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

在我们离开现代主义者们之前，还有另一位与麦克迪尔米德截然不同的诗人不得不提。戴维.赫伯特.劳伦斯也是工人阶级出身，来自一户诺丁汉郡矿工家庭。如今提起他的名字，读者们首先会想到他的小说，不过他也是一名优秀的诗人以及比较一般的画家。身为小说家与画家的劳伦斯很难算是现代主义者。正当詹姆斯.乔伊斯忙着重塑语言、弗吉尼亚.伍尔芙忙着摸索意识流写作技术时，D.H.劳伦斯的小说却坚守着传统套路，从形式上来看并不比托马斯.哈代当年的作品更激进。他的画作也是传统的表现型作品，尽管技法有些笨拙。之所以他的作品能与现代二字沾边是因为他的创作题材：他的小说直言不讳地描写了性行为，他的画作不加掩饰地描绘了性感裸体。弗洛伊德及其追随者们揭示的全新性与道德世界对于艾略特、庞德以及麦克迪尔米德来说并不算特别要紧——这三位的侧重点都在于政治——可是劳伦斯则不然。

劳伦斯也觉得战后文化腐朽败坏，但是他并没有向外界寻找宗教或者政治答案，而是将目光转向了内心，寻求纯正的情感与性欲，以期这两者能够解放他自己。一定程度上说，他的诗歌与他的小说绘画一脉相承，不过感情要比小说更强烈，内容则不如绘画那样露骨。就算是现代主义诗人也不用在一切方面都奉行现代主义。麦克迪尔米德的《醉汉看蓟草》不仅韵脚工整，而且四行一节，十分传统；这首诗的现代主义特质体现在思想与措辞方面。劳伦斯虽然惯于创作无韵诗，但是他的行文同样很常规；反常规的地方在于他的选材。与一般的世俗肉感相比，他的诗歌腔调并没有那么性感，更没有那么色情。劳伦斯尤其与动植物的世界感同身受，他在这方面的创作方式也为英语诗歌带来了新气象。他的最著名作品之一是《巴伐利亚龙胆》（Bavarian Gentians）。没有这首诗开路，很难想象日后会出现泰德.休斯与西尔维娅.普拉斯那样的诗人。早先世代的英国人或许会觉得劳伦斯在这里宣扬的感觉实在太丢人，必须藏着掖着：

Not every man has gentians in his house

in Soft September, at slow, Sad Michaelmas.

并非每人家中都有龙胆

在柔软的九月，在缓慢而又悲哀的圣米迦勒节。

Bavarian gentians, big and dark, only dark

darkening the daytime torchlike with the smoking blueness of Pluto's gloom,

ribbed and torchlike, with their blaze of darkness spread blue

down flattening into points, flattened under the sweep of white day

torch-flower of the blue-smoking darkness, Pluto's dark-blue daze,

black lamps from the halls of Dis, burning dark blue,

giving off darkness, blue darkness, as Demeter's pale lamps give off light,

lead me then, lead me the way.

巴伐利亚的龙胆，硕大而黑暗，唯有黑暗

如同火炬一般染黑了白昼，凭借冒烟幽蓝，源自普路托的忧郁

缀以棱线，火炬一般，黑暗中的火焰蓝幽幽地延伸

被压扁成许多点，被白色日间的扫荡压扁，

火炬一样的花朵，冒着蓝烟的黑暗，普路托的深蓝色的眩晕，

狄斯大厅里的黑灯，燃起深蓝，

黑暗流泻，深蓝色的黑暗，就像得墨忒耳的苍白灯火发光，

指引我吧，给我引路。

Reach me a gentian, give me a torch

let me guide myself with the blue, forked torch of this flower

down the darker and darker stairs, where blue is darkened on blueness.

even where Persephone goes, just now, from the frosted September

to the sightless realm where darkness was awake upon the dark

and Persephone herself is but a voice

or a darkness invisible enfolded in the deeper dark

of the arms Plutonic, and pierced with the passion of dense gloom,

among the splendor of torches of darkness, shedding darkness on the lost bride and groom.

递给我一支龙胆，递给我一支火炬，

让我用这支花的叉状蓝色火炬引导自己

走下更暗更暗的台阶，蓝色越发深沉。

甚至到珀尔塞福涅前去的地方去，就在此刻，从降霜的九月

前往全无视觉的王国，那里的黑暗在黑暗中苏醒过来，

就连珀耳塞福涅自己也只是一个声音，

或是看不见的黑暗，被包容在冥王怀抱里

更深的黑暗中，并被浓密幽暗的激情射穿，

周遭是黑暗火炬的灿烂光华，

撒下黑暗遮蔽了失落的新娘和她的新郎。【参考了吴笛的译文】

这首诗的形式很古典，题材则是蓝色的花朵。但是诗文的笔调却极其狂暴，主题则是强奸。劳伦斯的另一首名诗《蛇》（Snake）当中的性意象要明确得多。此前的英国人或许像他一样想过，但是肯定没有像他一样写过。从字面上看，这首诗平铺直叙地描写了诗人与一条口渴的蛇之间的碰面，但是劳伦斯却挑战读者们全身心投入这首诗当中，从而承认我们所有人都知道但却很少讨论的事实：

A snake came to my water-trough

On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat,

To drink there.

一条蛇来到我的水槽

在一个炎炎夏日,我着一身睡衣,

前来饮水

In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob tree

I came down the steps with my pitcher

And must wait, must stand and wait, for there he was at the trough

before me.

茂密角豆树的浓荫散发着异香，在树荫遮蔽下

我提着水罐走下台阶

我必须等待，必须等待，因为他来到水槽边

比我更早。

He reached down from a fissure in the earth-wall in the gloom

And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down, over

the edge of the stone trough

And rested his throat upon the stone bottom,

And where the water had dripped from the tap, in a small clearness,

He sipped with his straight mouth,

Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body,

Silently.

他从幽暗土墙的缝隙中俯下身子

拖着他那松弛的黄褐色软腹缓缓爬下，越过

石槽的边缘

他将喉咙置于石头底部

水龙头的水一滴滴地清脆坠下

他轻轻啜饮，用垂直的嘴

水经由他整齐的牙床，流入松弛的长长身躯，此时他

默不作声

Someone was before me at my water-trough,

And I, like a second-comer, waiting.

某人先于我来到水槽边

而我，仿佛一个后来者，等待着。

He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do,

And looked at me vaguely, as drinking cattle do,

And flickered his two-forked tongue from his lips, and mused

a moment,

And stooped and drank a little more,

Being earth-brown, earth-golden from the burning bowels

of the earth

On the day of Sicilian July, with Etna smoking.

他从水槽抬起头来，就像一头牲口，

呆滞地盯着我，就像一头喝水的牲口，

他吐着信子，信子忽隐忽现，凝视我

片刻

然后俯下身子，继续饮水

他通身土褐和土金色，来自燃烧的

大地深处，

在西西里七月的这天，埃特纳火山依然冒着烟。

The voice of my education said to me

He must be killed,

For in Sicily the black, black snakes are innocent, the gold

are venomous.

我所接受的教育嘱咐我

我必须要将他杀死

因为在西西里黑色的蛇无害，而金色的蛇

有毒。

And voices in me said, If you were a man

You would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off.

我脑中的众多声音对我说，如果你是一个男子汉

就该拿起棍棒打断他，杀死他。

But must I confess how I liked him,

How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink

at my water-trough

And depart peaceful, pacified, and thankless,

Into the burning bowels of this earth?

然而我必须承认，我十分喜欢他

我多么高兴，他曾像宾客一样安静地来到我的家门，来到

我的水槽边饮水

然后再悄然离去，不谢一语，

返回到燃烧的大地肚肠？

Was it cowardice, that I dared not kill him?

Was it perversity, that I longed to talk to him?

Was it humility, to feel so honoured?

I felt so honoured.

是不是出于懦弱，我不敢把他杀死？

是不是出于堕落，我盼望与他交谈？

是不是羞辱，我竟然感到光荣？

我感到如此光荣。

And yet those voices:

If you were not afraid, you would kill him!

然而，又传出了声音：

“假若你不害怕，你就得把他处死！”

And truly I was afraid, I was most afraid,

But even so, honoured still more

That he should seek my hospitality

From out the dark door of the secret earth.

我的确感到畏惧，异常畏惧

即便如此，我仍感到荣幸

因为他走出了神秘大地的幽暗之门

前来寻求我的好客之情。

He drank enough

And lifted his head, dreamily, as one who has drunken,

And flickered his tongue like a forked night on the air, so black,

Seeming to lick his lips,

And looked around like a god, unseeing, into the air,

And slowly turned his head,

And slowly, very slowly, as if thrice adream,

Proceeded to draw his slow length curving round

And climb again the broken bank of my wall-face.

他饮饱了水

抬起头，神情恍惚，像个醉酒之人

那忽隐忽现的信子如此之黑，像空中分叉的黑夜

他似乎在舔舐嘴唇

像神灵一样，视而不见地环顾四周

他缓缓转过头去

缓缓地，仿佛进入三重幽梦

开始拖曳长长的、绕成曲线的躯体，

又爬上了破裂的墙面。

And as he put his head into that dreadful hole,

And as he slowly drew up, snake-easing his shoulders,

and entered farther,

A sort of horror, a sort of protest against his withdrawing into

that horrid black hole,

Deliberately going into the blackness, and slowly drawing

himself after,

Overcame me now his back was turned.

他将头伸进那可怖的洞穴

以蛇的方式慢慢拉直身体，放松肩膀，

再继续进洞，

我突然心生恐惧，心生抗议，就在他撤回

可怖的无底黑洞时，

在他从容地驶入黑暗，缓慢地拖着

他的身躯

背对着我，而我则难以自禁。

I looked round, I put down my pitcher,

I picked up a clumsy log

And threw it at the water-trough with a clatter.

我环视四周，我放下水罐，

我捡起笨重的木头，

啪地一声砸向水槽。

I think it did not hit him,

But suddenly that part of him that was left behind convulsed

in an undignified haste,

Writhed like lightning, and was gone

Into the black hole, the earth-lipped fissure in the wall-front,

At which, in the intense still noon, I stared with fascination.

我想我并未击中他，

然而他洞外的身躯突然剧烈抽搐

惊惶而仓促

闪电般一扭，随即踪迹全无

消失在幽暗的无底黑洞里，隐没在墙面的缝隙中，

在炎热又静寂的正午，我望着黑洞几近痴迷。

And immediately I regretted it.

I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act!

I despised myself and the voices of my accursed human education.

我即刻便懊悔不已。

我的行为是如此卑鄙，如此粗俗，如此低劣！

我憎恨我自己，憎恨可恶的人类教育的声音。

And I thought of the albatross,

And I wished he would come back, my snake.

我回想起了信天翁的故事。

我希望他能够回来，我的蛇呀。

For he seemed to me again like a king,

Like a king in exile, uncrowned in the underworld,

Now due to be crowned again.

因为于我而言，他像是一个君主

一个被放逐的君主，幽暗世界的无冕之王

现在是给他重新加冕的时候了

And so, I missed my chance with one of the lords

Of life.

And I have something to expiate:

A pettiness.

就这样，我错失了与一位生命之主

交往的际遇。

而我必须赎罪：

罪名是偏狭。【吴笛、庞红蕊等译】

笔者在本章当中介绍的诗人除了休.麦克迪尔米德之外全都没有亲眼见过一战战场。但是战争本身以及战争对于西方文化的显著影响却改变了他们所有人。他们每个人都经受了绝望，应对绝望的方式则各不相同。T.S.艾略特基本上无视了战争并且狂热地——倒不是说他狂热的样子有多么可信——拥抱了英格兰特质与圣公会信仰。庞德、洛伊与劳伦兹则全都选择了背井离乡，各自前往了法西斯治下的意大利、新墨西哥州与曼哈顿，总之就是不在英国呆着。唯有麦克迪尔米德不仅留在了英国，还试图对一战进行政治回应。搞政治并不是现代主义的做法，但却是下一代诗人当中最流行的做法。我们接下来就去看看这些二十世纪三十年代的政治诗人。