最厚颜无耻的,必须有最优雅的外壳:英国文艺复兴著名情(qiu)诗(ou)两则
文艺复兴的人文主义者发现了很多的古代文本,他们热爱文本,更热爱纯粹而准确的文本(普林西比)。英国文学公众号建立的初衷,就是为了让读者读到文本。任何翻译和评论都是二(n)手资料,甚至是歪曲的。所以,为了让大家没有先入为主的印象,以后评论均移到原文末尾哦。
To His Coy Mistress
ANDREW MARVELL
Had we but world enough and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down, and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love’s day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires and more slow;
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.
But at my back I always hear
Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found;
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long-preserved virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust;
The grave’s a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.
Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapped power.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Through the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time
ROBERT HERRICK
Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.
Source: The Norton Anthology of Poetry Third Edition (1983)
两首诗均来自Poetry Foundation
这两首情诗呢,非常美,但是目的是求偶,尤其是第一首,结尾就尤其露骨。前面该夸的都夸了,该吓的也吓了,读到结尾,露骨的描写也能让大多女性接受了(至少追求者不会被扇耳光被骂为流氓)。
热爱昆曲的朋友告诉我,昆曲是最优雅的,也是最污的。这我承认。只有用优雅的外壳才能包裹住污污的想法。爱情中,女性要的是一个优雅的梦,男性只要让女性进入梦中,便可求得佳偶。甚至外观可以永远掩盖住实质。王尔德也写过,“ In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.”不管讽刺与否,艺术还真是遵循这条规则。