威廉．巴特勒．葉慈（William Butler Yeats, 1865-1939），愛爾蘭詩人，劇作家、神秘學家、凱爾特文藝復興運動領袖、艾比劇院創建者，亦曾擔任兩屆愛爾蘭國會參議員。葉慈家族是來自英格蘭的新教精英階層（Protestant Ascendency；若以臺灣的脈絡來說，可類比為「外省」望族），因此十九世紀末愛爾蘭一連串的獨立運動使少年葉慈陷入了身分認同危機。葉慈於1923年摘取諾貝爾文學奬桂冠，成為首位獲獎的愛爾蘭人。瑞典皇家學會在頒獎辭中讚美他「靈光閃現，臻至藝境的詩歌讓整個民族的靈魂得以發聲。」他深知自己在愛爾蘭自由邦獨立一年後獲獎的政治涵義，並在眾多場合和書信中表明：「我認為這項殊榮並不屬於我個人，而屬於我所代表的愛爾蘭文學，這是歐洲捎給自由邦的友好問候。」1葉慈早期詩風浪漫，承襲雪萊（Percy Bysshe Shelley）和前拉斐爾派（the Pre-Raphaelites）的文字風格，書寫愛爾蘭神話和民間傳說；後期的葉慈轉向布雷克（William Blake）和神秘主義，文字和象徵日益曖昧難解。不同於其他實驗無韻詩的現代派詩人，葉慈更傾向駕馭傳統格律（因此我在翻譯時也盡力保留原詩的音步和用韻）。葉慈著名的詩集包括《烏辛之浪跡及其他詩作》(1889)，《七重林中》(1903)，《庫利的野天鵝》(1917)，《麥可．羅勃茲與舞者》(1921)，《塔樓》(1928)
1 R. F. Forster, W. B. Yeats: A Life, Vol. II: The Arch-Poet 1915-1939 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003),245: ‘I consider that this honour has come to me less as an individual than as a representative of Irish literature, it is part of Europe’s welcome to the Free State’.
The Falling of the Leaves
Autumn is over the long leaves that love us,
And over the mice in the barley sheaves;
Yellow the leaves of the rowan above us,
And yellow the wet wild-strawberry leaves.
The hour of the waning of love has beset us,
And weary and worn are our sad souls now;
Let us part, ere the season of passion forget us,
With a kiss and a tear on thy drooping brow.
葉之飄零
秋籠罩著眷戀我們的修長枝葉，
籠罩著一捆捆麥束中的田鼠；
枯黃了，那俯視我們的花楸之葉，
枯黃了，那野生草莓的濕溽葉簇。
愛情消逝的時辰已將我們席捲，
我們愀愴的靈魂倦怠而憔悴；
離別吧，在被激情時節遺忘前，
告別以吻，和你垂眉上的眼淚。
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
I know that I shall meet my fate,
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan's poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.
一愛爾蘭飛行員預視其死
我知道將與劫數交集
一點於那雲靄之上；
然我並不恨抵禦之敵，
我亦不愛捍衛之邦；
耆爾達岔口為我原鄉，
而其貧民為我同胞，
無終局能使他們失喪，
或凌駕曩昔之歡鬧。
我不為律法義務而戰，
亦不為公民和群愚，
只因孤僻衝動之快感
驅使，而入騷亂之雲；
我權衡一切，仔細思考，
未來似乎浪費生命，
與此生死瞬間相較
曩昔亦是浪費光陰。
The Second Coming
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
救世主復臨
盤繞啊盤繞於賁張氣旋，
隼再聽不見控鷹者呼喚；
萬物崩潰；中央失喪勢力；
混沌脫序在世界中游移，
血潮淫流，而所行經之處
純真所設之祭皆為湮沒；
高尚者信念盡失，卑劣者
之臆中卻滿注狂烈激情。
無疑是某種天啟已迫近；
無疑是救世主即將復臨。
救世主復臨！言猶然在耳，
寰宇之靈所吐渾然異象
震懾我眼：某荒漠沙原中
存在一獅身人首之形體，
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come around at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
其凝視失神無情若日曦，
其徐緩之雙股移徙，周圍
荒漠怒禽之影旋繞如繅。
黑黯再度灑落；然我頓悟
橫亙兩千年的石化之夢
已因一搖籃而成騷亂之魘，
當其時辰終至，是何狂獸
蹣跚步向伯利恆以待降生？
Human Dignity
Like the moon her kindness is,
If kindness I may call
What has no comprehension in’t,
But is the same for all
As though my sorrow were a scene
Upon a painted wall.
So like a bit of stone I lie
Under a broken tree.
I could recover if I shrieked
My heart’s agony
To passing birds, but I am dumb
From human dignity.
人性尊嚴
她的溫婉彷彿月
倘若我以溫婉
稱呼那無內涵之物
但對萬物皆然
彷彿我的悲傷只是
彩牆上的景板。
因此如石塊般我躺
在破碎的樹下。
我能復原，假如當時
我放聲尖叫把
心痛傳給漂鳥，但人性
尊嚴使我瘖啞。
留言列表
