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

托马斯.哈代不仅比起戴维森年长十七岁——他于1840年生在多赛特——而且还比他活得更长。此外哈代的诗才也更胜于戴维森，实际上哈代竟可算是第一流的英国诗人。但是这两人具有许多共同的有趣特质。比方说哈代也是一个极其悲观的人，同样对于科学理念与现代思想抱有浓厚的兴趣。尽管他对圣公会感情很深，却不愿接受传统的宗教世界观，还曾经劝诫某位教士去研读达尔文以及以赫伯特.斯宾塞为代表的达尔文追随者们的作品。哈代与戴维森都生活在一个上帝缺位的世界，两人也都在竭力理解这个世界的意义，因此他们都成为了千百万才识逊色的普通英国人的代言人。下面这首《合二为一》（The Convergence of the Twain）为的是纪念1912年泰坦尼克号沉没事故，但是诗人也借此抒发了自己对于命运无常的黑暗观点，还趁机批判了坚信人力胜于自然的英国文化弊病。今天的读者要是担心高速增长且视贪婪为美德的现代资本主义文明早晚要遭报应，那么可千万不能错过这首诗：

I

In a solitude of the sea

Deep from human vanity,

And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she.

一：

在大海的寂寥中

深离人类的虚荣

和规划她的鲜活骄傲，她躺卧不动。

II

Steel chambers, late the pyres

Of her salamandrine fires,

Cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres.

二：

钢铁的炉腔，曾经是熊熊燃烧之地，

栖息着她那赤红的烈火蜥蜴，

如今冰冷水流，演奏着海潮的旋律。

III

Over the mirrors meant

To glass the opulent

The sea-worm crawls — grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent.

三：

一面面明镜

原要将豪华景象照映，

如今海蛆在上面爬——粘湿丑陋，不闻不问。

IV

Jewels in joy designed

To ravish the sensuous mind

Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind.

四：

玲珑剔透的珠宝

原是为供人夸耀

如今黯然失色，归于黑暗，在那里睡觉

V

Dim moon-eyed fishes near

Gaze at the gilded gear

And query: “What does this vaingloriousness down here？” …

五：

张着满月大眼的怪鱼

对着这些表面浮华的东西

问道：“这狂妄之物因何沉到此地？”

VI

Well: while was fashioning

This creature of cleaving wing,

The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything

六：

却原来在当初

当人们建造这破浪的巨物

那无所不在的意志，搅动宇宙万物

VII

Prepared a sinister mate

For her — so gaily great —

A Shape of Ice, for the time far and dissociate.

七：

就为她——花团锦簇的新娘

准备了阴险的新郎——

一座冰山，佳期尚遥，且天各一方。

VIII

And as the smart ship grew

In stature, grace, and hue,

In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too.

八：

漂亮的巨轮出落得

挺拔、优雅、满面光泽，

冰山在幽暗寂静的远方也日渐巍峨。

IX

Alien they seemed to be;

No mortal eye could see

The intimate welding of their later history,

九：

他们彼此不相干；

凡人谁也不能看穿

他们以后会融合成为一团，

X

Or sign that they were bent

By paths coincident

On being anon twin halves of one august event,

十：

或是有任何迹象

他们会走到行将交会的路上，

不久成为一桩大喜事的双方，

XI

Till the Spinner of the Years

Said “Now!” And each one hears,

And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres.

十一：

直到纺织光阴的主宰

对着两者说一声“现在！”

于是终成好事，让两个半球万分惊骇。【参考了梁实秋与刘新民的译文。感谢atr网友的指正。】

哈代与其他爱德华时代英国作家笔下的悲观情绪如此鲜明，以至于今天的读者实在无法不觉得这帮人诡异地预感到了即将到来的一战惨剧。当初哈代的诗歌创作处于高峰期时，来自美国的埃兹拉.庞德正在伦敦客居。庞德很有名地说过，诗人是“一个民族的触角”。哈代的《海峡炮声》（Channel Firing）非常到位地诠释了这句话。在这首诗歌当中，英国海军在英吉利海峡进行炮击演习，惊扰了埋骨在多塞特某教堂周边的死者。最瘆人的地方在于，这首诗的完成与发表时间是1914年，恰好正在一战爆发前夕：

That night your great guns, unawares,

Shook all our coffins as we lay,

And broke the chancel window-squares,

We thought it was the Judgement-day

那夜你们的炮声突然轰响，

撼动了我们安卧的所有灵柩，

也震破了圣坛的玻璃窗，

我们以为最后审判已经临头

And sat upright. While drearisome

Arose the howl of wakened hounds:

The mouse let fall the altar-crumb,

The worm drew back into the mounds,

而直挺挺坐起。狗被惊醒，

声声吠叫凄凉而阴沉：

耗子扔下祭坛上的碎饼，

蚯蚓急忙缩进土墩，

The glebe cow drooled. Till God cried, "No;

It's gunnery practice out at sea

Just as before you went below;

The world is as it used to be:

牛也张着口。直到上帝讲：

“没什么，这只是海上演习炮战，

和你们入土前一个样，

这世界丝毫没有改变：

"All nations striving strong to make

Red war yet redder. Mad as hatters

They do no more for Christés sake

Than you who are helpless in such matters.

“各国都在竭力称霸逞强，

把战火燃得更红。这些疯子

要说为基督服务，不比你们强，

而这事你们已无能为力。

"That this is not the judgment-hour

For some of them's a blessed thing,

For if it were they'd have to scour

Hell's floor for so much threatening. . . .

“亏这还不是最后审判，

也算是他们的造化大，

否则该罚去地狱擦地板，

因他们这般凶神恶煞……

"Ha, ha. It will be warmer when

I blow the trumpet (if indeed

I ever do; for you are men,

And rest eternal sorely need)."

“哈，哈，如果我吹响号角，

那才更热闹（我若真的吹起，

肯定会这样；可你们要睡觉，

迫切需要永恒的安息）。”

So down we lay again. "I wonder,

Will the world ever saner be,"

Said one, "than when He sent us under

In our indifferent century!"

我们重又躺下。有人说：“我真不知，

这世界会不会更理智一点，

比起上帝送我们入地之时——

比起我们那冷漠的百年！”

And many a skeleton shook his head.

"Instead of preaching forty year,"

My neighbour Parson Thirdly said,

"I wish I had stuck to pipes and beer."

骷髅们闻此言纷纷摇头，

我的邻居瑟德利牧师发了言：

“我早当嗜好烟斗啤酒，

悔不该传教传了四十年。”

Again the guns disturbed the hour,

Roaring their readiness to avenge,

As far inland as Stourton Tower,

And Camelot, and starlit Stonehenge.

炮声再一次轰破夜空，

喧嚣着随时报复之心，

这声音远传到亚瑟王宫

斯图尔顿塔和星光下的巨石阵。 【刘新民译】

不过笔者绝不想让读者们误以为哈代是一位政治诗人。哈代的确描写过他所属的时代与当时的思想，但是他的最杰出诗作写得都是个人情感，尤其是《1912-13诗集》当中的作品。在这部诗集当中，他满怀愧疚地回顾了自己与第一任妻子艾玛的失败婚姻。那一次他没能忠于妻子，他的反宗教世界观也让不堪受辱的妻子背弃了他。哈代试图在两人最熟悉的地方再现他们最初恋爱时的感受，并且对于人类爱情的失败采取了令人难以忍受的坦诚态度。下面两首诗是笔者的最爱，第一首名叫《呼唤》（The Voice）

Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me,

Saying that now you are not as you were

When you had changed from the one who was all to me,

But as at first, when our day was fair.

我深深怀恋的女人，你一声声朝我呼唤不歇，

说你不再像先前，变得对我疏远，

而是一如当初，那时你是我的一切，

那时我们曾多么恩爱美满。

Can it be you that I hear？ Let me view you, then,

Standing as when I drew near to the town

Where you would wait for me: yes, as I knew you then,

Even to the original air-blue gown!

真是你的声音吗？那就让我看看你，

像当年我走近市镇，见你站在那里

等着我，啊，你还是当年那样子，

甚至连那身别致的天蓝裙衣！

Or is it only the breeze, in its listlessness

Travelling across the wet mead to me here,

You being ever dissolved to wan wistlessness,

Heard no more again far or near？

或许这只是一阵微风徐徐而来，

吹过湿润的草地，来到我这里，

而你已变得毫无知觉，脸色苍白，

无论远近，我再也听不到你？

Thus I; faltering forward,

Leaves around me falling,

Wind oozing thin through the thorn from norward,

And the woman calling.

于是，我步履踉跄往前赶，

这时四周正落叶缤纷，

北来的寒风穿行在棘丛间，

传来她不停的呼唤声。【刘新民译】

第二首诗的题材是夫妻二人曾经最爱的一段散步路径，题目是《在勃特雷尔城堡》（At Castle Boterel）。善良的读者们，假如你们读罢此诗之后眼眶并未湿润，那你这人大概有毛病：

As I drive to the junction of lane and highway,

And the drizzle bedrenches the waggonette,

I look behind at the fading byway,

And see on its slope, now glistening wet,

Distinctly yet

当我驶近小路与大道的交接处，

当蒙蒙细雨湿透了马车车厢，

我回头看那渐渐隐去的小路，

这会儿已湿得闪闪发亮，

清清楚楚见那路上，

Myself and a girlish form benighted

In dry March weather. We climb the road

Beside a chaise. We had just alighted

To ease the sturdy pony's load

When he sighed and slowed.

有我自己和一个少女的身影，

在干燥的三月的夜色中隐现。

我们跟着马车在山道上攀行。

因小马气喘吁吁迈步艰难，

我们下车以减轻负担。

What we did as we climbed, and what we talked of

Matters not much, nor to what it led, -

Something that life will not be balked of

Without rude reason till hope is dead,

And feeling fled.

我们一路说过的话，做过的事

已无关紧要，连同随后的一切，——

没有重大缘故，人生不会将它错失，

除非希望之火已灰飞烟灭，

感情之泉也枯竭。

It filled but a minute. But was there ever

A time of such quality, since or before,

In that hill's story？ To one mind never,

Though it has been climbed, foot-swift, foot-sore,

By thousands more.

那只延续了一刻。但在该山的历史上，

此前此后，如此纯真的时刻

可曾有过？而就个人来讲，

纵然千万双捷足登过这山坡，

如此纯真谁体验过？

Primaeval rocks form the road's steep border,

And much have they faced there, first and last,

Of the transitory in Earth's long order;

But what they record in colour and cast

Is - that we two passed.

亘古的巉岩耸立在山路边，

它们在此面对人世的长河，

目睹了古往今来无数的瞬间，

但以色彩和形象记录下的过客

却只有你和我。

And to me, though Time's unflinching rigour,

In mindless rote, has ruled from sight

The substance now, one phantom figure

Remains on the slope, as when that night

Saw us alight.

在我的心目中，严峻无情的时光，

虽然冷漠地挟裹去那个形体，

她的幻影却依然留在这坡上，

恰似那个夜晚看见我俩在一起

依然激情洋溢。

I look and see it there, shrinking, shrinking,

I look back at it amid the rain

For the very last time; for my sand is sinking,

And I shall traverse old love's domain

Never again.

我凝眸见它在那里渐渐模糊，

我又回过头透过蒙蒙细雨

望她最后一眼；因为我已半截入土，

我再也不可能重新光顾

昔日动情之域。【刘新民译】

说到英国风光以及对于即将到来的一战的悲观情绪，还有一位重要诗人不能不提，也就是A.E.豪斯曼。他被时人誉为最杰出的古典学者——而且他所处的时代可是充满了各路古典学者。身为男同的他不巧生在了一个同性恋依然入刑并且能让当事人身败名裂的时代。他笔下最出名的诗文名叫《希洛普郡少年》（A Shropshire Lad）——一首献给注定不幸的青春的长篇颂歌，也是一曲哀悼英国乡间伊甸园即将随着新世纪的降临而消逝的挽歌。例如其中第四十首：

Into my heart an air that kills

From yon far country blows:

What are those blue remembered hills,

What spires, what farms are those？

从远方冲来一股爽煞人的空气

从异乡吹入我的心田：

哪些蓝色的丘陵存身于记忆，

哪些尖塔、哪些农场田园？

That is the land of lost content,

I see it shining plain,

The happy highways where I went

And cannot come again.

那是失去的美满国度，

我清楚看到它多么敞亮，

我曾经走过的幸福之路

返程时却再也无法踏上。【参考了黄灿然的译文】

还有下面这篇第五十二首：

Far in a western brookland

That bred me long ago

The poplars stand and tremble

By pools I used to know.

远在那西方的水域，

多年前我生长之乡，

白杨树萧萧地摇曳

傍着我熟悉的池塘。

There, in the windless night-time,

The wanderer, marvelling why,

Halts on the bridge to hearken

How soft the poplars sigh.

那里在风定的夜间

有行人驻足桥头，

在惊疑不定倾听着

白杨的叹息多轻柔。

He hears: long since forgotten

In fields where I was known,

Here I lie down in London

And turn to rest alone.

他听着：在我混熟的田野里

再也无人忆及。

我这里在伦敦

独自躺下来安息。

There, by the starlit fences,

The wanderer halts and hears

My soul that lingers sighing

About the glimmering weirs.

那里在星映的篱边

行人驻足而倾听

我梦魂的叹息萦绕着

夜色微茫的堰景。【译者不详】

豪斯曼眼中的英格兰乡村景象就像哈代的一样充满了历史感——两人的叙事都颇有古今一体的意味。但是在豪斯曼的希洛普郡，实际的农民形象看上去有点模糊，倒像是些素描形象。相比起来，哈代笔下的多塞特农民则都是操着一口方言的三维立体角色。这一区别或许意味着豪斯曼的明面文字之下还潜藏着另一个故事：勇敢的年轻人们纷纷离开了英格兰前往异国他乡，为了捍卫大英帝国而纷纷战死。由此还能进一步得出一项事实：豪斯曼笔下最生动的角色往往是鬼而不是人。请看第四十首：

On Wenlock Edge the wood's in trouble;

His forest fleece the Wrekin heaves;

The gale, it plies the saplings double,

And thick on Severn snow the leaves.

温洛岭上的树林陷入了凶险；

森林覆满了里金的山峦起伏；

狂风，它将树苗拦腰折断，

树叶纷落，厚厚地堆积在塞汶山谷。

'Twould blow like this through holt and hanger

When Uricon the city stood:

'Tis the old wind in the old anger,

But then it threshed another wood.

狂风就这样刮过林丘和林地

在尤利考恩这座城市尚且伫立之时：

刮过的是旧时狂风，带着旧时怒气，

但那时它曾将另一片树林鞭笞。

Then, 'twas before my time, the Roman

At yonder heaving hill would stare:

The blood that warms an English yeoman,

The thoughts that hurt him, they were there.

那时，在我的时代之前，是罗马人的世界，

他也曾凝视着远处动荡的山峦：

如今温暖了一位英国农民的热血，

以及令他伤神的思绪，也曾在罗马人体内循环。

There, like the wind through woods in riot,

Through him the gale of life blew high;

The tree of man was never quiet:

Then 'twas the Roman, now 'tis I.

那里，仿佛暴戾狂风从树林席卷而过，

生活的狂风也曾迅猛穿透他的身躯；

树木一般的人从不会静默：

那时是罗马人，现在轮到我领教高低。

The gale, it plies the saplings double,

It blows so hard, 'twill soon be gone:

To-day the Roman and his trouble

Are ashes under Uricon.

狂风，它将树苗折成了两截，

风吹得如此强劲，很快就会消失不见：

今日，罗马人和他的纠结

已经化为灰烬，掩埋在尤利考恩下面。【参考了小唐|卷不进网友的译文】

豪斯曼似乎是一个极其孤独压抑的人。他对于才华不如自己的学者一贯态度极为恶劣，这一点或许也折射了他的心境。但是在王尔德受审之后，他也创作过强有力的诗歌来描写当时的反同性恋战争。笔者认为下面这首《哦那个年轻的罪人是谁？》（Oh Who Is That Young Sinner）堪称是英语文学当中第一篇同性恋抗议作品：

Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrists？

And what has he been after that they groan and shake their fists？

And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience-stricken air？

Oh they're taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.

啊，戴著手铐的那个年轻的罪人究竟是谁？

大家都叹息着摇晃拳头，他犯了什么罪？

他为什么流露出一副如此良心不安的神色？

啊，他们把他扔进牢里为得是他头发的颜色。

'Tis a shame to human nature, such a head of hair as his;

In the good old time 'twas hanging for the colour that it is;

Though hanging isn't bad enough and flaying would be fair

For the nameless and abominable colour of his hair.

他竟会长一头这样的头发，真是人类之耻；

在过去，长这种颜色的头发的人会被绞死；

绞死还嫌太便宜他了，剥皮才算合理公平，

谁让他的头发颜色如此古怪可恶叫不出名。

Oh a deal of pains he's taken and a pretty price he's paid

To hide his poll or dye it of a mentionable shade;

But they've pulled the beggar's hat off for the world to see and stare,

And they're haling him to justice for the colour of his hair.

啊，他也曾煞费苦心，付出了代价高昂，

为了藏匿满头杂毛，或者染出一点名堂；

但是他们扯掉了倒霉蛋的帽子让世人观瞧，

然后又理直气壮地将他扭送进了监牢。

Now 'tis oakum for his fingers and the treadmill for his feet

And the quarry-gang on Portland in the cold and in the heat,

And between his spells of labour in the time he has to spare

He can curse the God that made him for the colour of his hair.

现在他的手得去补船舶裂缝，他的脚将水车踩踏，

他得在波特兰的采石场度过寒冬与盛夏，

在苦役之余他他要是还能享受片刻休息，

大可以为了自己头发的颜色去诅咒上帝。【参考了朱乃长的译文】