【英文佳作欣赏】The Rhodora 紫杜鹃 诗/R.W.爱默生

云天2010

一个从哈佛神学院走出来的人，能大胆提出“当耶稣是一个人的时候，他并不是神”，了不起的思想！
金沙文字 发表于 2010-4-7 10:41:00

读过有关爱默生的,  就记得他崇尚华翁.  好象后来又不信教了.  记不得了. 我对主义之类从来没兴趣.


狗一段.

zt:

爱默生（1803-1882），美国19世纪著名哲学家、文学家。爱默生
拉尔夫·瓦尔多·爱默生（Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882）美国散文作家、思想家、诗人。1803年5月出生于马萨诸塞州波土顿附近的康考德村，1882年4月27日在波士顿逝世。他的生命几乎横贯19世纪的美国，他出生时候的美国热闹却混沌，一些人意识到它代表着某种新力量的崛起，却无人能够清晰的表达出来。它此时缺乏统一的政体，更没有相对一致的意识形态。在他去世的时候美国不但因为南北战争而统一，而且它的个性却逐渐鲜明起来，除了物质力量引人注目，它的文化也正在竭力走出欧洲的阴影。1837年爱默生以《美国学者》为题发表了一篇著名的演讲辞，宣告美国文学已脱离英国文学而独立，告诫美国学者不要让学究习气蔓延，不要盲目地追随传统，不要进行纯粹的摹仿。另外这篇讲辞还抨击了美国社会的拜金主义，强调人的价值。被誉为美国思想文化领域的“独立宣言”。一年之后，爱默生在《神学院献辞》中批评了基督教唯一神教派死气沉沉的局面，竭力推崇人的至高无尚，提倡靠直觉认识真理。“相信你自己的思想，相信你内心深处认为对你合适的东西对一切人都适用……”文学批评家劳伦斯.布尔在《爱默生传》所说，爱默生与他的学说，是美国最重要的世俗宗教。
爱默生出身牧师家庭，自幼丧父，由母亲和姑母抚养他成人。曾就读于哈佛大学，在校期间，他阅读了大量英国浪漫主义作家的作品，丰富了思想，开阔了视野。毕业后曾执教两年，之后进入哈佛神学院，担任基督教唯一的神教派牧师，并开始布道。1832年以后，爱默生到欧洲各国游历，结识了浪漫主义先驱华滋华斯和柯尔律治，接受了他们的先验论思想，对他思想体系的形成具有很大影响。
爱默生回到波土顿后，在康考德一带从事布道。这时他的演说更接近于亚里士多德学派风格，重要讲演稿有《历史的哲学》、《人类文化》、《目前时代》等。 爱默生经常和他的朋友梭罗、霍桑、阿尔柯、玛格利特等人举行小型聚会，探讨神学、哲学和社会学问题。这种聚会当时被称为“超验主义俱乐部”，爱默生也自然而然地成为超验主义的领袖。
1840年爱默生任超验主义刊物《日晷》的主编，进一步宣扬超验主义思想。后来他把自己的演讲汇编成书，这就是著名的《论文集》。《论文集》第一集于1841年发表，包括《论自助》、《论超灵》、《论补偿》、《论爱》、《论友谊》等12篇论文。三年后，《论文集》第二集也出版了。这部著作为爱默赢得了巨大的声誉，他的思想被称为超验主义的核心，他本人则被冠以“美国的文艺复兴领袖”之美誉。
爱默生的《论文集》赞美了人要信赖自我的主张，这样的人相信自己是所有人的代表，因为他感知到了普遍的真理。爱默生以一个超验主义名的口吻，平静地叙说着他对世界的看法、超验主义结合并渗透了新柏拉图主义和类似加尔文教派的一种严肃道德观和那种能在一切自然中发现上帝之爱的浪漫派乐观主义。
爱默生喜欢演讲，面对人群令他兴奋不已，他说他感觉到一种伟大的情感在召唤，他的主要声誉和成就建立于此。他通过自己的论文和演说成为美国超验主义的领袖，并且成为非正式哲学家中最重要的一个。他的哲学精神表现在对逻辑学、经验论的卓越见解上，他轻视纯理论的探索，信奉自然界，认为它体现了上帝和上帝的法则。
除《论文集》之外，爱默生的作品还行《代表人物》、《英国人的特性》、《诗集》、《五日节及其他诗》。
爱默生集散文作家、思想家、诗人于一身，他的诗歌、散文独具特色，注重思想内容而没有过分注重词藻的华丽，行文犹如格言，哲理深入浅出，说服力强，且有典型的“爱默生风格”。有人这样评价他的文字“爱默生似乎只写警句”，他的文字所透出的气质难以形容：既充满专制式的不容置疑，又具有开放式的民主精神；既有贵族式的傲慢，更具有平民式的直接；既清晰易懂，又常常夹杂着某种神秘主义......一个人能在一篇文章中塞入那么多的警句实在是了不起的，那些值得在清晨诵读的句子为什么总能够振奋人心，岁月不是为他蒙上灰尘，而是映衬得他熠熠闪光。

rlee

找到一个网站，把注释抄在这里。

On being asked? Who is asking and whom is being asked?

Whence: Does the poem answer this question? If so, what is its answer?

pierce: This suggests an almost violent awakening, of sharp winds, forcing him into spring life.

in the woods: Emerson, being a naturalist and poet in his own right, considers in this poem a woodland shrub as opposed to a botanical perennial. Traditionally, roses are the typical flowers of romantic poetry and are associated with romance and conventional love. Emerson discusses a flower of the forest, which intimates a relationship, or amour, between him and the woods, or nature in general. Being found in the woods, out of view of the general public, the rhodora is a special treat for woods walkers, which suggests an experience that transcends the general populace and confronts the individual soul. I see a wholly personal experience, that extends beyond conventional concepts of beauty and confronts "the self-same" spirit inherent in the plant and the viewer. [Jon Mott]

leafless blooms: Like many bushes, this one blooms before the leaves emerge in the spring.

desert: This is not a literal desert, but a wild and uninhabited place where people rarely come.

purple petals: This image predates modern Imagistic poetry, especially Ezra Pound's "In a Station of the Metro": The apparition of these faces in the crowd;/ Petals on a wet, black bough.

rlee

pool: Consider the alliteration here. It gives the poem a sense of fluidity. He seems to use the P's to show that the the petals have more bearing to him than the black water, which uses different consonants. In addition to that, the connotative meanings associated with purple (like royalty) overshadow the color of black. [Jeff Byers] The hard P overrides the softer alliterature of W. The brilliance of purple compared to black (and later red) gives the reader a complete understanding of just how astounding the image of this flower amidst the woods really was. [Ann Voorhies]

black: Emerson's use of words like "solitudes," "damp," "sluggish," "black" at the begining of the poem gives a dark tone that he is somehow leaving behind. This also gives a feeling of coming out of a long hard winter and early spring into the new feel and warmth of May. [Caroline Macauley-Wise] The black water of the brook is a nice backdrop for the purple petals, but also suggests a sylvan fertility that isn't available in the rose garden. Emerson's imagery here is focused on dark, deep colors of the natural-untamed environment and appeals to a sense of established beauty, formed slowly under the undiscriminating canopy of the trees as opposed to the meticulous eye of rose pruner. This is a perfect example of transcendental poetry that eschews traditional symbols and considers a more natural type of beauty.[Jon Mott]

red-bird: He could have said "cardinal" but he wishes to emphasize the color and its contrast.

cheapens: So why would he 'court' it? Perhaps the bird's own egotistical pride is trumped by his recognition of the flower's bright color?

Rhodora: Note the change here, as he speaks directly to the flower, and tries to assess his relationship to his discovery.

sages: It is ironic thatEmerson specifically charges the 'sages' here. He does not see the rhodora's charm wasted on the earth and sky and suggests the sages are 'blind' for thinking this. It would be selfish to demand nature's charm be saved for only us. Thus lines 11 and 12 challenge the 'wisdom' of such sages that would ask the rhodora such an egocentric question. [Lexie Cimko]

rlee

dear: Why does he refer to the flower to intimately? Does this anticipate the coming lines?

if: Are they? Perhaps they are made for more than literal seeing, but also for understanding the truth beyond the physical.

Then Beauty is its own excuse of being: This is the core of the poem. In other words, Beauty does not have to fit into a great theological plan or be "useful" to mankind, or even be seen by many people or acknowledged as "beautiful" in the same sense that the rose is. It needs no ulterior purpose beyond its being. In Nature, Emerson wrote of Beauty, "This element I call an ultimate end. No reason can be asked or given why the soul seeks beauty. Beauty, in its largest and profoundest sense, is one expression for the universe."

rival: What sort of contest is this? Is it in the poet's mind? Or for most other people who don't see and appreciate the rhodora?

I never thought to ask: This line seems to tell us that when we think about life, and better understand the mystery around it, we're able to appreciate it all the more. This relates to the concept from "Self-reliance" about thinking for yourself, not blindly going through life, never really knowing anything. [Kristin Blocher]

simple ignorance: This is a wise, though simple question, such as a child might ask.

self-same power: The rhodera is derived from the same universal higher power that created him. He's connecting humans with nature, saying that every living thing has the same divine essence.[Alanda Perry] Here he is talking about God in terms similar to Bryant in "To a Waterfowl."

brought you: This is quite characteristic of Emerson and of Romanticism. He seems to assert here, once again, the interconnectedness between all things. I think this also coincides with other assertions made in his poem, "Each and All." The beauty of the flower, which he asserts in line 14 as the flower's reason for existence, is later enjoyed and recognized by the speaker. Thus, the flower's purpose, to give delight to others through its beauty, is fulfilled by the speaker's observance of the flower's beauty and resultant delight--and then his poem. The Power which brought the speaker to the flower also brought the flower to the speaker, in order that its purpose might be fulfilled. Or rather, in order that "each" is recognized in its perfection because of the "all" in which it exists. [Mary Newcomb]

金沙文字

good job!

rlee

我问老师solitudes的问题了。她觉得似乎是state of being isolated... pierce的意思是，暖风穿透了solitude，让幽居变得不可能，所以Emerson才出来到树林里走走，碰见了杜鹃花。

我看到另外一种解释：solitudes可能指的是一块幽居的同伴，既然前面有个our。可备一说。

我的理解是on being asked, whence is the flower的提问人，他和Emerson是幽居的同伴，所以是our solitudes。个见。更重要的还在于老师说的，五月的和风让幽居变得不可能，幽居的人会拥抱大自然。当然solitudes和woods尾韵。

金沙文字

言之有理。一切翻译必须忠于原意，或者忠于权威解释。

rlee

有的诗歌翻译很难做到忠实的。