惠特曼詩歌欣賞
惠特曼的詩歌欣賞——太忙碌的蜘蛛
惠特曼(1819~1892)美國詩人。他小時候生活窮困,只讀了5年小學(xué) 。他當(dāng)過信差,學(xué)過排字,后來當(dāng)過鄉(xiāng)村教師和編輯 。1841年以后,他在紐約開始當(dāng)印刷工人,不久就改當(dāng)記者 。幾年以后,他成了一家較有名望的報紙《鷲鷹報》的主筆,不斷撰寫反對奴隸制,反對雇主剝削的論文和短評 。
惠特曼的一生是反抗和叛逆的,他的詩歌更是如此。如果說艾略特的炸彈可以毀滅掉古典詩歌地球一半的話,那么另一半就是由惠特曼來毀滅的 。在那么久遠(yuǎn)的年代,惠特曼就已經(jīng)開始寫散文詩,而且是極其口語化的散文體 。個人以為,從現(xiàn)在的欣賞角度來說,他的很多詩歌力量的確不足,但他開創(chuàng)了一個新鮮的時代,從這個角度來說,他的詩歌和他的人生一樣都很值得被欣賞。他的《最近紫丁香在庭院里開放的時候》和《哦,船長,我的船長!》應(yīng)該更被人熟悉,是寫給林肯的 。下面介紹他的另一首:
一只沉默而耐心的蜘蛛
一只沉默而耐心的蜘蛛,
我注意它孤立地站在小小的海岬上,
注意它怎樣勘測周圍的茫?仗摚
它射出了絲,從它小小的身軀,
不斷地從紗綻放出,不倦地加快速率。
而你——我的心靈,你站在何處,
被包圍孤立在無限空間的海洋里,
不停地沉思、探險、投射、尋求可以連結(jié)的地方,
直到架起你需要的橋,直到下定你韌性的錨,
直到你拋出的游絲抓住了某處,我的心靈。
如果說艾略特更注重思考的話,惠特曼則更注重觀察,他的詩歌就是他所觀察到的美國生活畫卷。而上面這首詩就是描寫一只蜘蛛在美國的生活,也是他心靈不知疲倦的探索。
正是由于內(nèi)戰(zhàn)時辛勞過度,惠特曼于1873年患半身不遂,在病榻上捱過了近20年 。1892年3月26日惠特曼在卡姆登病逝。他的人生就是這首詩歌的另一種翻譯 。
If it can be generally stated that nineteenth-century European 'high' culture valued poetic discourse over the lecodified practices of everyday language, then Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grais an attempt to give everyday American linguistic usage poetic value. Whitman's poem includes discourse that does not comply with the traditions of European poetics but that is proclaimed nevertheleto be poetry in order to suggest that the liberal-democratic American state has a natural beauty equivalent to the most refined poem. Leaves demonstrates this national beauty by including a wide variety of utterances and observations in its epic project, even though this inclusivenealso implies a critique of the project that the work undertakes. The ambitious extent of this collection threatens the identity and distinctiveneof the literary text itself. Like a state with poorly defined borders and institutions, a work that intends to articulate such an inclusive democratic poetic voice challenges the necessary formal distinctivenethat would recognizably make it a form of literary discourse. The result is that Leaves must solicit the willing participation of its readers in order to realize the project that it undertakes. Whitman's poetry requires that the reader constantly renew its discourse by reinvesting it with new poetic meaning and, as a result, reaffirming it as the poetry of a flourishing, liberal American state[1].
The poem's cultural project is announced in 'Starting from Paumanok,' a piece that was originally titled 'Proto-Leaf' and that serves as a general introduction to the entire Leaves. In it, the poet takes his birthplace as his point of poetic departure and provides a list of the scarcely formed, raw materials from which the poem and nation are to be composed. He associates his personal vision with the growth of America, and this conjunction of individual, natural progreand nation building enables him to 'strike up for a New World':
Victory, union, faith, identity, time,
The indissoluble compacts, riches, mystery,
Eternal progress, the kosmos, and the modern reports.
This then is life,
Here is what has come to the surf-ace after so many throes and convulsions.
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY, VOLUME 64, NUMBER 2, SPRING 1995 How curious! how real!
Underfoot the divine soil, overhead the sun.
See revolving the globe
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