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

希尼是一位如此卓越的诗人，身处英国诗歌主流之外为农村天主教传统发言，以至于笔者忍不住想要没完没了地引用他的诗句。但是这样做对于同时期的其他爱尔兰诗人来说未免太不公平，对于帕特里克.卡瓦纳来说尤其不公平，因为卡瓦纳的出道时间更早并且显著影响了希尼。卡瓦纳的成长地点距离希尼家不远，不过位于英苏分界南边的莫纳汉镇。卡瓦纳生于1904年，逼近三十岁之前干过农夫与鞋匠。后来他搬到都柏林并且打入了当地的文学圈子。在都柏林他一边当记者一边在酒馆打工，同时还出版了一批长篇小说与诗作。要不是希尼这位后起之秀，卡瓦纳肯定会被视作叶芝之后最伟大的爱尔兰诗人。卡瓦纳与希尼截然不同，他是真正与泥土打过交道的农家子弟，毕生命途之坎坷足以媲美爱尔兰先辈乔纳森.斯威夫特。1967年，卡瓦纳的长篇小说《泰瑞.弗林》被改编成了舞台剧。但是首演当天卡瓦纳却重病发作，几天后就去世了。我们很容易就能看出希尼究竟从他身上学到了什么，比方说两人都相信重大的真理植根于司空见惯的土地与平凡人的日常生活当中，而不在抽象概念或者学术圈子里。但是卡瓦纳一丝一毫也没有美化农村生活的意思。请看《不得不生活在农村有感》（Having to Live in the Country）:

Back once again in wild, wet Monaghan

Exiled from thought and feeling,

A mean brutality reigns:

It is really a horrible position to be in

And I equate myself with Dante

And all who have lived outside civilization.

It isn't a question of place but of people;

Wordsworth and Coleridge lived apart from the common man,

Their friends called on them regularly.

Swift is in a somewhat different category

He was a genuine exile and his heavy heart

Weighed him down in Dublin.

Yet even he had compensations for in the Deanery

He received many interesting friends

And it was the eighteenth century.

再一次回到狂野而潮湿的莫纳汉镇

此地遭到放逐，远离了思想与感情。

唯有卑鄙残暴统治此地。

置身于此真是可怕。

我把自己等同于但丁

以及所有生活在文明之外的人。

这不是地点的问题，而是人的问题。

华兹华斯和柯勒律治都生活在普通人之外。

他们的朋友经常联系他们。

斯威夫特则属于另外一类人

他是真正的流亡者，他的心沉重，

拖累了他在都柏林的生活。

但即使是他也在总铎区得到了补偿。

并且接待了许多有趣的朋友——

他那会儿还是十八世纪。

I suppose that having to live

Among men whose rages

Are for small wet hills full of stones

When one man buys a patch and pays a high price for it

That is not the end of his paying.

"Go home and have another bastard" shout the children,

Cousin of the underbidder, to the young wife of the purchaser.

The first child was born after six months of marriage,

Desperate people, desperate animals.

What must happen the poor priest

Somewhat educated who has to believe that these people have souls

As bright as a poet's - though I don't, mind, speak for myself.

我想，不得不生活在

这些愤怒的人们当中

他们的愤怒是为了满是石头的湿润山丘

某人在山上买了一小块地，并为此付出了高价。

而且他的付出并未就此结束。

“回家再生个小杂种吧！”孩子们叫喊着。

他们是竞买失败者的表亲，骂得是买地人的年轻妻子。

两口子的第一个孩子出生在婚礼之后六个月。

泼妇刁民，穷鸟困兽。

可怜的牧师想必在此地经历过什么？

他多少还受过些教育，不得不相信这帮人也有

如同诗人一样明亮的灵魂——虽然我不，介意，为自己说话。

如今的英国人绝大部分都是城里人——爱尔兰人的城市化程度几乎与英格兰人或者苏格兰人不相上下——因此往往会温柔地回顾逝去的乡间生活，将其视作阿卡迪亚一般的世外桃源。因此像卡瓦纳这样切身见识过农村生活的诗人才显得尤为重要。诗人在莫纳汉居住多年，积攒了满腹怨气，然后就通过下面这首《贫瘠灰土》（Stony Grey Soil）全都发泄了出来：

O stony grey soil of Monaghan

The laugh from my love you thieved;

You took the gay child of my passion

And gave me your clod-conceived.

哦莫纳汉镇的贫瘠灰土

我的爱人的笑声被你窃取。

你强夺了我的激情的欢乐子嗣，

又将你孽生的蠢物塞进我怀里。

You clogged the feet of my boyhood

And I believed that my stumble

Had the poise and stride of Apollo

And his voice my thick tongued mumble.

你绊住了我童年的双脚。

我曾相信，我的跌跌撞撞

有着阿波罗的风度和步履。

而我的拙舌将他的声音嘟囔。

You told me the plough was immortal!

O green-life conquering plough!

The mandril stained, your coulter blunted

In the smooth lea-field of my brow.

你告诉我犁是不朽的！

哦，征服了无数绿色生命的犁！

你的犁杆染上污渍，你的犁刀钝化。

将我眉梢的芳草地糟蹋无遗。

You sang on steaming dunghills

A song of cowards’ brood,

You perfumed my clothes with weasel itch,

You fed me on swinish food

你在雾气升腾的丘陵上歌唱。

一首懦夫族群的歌曲。

你用黄鼠狼的臭腺涂抹我的衣服。

你将猪食塞进我的嘴里。

You flung a ditch on my vision

Of beauty, love and truth.

O stony grey soil of Monaghan

You burgled my bank of youth!

你在我寻求美丽、爱和真理

的视野里挖开一条深沟。

哦莫纳汉镇的贫瘠灰土

你将我的青春银行窃偷！

Lost the long hours of pleasure

All the women that love young men.

O can I still stroke the monster’s back

Or write with unpoisoned pen.

失去了漫长的快乐时光

错过了所有喜欢小伙子的女人。

哦我是否还能抚摸怪物的背

或者用不含毒液的笔撰写诗文？

His name in these lonely verses

Or mention the dark fields where

The first gay flight of my lyric

Got caught in a peasant’s prayer.

他的名字存在于孤独的诗句中

或者提到黑暗领域，在那里

我的歌词的第一次欢乐飞行

陷入了一位农夫的祈祷话语。

Mullahinsa, Drummeril, Black Shanco-

Wherever I turn I see

In the stony grey soil of Monaghan

Dead loves that were born for me.

木拉因沙, 德拉莫里尔, 黑山科——

无论我转向何方看去

在莫纳汉的贫瘠灰土当中

为我而生的爱人都死了一地。

不过读者们肯定会期望卡瓦纳的故事并非到此为止——毕竟他还在都柏林浪荡了这么多年，想必往青春的银行里添加了不少存款。卡瓦纳最受读者喜爱的诗作《在拉格兰路上》（On Raglan Road）确实充满了激情与遗憾。这首诗让笔者想起了阿尔加侬.查尔斯.斯温伯恩——或者说假如斯温伯恩在音乐领域之外还会发表其他意见，那么大抵会让笔者想到这首诗的笔法：

On Raglan Road on an autumn day I met her first and knew

That her dark hair would weave a snare that I might one day rue;

I saw the danger, yet I walked along the enchanted way,

And I said, let grief be a fallen leaf at the dawning of the day.

秋天的一天我在拉格兰路上第一次遇到她，当时就知道

她的黑发会织出罗网，有一天兴许会让我想吃后悔药；

我看到了危险，但我着迷一般沿着那条路一直走去，

还宣称，让悲伤化作破晓时的一片叶子飘落在地。

On Grafton Street in November we tripped lightly along the ledge

Of the deep ravine where can be seen the worth of passion's pledge,

The Queen of Hearts still making tarts and I not making hay -

O I loved too much and by such and such is happiness thrown away.

十一月我们在格拉夫敦街上漫游，

就像在深涧边缘绊脚失足，激情承诺的价值露出苗头，

红心女王还在烤馅饼，我却让机会离我而去——

唉，我爱的太深太沉于是真就被幸福抛弃。

I gave her gifts of the mind I gave her the secret sign that's known

To the artists who have known the true gods of sound and stone

And word and tint. I did not stint for I gave her poems to say.

With her own name there and her own dark hair like clouds over fields of May

我献给她精神的礼物，我献给她神秘符文，

只有认得出真正的声音、石头、词语与色彩之神

的艺术家才懂得识别。我为她作诗供吟唱毫不吝啬。

诗里有她的名字与她的黑发，将像乌云将五月田野掩没。

On a quiet street where old ghosts meet I see her walking now

Away from me so hurriedly my reason must allow

That I had wooed not as I should a creature made of clay -

When the angel woos the clay he'd lose his wings at the dawn of day.

在古老幽灵碰面的安静街头，我看到她正在匆匆远去

离开我的身边。我的理智必须承认我已一败涂地。

我追求了一位泥土造物，由此触犯了禁忌——

天使要是追求泥偶就必然会在黎明失去羽翼。【参考了wueeeee网友的译文】

来自贝尔法斯特的诗人迈克尔.朗利的生平时间要比卡瓦纳更接近希尼。他是希尼的朋友，并且同样经历了“那些麻烦”。没有哪位同时期诗人——包括希尼在内——能比他更出色地描写充斥这个时代的暴力并且为失去亲人的苦主们带来慰藉。下面这首短诗名叫《冰激凌商贩》（The Ice Cream Man），悼念了一位死于爱尔兰共和军之手的受害人：

Rum and raisin, vanilla, butter-scotch, walnut, peach:

You would rhyme off the flavours. That was before

They murdered the ice-cream man on the Lisburn Road

And you bought carnations to lay outside his shop.

I named for you all the wild flowers of the Burren

I had seen in one day: thyme, valerian, loosestrife,

Meadowsweet, tway blade, crowfoot, ling, angelica,

Herb robert, marjoram, cow parsley, sundew, vetch,

Mountain avens, wood sage, ragged robin, stitchwort,

Yarrow, lady’s bedstraw, bindweed, bog pimpernel.

朗姆酒与葡萄干，还有香草，黄油红糖浆，核桃，桃子。

你能飞快地说出这足额风味。那还是在

他们在里斯本路杀了那个冰激凌商贩之前。

你买了康乃馨摆在他的店门口。

我为你罗列了我在一天之内看到的

伯伦的所有野花：百里香、缬草、珍珠菜，

绣线菊、双叶兰、水毛茛、欧石楠、林当归，

罗伯鹳草、马郁兰、牛欧芹、日露草、野豌豆，

仙女木、鼠尾草、知更草、刺痛草。

欧蓍草, 篷子菜, 田旋花, 琉璃繁缕。

朗利接受过古典文学训练并且痴迷于奥维德与荷马，同时还极其厌恶北爱社会的世俗主义风气。下面这首《屠夫们》（The Butchers）将两者结合在了一起：

When he had made sure there were no survivors in his house

And that all the suitors were dead, heaped in blood and dust

Like fish that fishermen with fine-meshed nets have hauled

Up gasping for salt water, evaporating in the sunshine,

Odysseus, spattered with muck and like a lion dripping blood

From his chest and cheeks after devouring a farmer’s bullock,

Ordered the disloyal housemaids to sponge down the armchairs

And tables, while Telemachos, the oxherd and the swineherd

Scraped the floor with shovels, and then between the portico

And the roundhouse stretched a hawser and hanged the women

So none touched the ground with her toes, like long-winged thrushes

Or doves trapped in a mist-net across the thicket where they roost,

Their heads bobbing in a row, their feet twitching but not for long,

And when they had dragged Melanthio’s corpse into the haggard

And cut off his nose and ears and cock and balls, a dog’s dinner,

Odysseus, seeing the need for whitewash and disinfectant,

Fumigated the house and the outhouses, so that Hermes

Like a clergyman might wave the supernatural baton

With which he resurrects or hypnotises those he chooses,

And waken and round up the suitors’ souls, and the housemaids’,

Like bats gibbering in the nooks of their mysterious cave

When out of the clusters that dangle from the rocky ceiling

One of them drops and squeaks, so their souls were bat-squeaks

As they flittered after Hermes, their deliverer, who led them

Along the clammy sheughs, then past the oceanic streams

And the white rock, the sun’s gatepost in that dreamy region,

Until they came to a bog-meadow full of bog-asphodels

Where the residents are ghosts or images of the dead.

当他杀光了他家宅院里的全部活口

所有的求婚者都死了，尸体堆积，鲜血混着尘土。

就像渔民用细网拖上来的鱼一样

喘息着渴求盐水，在阳光下枯干。

溅了一身血泥的奥德修斯，像一头狮子刚刚吞食了

农家的公牛，血水从他的胸口和脸颊滴落；

他命令不忠诚的女仆们用海绵擦干净扶手椅

还有桌子，而忒勒马科斯，牛郎和猪郎。

用铁锹刮去地面的血污，然后他们在门廊

与圆房之间架起一根缆索，吊死了这些女人，

她们没有一个人的脚趾碰到地面，就像长翅鸫

或者鸽子撞进了贯穿它们栖息的灌木丛的捕鸟网。

她们的脑袋连连摇摆，双脚抽搐不止，但并未太久。

他们把梅兰西奥的尸体拖进尸堆，

割掉他的鼻子、耳朵、男根与卵蛋，扔给狗当做晚餐。

这时奥德修斯看到房舍需要粉刷消毒

于是熏蒸了房舍与外宅，使得赫尔墨斯

能够像教士那样挥动超自然的指挥棒

从而复活或催眠祂选中的人们

唤醒并且围拢求婚者的灵魂，还有女仆们的灵魂

就像蝙蝠在它们的神秘洞穴里叽喳乱叫

在岩洞顶部聚拢成一簇簇倒悬下来

其中有一只蝙蝠不慎坠落吱吱怪叫，所以他们的灵魂就像怪叫的蝙蝠

跟在赫耳墨斯身后飞驰，他们的救世主带领他们

沿着湿润的湖泊，经过一道道海流。

而那块白色的石头，是太阳在那片梦境之地的门岗。

直到他们来到一片满是草甸的沼泽

那里的居民都是鬼魂或死者的形象。

朗利本人是个不可知论者，不过出身于北爱新教阵营。他生于1939年，父母都是从英格兰搬过来的。他毫不掩饰自己对于爱尔兰共和军的厌恶，但是对于效忠派传统的满脑子偏见同样缺乏好感。下面这首《伤口》（Wounds）创作于1972年，再一次模糊了历史与当代的界限：

Here are two pictures from, my father's head —

I have kept them like secrets until now:

First, the Ulster Division at the Somme

Going over the top with 'Fuck the Pope!'

'No Surrender!': a boy about to die,

Screaming 'Give 'em one for the Shankill!'

'Wilder than Gurkhas' were my father's words

Of admiration and bewilderment.

Next comes the London-Scottish padre.

Resettling kilts with his swagger-stick,

With a stylish backhand and a prayer.

Over a landscape of dead buttocks

My father followed him for fifty years.

At last, a belated casualty,

He said - lead traces flaring till they hurt –

'I am dying for King and Country, slowly.

I touched his hand, his thin head I touched.

这里有两幅画面，来自我父亲的脑海——

我一直把它们当做秘密保留到现在。

首先是索姆河畔的乌尔斯特师团

冲出战壕，高喊着“去他妈的教皇！”

“绝不投降！”一个即将死去的男孩

尖叫道：“为了香吉尔路给他们点厉害！”*1

“比廓尔喀人还亡命”这是我父亲的原话，

他的语气充满了钦佩与茫然。

下一幅画面是来自伦敦的苏格兰裔牧师

用军官手杖重新整理短裙。

颇有风度地反手一挥开始祈祷，

面前是一片死人的屁股。

我父亲跟随他五十年。

最后，身为延后多年的战死者，他说，

“我是为了国王与国家而死。”慢慢地，

我摸了摸他的手，我摸了摸他瘦弱的头颅。

*1【香吉尔路是贝尔法斯特的新教徒居住区。】

Now, with military honours of a kind,

With his badges, his medals like rainbows,

His spinning compass, I bury beside him

Three teenage soldiers, bellies full of

Bullets and Irish beer, their flies undone.

A packet of Woodbines I throw in,

A lucifer, the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Paralysed as heavy guns put out

The night-light in a nursery for ever;

Also a bus-conductor's uniform –

He collapsed beside his carpet-slippers

Without a murmur, shot through the head

By a shivering boy who wandered in

Before they could turn the television down

Or tidy away the supper dishes.

To the children, to a bewildered wife,

I think 'Sorry Missus' was what he said.

现在，本着某种军人的荣誉，

他的徽章，他的绶带像彩虹一样，

他的指南针，我都埋在他身边。

还有三个娃娃兵为他陪葬，三人都装了一肚子

子弹与爱尔兰啤酒，裤口拉链都没拉上。

我向墓穴里扔了一包伍德彬香烟

以及一盒黄磷火柴，印在盒子上的耶稣圣心

随着密集枪火永远熄灭了

幼儿园的夜灯而瘫痪；

再放下一套公交车长制服——

他倒在他的地毯拖鞋旁，

悄无声息，脑袋被击穿了。

开枪的是一个游荡进来的颤抖男孩，

开枪之前他们还没来得及关上电视

或者收拾晚饭的碗筷。

对孩子们，对迷茫的妻子，

我想他说的是“对不起夫人”。【感谢atr网友的指正】

在所有这些惨剧之后，可还有什么希望残存下来吗？不过在北爱的故事当中，人们的确历经坎坷却矢志不渝地勇敢尝试着寻求某种形式的和解。这段旅程贯穿了朗利的诗歌。下面这首《停火》（Ceasefire）本着他的一贯风格取材于荷马：

I

Put in mind of his own father and moved to tears

Achilles took him by the hand and pushed the old king

Gently away, but Priam curled up at his feet and

Wept with him until their sadness filled the building.

一

想及自己的父亲，不由热泪两行，

阿克琉斯握住老国王的手,把他轻轻推开，

普罗姆却蜷曲在他的足下

与他一同哭泣，军帐里充溢着两人的悲哀。

II

Taking Hector's corpse into his own hands Achilles

Made sure it was washed and, for the old king's sake,

Laid out in uniform, ready for Priam to carry

Wrapped like a present home to Troy at daybreak.

二

阿克琉斯把赫克特的遗体亲手捧起

并且仔细清洗,为了老国王的缘故，

给还他穿上战衣，好让普罗姆在破晓时

带回特洛伊，包裹严密好似一件礼物。

III

When they had eaten together, it pleased them both

To stare at each other's beauty as lovers might,

Achilles built like a god, Priam good-looking still

And full of conversation, who earlier had sighed:

三

一起用餐完毕时,两个人都乐意

如情侣般注视着彼此的美丽，

阿克琉斯神一般伟岸，普罗姆英俊依然

并且十分健谈，尽管一见面时他曾悲泣:

IV

'I get down on my knees and do what must be done

And kiss Achilles' hand, the killer of my son.'

四

“我双膝跪地，做不得已而为之事,

我愿亲吻你的手，杀害吾子的阿克琉斯。”【参考了孙红卫的译文】

谢默斯.希尼的最大贡献或许就是培养出了几代新人去欣赏诗歌语言的健美肉体——他擅长的诗词长着扁平的鼻头与粗大的手指，既强硬又圆滑。就像所有堪称诗坛魁首的诗人一样，希尼也不动声色地改变了诗歌创作的规则。