为你读英语美文·第348期 冬天来了,春天还会远吗? | 为你读《西风颂》
主播:熊叔
坐标:上海
如果冬天来了,春天还会远吗?
今天,我们要和你分享的这首诗,就是雪莱的《西风颂》。
据雪莱自注称:“这首诗构思在佛罗伦萨附近阿诺河畔的一片树林里,主要部分也在那里写成。那一天,孕育着一场暴风雨的暖和而又令人振奋的大风集合着常常倾泻下的滂沱秋雨的云霭。果不出所料,雨从日落下起,狂风暴雨里夹带着冰雹,并且伴有阿尔卑斯山南地区所特有的气势宏伟的电闪雷鸣。”
Ode to the West Wind
《西风颂》
作者:雪莱,译者:查良铮
第一节
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
哦,狂暴的西风,秋之生命的呼吸!
你无形,但枯死的落叶被你横扫,
有如鬼魅碰到了巫师,纷纷逃避:
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
黄的,黑的,灰的,红得像患肺痨,
呵,重染疫疠的一群:西风呵,是你
以车驾把有翼的种子催送到
The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow
黑暗的冬床上,它们就躺在那里,
像是墓中的死穴,冰冷,深藏,低贱,
直等到春天,你碧空的姊妹吹起
Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
With living hues and odours plain and hill:
她的喇叭,在沉睡的大地上响遍,
(唤出嫩芽,像羊群一样,觅食空中)
将色和香充满了山峰和平原。
Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh hear!
不羁的精灵呵,你无处不远行;
破坏者兼保护者:听吧,你且聆听!
第二节
Thou on whose stream, mid the steep sky's commotion,
Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed,
Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean,
没入你的急流,当高空一片混乱,
流云象大地的枯叶一样被撕扯
脱离天空和海洋的纠缠的枝干。
Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread
On the blue surface of thine aery surge,
Like the bright hair uplifted from the head
成为雨和电的使者:它们飘落
在你的磅礴之气的蔚蓝的波面,
有如狂女的飘扬的头发在闪烁,
Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge
Of the horizon to the zenith's height,
The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge
从天穹的最遥远而模糊的边沿
直抵九霄的中天,到处都在摇曳
欲来雷雨的卷发,对濒死的一年
Of the dying year, to which this closing night
Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre,
Vaulted with all thy congregated might
你唱出了葬歌,而这密集的黑夜
将成为它广大墓陵的一座圆顶,
里面正有你的万钧之力的凝结;
Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere
Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: oh hear!
那是你的浑然之气,从它会迸涌
黑色的雨,冰雹和火焰:哦,你听!
第三节
Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams
The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,
Lull'd by the coil of his crystalline streams,
是你,你将蓝色的地中海唤醒,
而它曾经昏睡了一整个夏天,
被澄澈水流的回旋催眠入梦,
Beside a pumice isle in Baiae's bay,
And saw in sleep old palaces and towers
Quivering within the wave's intenser day,
就在巴亚海湾的一个浮石岛边,
它梦见了古老的宫殿和楼阁
在水天辉映的波影里抖颤,
All overgrown with azure moss and flowers
So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou
For whose path the Atlantic's level powers
而且都生满青苔、开满花朵,
那芬芳真迷人欲醉!呵,为了给你
让一条路,大西洋的汹涌的浪波
Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below
The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear
The sapless foliage of the ocean, know
把自己向两边劈开,而深在渊底
那海洋中的花草和泥污的森林
虽然枝叶扶疏,却没有精力;
Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear,
And tremble and despoil themselves: oh hear!
听到你的声音,它们已吓得发青:
一边颤栗,一边自动萎缩:哦,你听!
第四节
If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;
If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;
A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share
哎,假如我是一片枯叶被你浮起,
假如我是能和你飞跑的云雾,
是一个波浪,和你的威力同喘息,
The impulse of thy strength, only less free
Than thou, O uncontrollable! If even
I were as in my boyhood, and could be
假如我分有你的脉搏,仅仅不如
你那么自由,哦,无法约束的生命!
假如我能像在少年时,凌风而舞
The comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven,
As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed
Scarce seem'd a vision; I would ne'er have striven
便成了你的伴侣,悠游天空
(因为呵,那时候,要想追你上云霄,
似乎并非梦幻),我就不致像如今
As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!
这样焦躁地要和你争相祈祷。
哦,举起我吧,当我是水波、树叶、浮云!
我跌在生活底荆棘上,我流血了!
A heavy weight of hours has chain'd and bow'd
One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.
这被岁月的重轭所制服的生命
原是和你一样:骄傲、轻捷而不驯。
第五节
Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
What if my leaves are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies
把我当作你的竖琴吧,有如树林:
尽管我的叶落了,那有什么关系!
你巨大的合奏所振起的音乐
Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,
Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,
My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!
将染有树林和我的深邃的秋意:
虽忧伤而甜蜜。呵,但愿你给予我
狂暴的精神!奋勇者呵,让我们合一!
Drive my dead thoughts over the universe
Like wither'd leaves to quicken a new birth!
And, by the incantation of this verse,
请把我枯死的思想向世界吹落,
让它像枯叶一样促成新的生命!
哦,请听从这一篇符咒似的诗歌,
Scatter, as from an unextinguish'd hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawaken'd earth
就把我的话语,像是灰烬和火星
从还未熄灭的炉火向人间播散!
让预言的喇叭通过我的嘴唇
The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
把昏睡的大地唤醒吧!西风啊,
如果冬天来了,春天还会远吗?
▎诗歌赏析
《西风颂》是英国浪漫主义诗人雪莱的诗作。全诗共五节,围绕西风加以咏唱。
第一诗节写西风的威力和它的作用,第14行点出破坏者和护持者,这是贯串全诗的两个主题。
第二诗节用云、雨、冰雹、闪电来衬托描写西风的威力。
第三诗节写西风作用于波浪。
第四诗节写诗人因西风而发生的感慨,诗人向西风说但愿自己也像枯叶被风带走,虽然不像不羁的雨风那样自由自在,也能分得它的一分猛烈的威力。
在最后一诗节里,诗人请求西风帮助他扫去暮气,把他的诗句传播到四方,唤醒沉睡的大地。
最末两句“如果冬天来了,春天还会远吗?预言春天即将来临,给生活在黑夜及困境中的人们带来鼓舞和希望。
▎主播介绍
熊叔:英语名师