a drink, it's true;

But the difficultest go to understand,

And the difficultest job a man can do,

Is to come it brave and meek with thirty bob a week,

And feel that that's the proper thing for you.

他们说每天来去往返步履平定

就像小酌一杯那样简单，这倒没错；

但是最难以理解的人生路径

与人所能承担的最困难工作，

就是勇敢或温顺地只拿每周三十先令，

并且真心觉得日子就该这么过。

It's a naked child against a hungry wolf;

It's playing bowls upon a splitting wreck;

It's walking on a string across a gulf

With millstones fore-and-aft about your neck;

But the thing is daily done by many and many a one;

And we fall, face forward, fighting, on the deck.

就好比赤裸的婴儿面对饿狼凶恶，

又好比打保龄球，哪怕球道大张裂口；

还好比胸前背后各自挂着一盘石磨，

不顾脚下深渊万丈也要在钢丝上行走；

但是许多人日复一日都这么做，

于是我们面朝前倒在甲板上，刀枪死不离手。

在全诗结尾，我们再次回到了威廉.布莱克的领域，不过缺少了他的超自然体系——戴维森主张得是心肠刚硬的唯物坚忍主义。只要多看几首他的诗作，读者们想必不会对他投水自尽的结局感到惊讶。二十世纪苏格兰诗人休.麦克迪米德曾经写过一段极其动人的诗文来纪念戴维森。奉行不可知论并且对科学兴趣浓厚的戴维森是日后诸多英国诗坛潮流的先驱。就像吉卜林一样，他的观察力也很敏锐。以下诗文节选自他的《流浪者》（A Loafer）：

I hang about the streets all day,

At night I hang about;

I sleep a little when I may,

But rise betimes the morning's scout;

For through the year I always hear

Afar, aloft, a ghostly shout.

我整天在游走在街头巷尾，

晚上也在街头游荡；

有机会就睡一小会

然后就起身，一旦晨光放亮；

一年到头我都能听见

鬼魂似的喊叫来自高天之上。

My clothes are worn to threads and loops;

My skin shows here and there ;

About my face like seaweed droops

My tangled beard, my tangled hair;

From cavernous and shaggy brows

My stony eyes untroubled stare.

褴褛破烂是我的衣服，

这里那里都露着皮肉；

宛如水草垂落遮蔽面目，

一缕缕须发满是污垢；

我眼窝深陷，眉头纠结，

但眼神却坚定而又通透。

I move from eastern wretchedness

Through Fleet Street and the Strand;

And as the pleasant people press

I touch them softly with my hand,

Perhaps I know that still I go

Alive about a living land.

我从惨淡的城市东部

将舰队街与斯特兰大道穿过；

好人们督促我赶快开路，

我抚摸他们，动作多么柔弱；

或许我知道我还能前行

在生活的土地上姑且活着。

戴维森与同时代诗人的最大不同在于他坚持采用科学视角看待世界，而爱德华时代也确实是科学知识首次面向公众普及的时代。维多利亚时代的技术突破、基础物理定律以及进化与化学领域的知识通过中学与大学课堂广泛传播。走在前面的人们——例如H.G.威尔斯这样的流行小说家——都认为科学知识是充分教育的基础。但是对于此时依然躺在中世纪田园牧歌当中打滚的英国诗坛主流来说，科学究竟会造成什么影响呢？戴维森的《咏雪》（Snow）仅就文学价值而言不算特别成功，但却是以全新视角观察自然界的一次精彩尝试：

Who affirms that crystals are alive？'

I affirm it, let who will deny:

Crystals are engendered, wax and thrive,

Wane and wither; I have seen them die.

晶体是否活着，谁能肯定？

我能肯定，看谁能说个不字：

晶体孕育而生，绽放生命

以及衰落枯萎，我见过它们死去。

Trust me, masters, crystals have their day,

Eager to attain the perfect norm,

Lit with purpose, potent to display

Facet, angle, colour, beauty, form.

相信我，先生们，晶体也曾一时光耀，

坚决要遵循完美的规格，

被目的点亮，彰显自然奇妙，

美丽的琢面、角度、形态、色泽。

Water-crystals need for flower and root

Sixty clear degrees, no less, no more;

Snow, so fickle, still in this acute

Angle thinks, and learns no other lore:

水的结晶需要绽放花瓣，

固守六十度角，不少不多；

雪花虽然性情飞扬多变，

依然念想这一锐角，不容分说

Such its life, and such its pleasure is,

Such its art and traffic, such its gain,

Evermore in new conjunctions this

Admirable angle to maintain.

这就是它的生活，这就是它的愉悦

这就是它的交通、收获与艺术，

越来越多地与六十度角相接，

维持这最可钦佩的角度。

Crystalcraft in every flower and flake

Snow exhibits, of the welkin free:

Crystalline are crystals for the sake,

All and singular, of crystalry.

每一片雪花的结晶技艺

都由摆脱天空的落雪呈现：

所有的晶体全都透亮清丽，

无论是全部还是单独每一片。

Yet does every crystal of the snow

Individualize, a seedling sown

Broadcast, but instinct with power to grow

Beautiful in beauty of its own.

然而是否漫天飞雪当中的每一片晶体

单独挑出来都是种子，被播撒下去

四方散布，独具特色地生生不已，

每一片都有属于自己的美丽。

Every flake with all its prongs and dints

Burns ecstatic as a new-lit star:

Men are not more diverse, finger prints

More dissimilar than snow-flakes are.

每一片雪花都凹凸有致

好比星辰点亮光芒无穷：

恰与世间千人千面相似，

就像指纹那样互不相同。

Worlds of men and snow endure, increase,

Woven of power and passion to defy

Time and travail: only races cease,

Individual men and crystals die.

人与雪的世界忍耐与增生，

编织了力量与激情，以此悖逆

时间与辛劳：唯有种族才会告终，

唯有单独的人与晶体才会逝去。