為(wei) 捍衛詩歌作為(wei) 一門重要的學術學科而作
IN DEFENSE OF POETRY AS A VITAL ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE
作者簡介：Eric L擁有創意寫(xie) 作和英語文學博士學位，在美國擔任大學英語係教授近20年，同時擔任多家著名網站專(zhuan) 欄作家，著有自傳(chuan) 體(ti) 散文集《THE WINTERS OF MY SUMMER AFTERNOONS》，目前，在機構課程擔任AP英文文學與(yu) 寫(xie) 作項目老師。
（中文譯本, 由機構中英翻譯組Wendy W博士翻譯）
BY Eric Le Roy
Many people who should know better – and deep down probably do know better – automatically relegate poetry to a lower tier on their children’s academic ‘to-do’ list. They often mistakenly imagine poetry to be a ‘soft’ art, full of sentimental cliches and written largely by distracted women and ineffectual guys. And yet these very same people, when looking for the perfect way to punctuate a commencement address or political speech, will often resort to a great line of poetry to punctuate their point and inspire the audience, lifting its perception to a higher level.
許多人總是無意識地將詩歌降到了孩子學業(ye) “待辦事項”清單上的較低位置，雖然他們(men) 應該對詩歌有更好的了解，或者其實他們(men) 內(nei) 心對詩歌了解挺多。他們(men) 常常錯誤地認為(wei) 詩歌是一種“軟”藝術，是充滿感傷(shang) 的陳詞濫調，大部分是由心煩意亂(luan) 的女人和無能的男人寫(xie) 的。然而，當這些人要尋找完美的方式來升華他們(men) 的畢業(ye) 典禮演講或政治演講時，往往會(hui) 訴諸偉(wei) 大的詩行來強調他們(men) 的觀點和激勵觀眾(zhong) ，以將演講提升到更高的水平。
Why do they do this, and why does it work? The reason is that ‘poetic’ insight or epiphany offers deeper understanding, usually expressed in surpassing language, that mundane cliches and common collocations cannot approach. In poetry, therefore, lies truth – something at once more elusive and yet more obvious than all the banal corporate or academic expressions put together. Likewise, poetry need not be language specific: the hypnotic effect of music, sculpture, and dance elicit the poetic response in people. Therefore, if we have some hidden, buried mechanism inside us that drives us to do extreme sports for the so-called adrenalin rush, then it is just as true that there is a force within us that at times yearns to express the inexpressible.
他們(men) 為(wei) 什麽(me) 要這樣做，為(wei) 什麽(me) 這麽(me) 做是有效的？因為(wei) “詩意”的洞察力或頓悟為(wei) 人們(men) 提供了更深刻的理解，通常能以更高超的語言形式表達出來，這是世俗的陳詞濫調和常見的組合搭配無法達到的。因此，詩歌中蘊藏著真理——它比所有平庸的企業(ye) 或學術表達加在一起更難以捉摸，但也更明顯。同樣，詩歌不必限定於(yu) 語言：音樂(le) 、雕塑和舞蹈的令人著迷的魅力都會(hui) 引起人們(men) 的詩意反應。因此，如果我們(men) 體(ti) 內(nei) 有某種隱藏的、被埋藏的機製驅使我們(men) 去進行極限運動，也就是所謂的腎上腺素激增，那麽(me) 我們(men) 體(ti) 內(nei) 也確實有一種力量，有時特別渴望表達無法表達的事物。
Enter poetry in all its forms. Ask yourself: why do we dance? Why do we sing? Why are we sometimes wildly happy or sad for no apparent reason– except that we just are? Moreover, those who would squelch or force a lid over these bubbling emotions are the same who would deny birds their song and cockerels their cock-a-d-doodle do !!
看看各種形式的詩歌；問問自己：我們(men) 為(wei) 什麽(me) 跳舞？我們(men) 為(wei) 什麽(me) 唱歌？我們(men) 為(wei) 什麽(me) 有時會(hui) 無緣無故地極度高興(xing) 或悲傷(shang) ？但是我們(men) 就是這樣的！另外，那些壓製或強行掩蓋這些沸騰情緒的人，與(yu) 那些拒絕承認鳥兒(er) 歌唱、公雞鳴叫的人是一樣的！
There is more to life than the ‘correct’ answer or a perfect score of correct answers. Children and old people know this, but they are not taken seriously by the passionate herd of ‘achievers’ who are impatient for the next ‘result’. But there is more, and it may take a lifetime to figure this out. The trick is that you must, if not go looking for it, at least be receptive to it. Grasping poetry teaches us to peer deeply into the nature of things, to search beyond the surface, to probe toward the germination in the heart of the seed, and open up our figurative eardrums, eyeballs, tastebuds, and nostrils to hear, see, taste and smell what was there all along!! It was there, but we hadn’t noticed. Artists and scientists win the Nobel Prize based on things that they gradually… and then suddenly…noticed!! This is the moment of discovery. And self-discovery. Surely, developing these skills in lateral thinking and intensified perception can benefit students at all levels.
生活不僅(jin) 僅(jin) 是“正確”答案或因為(wei) 正確答案得到的滿分。孩子和老人都知道這一點，但他們(men) 並沒有被一群熱情地期待下一個(ge) “結果”的“成功者”認真對待。但生活不止於(yu) 此，這一點可能需要一生才能弄清楚。訣竅在於(yu) ，即使你不去尋找它，至少也要接受它。深刻領會(hui) 詩歌教會(hui) 我們(men) 深入觀察事物的本質，超越表麵，探究內(nei) 心種子的萌芽，打開我們(men) 的耳膜、眼球、味蕾、鼻孔來聽、看、嚐，並聞聞這些一直存在的東(dong) 西！它一直在那裏，隻是我們(men) 沒有注意到。藝術家和科學家獲得諾貝爾獎是基於(yu) 他們(men) 逐漸……然後突然……注意到的事情！這是發現的時刻；也是自我發現。當然，發展橫向思維和強化感知的技能也可以使各個(ge) 級別的學生終身受益。
In this essay, I am going to choose several poems from the list of poetry essay questions from previous A.P. exams and one of my own, and break them down descriptively and analytically. This will help students who are asked to make analyses of many things: history, technology and artificial intelligence, psychology, quantum physics, business analytics, and so on, comprehend that the same skills which unlock a poem can be cultivated to unlock other things of allegedly more importance.
在這篇文章中，我將從(cong) 以往AP. 考試中詩歌賞析的試題中選擇幾首，以及我自己的一首，並對它們(men) 進行描述性和分析性的解讀。這對那些被要求分析許多其它學科的學生：曆史、技術和人工智能、心理學、量子物理學、商業(ye) 分析等等，都會(hui) 有幫助，因為(wei) 他們(men) 會(hui) 懂得解鎖一首詩的技能也可以用來解鎖其他被認為(wei) 更重要的事情。
The key is to maintain an open mind. We adults have been forced to concede that video games can help develop other vital skills. They can of course be a waste of time and health, but they also promote new realities of the ‘metaverse’. If we don’t take that seriously, well, we should. It is the ‘New Reality’. Poetry can do the same. It is timeless, and its timelessness proves that human beings have always relied on it to explain the universe, just as importantly, to explain themselves to themselves. Therefore, adults, parents: keep an open mind. I implore you.
關(guan) 鍵是我們(men) 要保持開放的心態。比如我們(men) 成年人被迫承認電子遊戲可以幫助培養(yang) 其他重要技能的。它們(men) 當然可能浪費時間和健康，但它們(men) 也促進了“元宇宙”的新現實。如果我們(men) 不認真對待這一點，那麽(me) ，我們(men) 現在應該認真對待。這就是“新現實”。詩歌也可以做到這一點。詩歌是永恒的，它的永恒證明了人類一直依靠它來解釋宇宙，同樣重要的是，也依靠它來向自己解釋自己。所以，大人、家長：保持開放的心態。我懇求你。
Now for some moments of discovery in the poems themselves.
現在我們(men) 來看看詩歌本身吧。
01THE MAN, THE WOLF,AND THE LAMB——By Eric Le Roy
《人，狼和羔羊》， 作者 Eric Le Roy
Prompt: How do the man and the Wolf view the lamb – and the universe – differently?
題目：人和狼對羔羊以及宇宙的看法有何不同？
This is a poem I wrote in a collection back in 1997 for which I received a PhD. I was in the Creative Writing Program at Florida State university and was allowed to write my own original poetry for my dissertation. I used many kinds of styles, gradually reducing my earlier expansive, ‘flowery’ style to something more compact, precise, and disciplined.
這是我 1997 年寫(xie) 的的詩集中的一首詩，並因此獲得了博士學位。我畢業(ye) 於(yu) 佛羅裏達州立大學的創意寫(xie) 作專(zhuan) 業(ye) ，我被允許寫(xie) 自己的原創詩歌作為(wei) 我的論文。我使用了多種風格，並逐漸將我早期的擴張性、“華麗(li) ”風格減少到更緊湊、精確和嚴(yan) 謹的風格。
This particular poem, unlike the others, came to my mind as sort of a parable, the very nature of which genre seems designed to puzzle (and often exasperate) readers. But hopefully, the ‘meaning’ here is clear enough, and I decided to include it along with the work two more famous poets simply in order to show how a poem is conceived and constructed. For me, the amazing thing is how many components there are, and how many disparate yet somehow interconnected impulses, can lurk in a single poem.
這首詩與(yu) 其他詩不同，作為(wei) 一個(ge) 寓言來到我的腦海裏，這種體(ti) 裁的本質似乎是為(wei) 了讓讀者感到困惑（並且常常激怒他們(men) ）。但希望我在這裏表達的“含義(yi) ” 足夠清楚，在這裏我決(jue) 定將其與(yu) 兩(liang) 位更著名詩人的作品一起進行分析，隻是為(wei) 了展示一首詩是如何構思和構造的。對我來說，令人驚奇的是一首詩中可以潛藏著如此之多的成分，以及看似無關(guan) 但又以某種方式相互關(guan) 聯的衝(chong) 擊力。
First, I come from a Christian culture (the United States) but I have never called myself a Christian. On the other hand, I am not so ‘spiritually’ drained of blood as to call myself a hardcore atheist either. I am of the persuasion that, as a good friend once told me, “Religion is for people who are afraid of going to Hell; Spirituality is for people who have been there.” I sincerely believe that most artists fit the latter category.
首先，我來自基督教文化（美國），但我從(cong) 未稱自己為(wei) 基督徒。另一方麵，我也沒有在“精神上”耗盡元氣，以至於(yu) 稱自己為(wei) 鐵杆無神論者。我相信，正如一位好朋友曾經告訴我的那樣，“宗教是為(wei) 那些害怕下地獄的人而存在的；而靈性是為(wei) 那些去過那裏的人準備的。”我真誠地相信大多數藝術家都屬於(yu) 後一類。
Therefore, the voice in the poem is that of a man (whom you might as well go on and think of as me) who, despite some reaching and thrashing about, has simply failed to find God. He asks, contemplates, prays, and shouts, but the ‘sky’ yields nothing. It is impassive. For the man, this failure amounts to a deeply personal defeat, and he doesn’t know who needs forgiving most for this failure: himself or ‘God’. The skies won’t say, as they never have and presumably never will.
因此，這首詩中的聲音屬於(yu) 一個(ge) 人（你不妨繼續想象他就是我），盡管他進行了一些努力和掙紮，但還是未能找到上帝。他祈求、沉思、祈禱、呼喊，但“天空”卻空空如也。它是冷漠的。對於(yu) 這個(ge) 人來說，這種失敗相當於(yu) 深深的自我挫敗，他不知道誰最需要原諒這種失敗：他自己還是“上帝”。天空不會(hui) 告訴他，因為(wei) 它們(men) 從(cong) 來沒有說過，而且大概永遠不會(hui) 。
Then along comes a lamb (plenty of religious symbolism there, right?) followed by a wolf. The wolf is there to do a wolf’s business, which is to slaughter and devour the lamb. No hesitation, questions asked, or remorse. The man, while recoiling from the sudden violence of which part of nature is constituted, nevertheless cannot help but be impressed. He wishes he could be as steadfast in his mind and as guilt-free in his moral code of action vs non-action as the wolf – who of course is not troubled by a ‘moral code’ at all.
然後出現了一隻羔羊（那裏有很多宗教象征意義(yi) ，對吧？），後麵跟著一隻狼。狼在那裏做狼該做的事，那就是屠殺和吃掉羔羊。沒有猶豫，沒有疑問，也沒有悔恨。那個(ge) 人，雖然對自然界的這種突如其來的，但也一直存在的暴力感到畏懼，但還是忍不住被震撼了。他希望自己能像狼一樣意誌堅定，也像狼一樣能在行動與(yu) 不行動的道德準則上毫無負罪感——當然，狼根本不會(hui) 受到“道德準則”的困擾。
Even so, the man says ‘grace’ – which means he thanks ‘God’ for the food he is about the eat. The wolf sits patiently yet slavering, ready to devour the tasty carcass.
What happens next is what the poem is really about, and this concerns the single-minded instincts of Nature where bird, beast and fish simply know what to do without the encumbrance of guilt and remorse, – and the human being, whose whole existence is bound up in a self-imposed dilemma of suffering based on some sort of sense of failure before a “God” that for all intents and purposes Simply Is Not There.
即便如此，該男子還是說“謝主恩”——這意味著他感謝“上帝”賜予他即將要吃的食物（詩中人與(yu) 狼分食了羊羔）。而狼隻是耐心地坐著，流著口水，準備吞噬美味的屍體(ti) 。接下來就是這首詩真正要表達的內(nei) 容，這涉及到大自然的一心一意的本能，大自然中的鳥、獸(shou) 和魚隻是知道該做什麽(me) ，而沒有內(nei) 疚和悔恨的負擔，而人類，其整個(ge) 存在是陷入一種自我強加的痛苦困境，這種困境是基於(yu) 在“上帝”麵前的某種失敗感，即使“上帝”根本不存在。
And yet, for all his guilt, the man is corrupted by his fantasies. The wolf continues to perform the act of killing and eating lambs because that is what he must do, and it is not done out of some premeditated cruelty or desire to inflict pain, but simply because he must do so in order to survive. Nor will he ever run out of lambs because, in the natural way of things in the wild, he is designed to treat the lamb with respect even as he rips it to shreds.
然而，盡管那個(ge) 人各種懺悔，卻還是被思想上的困境束縛著。而狼繼續執行殺死和吃羔羊的行為(wei) ，因為(wei) 這是它必須做的事情，而且它這麽(me) 做並不是出於(yu) 某種有預謀的殘忍行為(wei) 或要造成痛苦的欲望，而僅(jin) 僅(jin) 是因為(wei) 它必須這樣做才能生存。它也永遠不會(hui) 把羔羊趕盡殺絕，因為(wei) 按照野外事物的自然方式，即使它將羔羊撕成碎片，它也還是會(hui) 尊重羔羊。
The man is different: he would never do something so heinous as to kill a helpless lamb, and yet the thought of it, the desire and the guilt, combine to create a bloodthirsty world of dark fantasies. The wolf therefore is essentially innocent, whereas the man, driven by his own frustration and dark imaginings, actually turns his own mind into a kind of torture chamber: “The guilty man/had never killed a lamb/but in his mind killed more.”
人則不同：他永遠不會(hui) 做出殺死一隻無助的羔羊這樣令人發指的事情，然而想到這一點，欲望和罪惡感結合在一起，創造了一個(ge) 充滿黑暗怪念頭的嗜血世界。因此，狼本質上是無辜的，而人則在自己的挫敗感和黑暗想象的驅使下，實際上將自己的思想變成了一種酷刑室：“有罪的人/從(cong) 未殺過一隻羔羊/但在他的思想中殺了更多。”
Thus, even in a godless universe, the very real and grim sensation of exotic guilt besets the man, the human engine of law, morality, and ‘God.’ The wolf, free of such self-indulgence soda-masochism, plays the role of both predator and prey, as he must eventually do also, with consummate equanimity and a fearful grace.
因此，即使在一個(ge) 無神論的宇宙中，外在的非常真實而嚴(yan) 峻的罪惡感也困擾著人類，人類法律、道德和“上帝”給了他們(men) 這些感覺。狼，沒有這種自我放縱的受虐嗜好，它既是捕食者也是獵物，而且它最終也必須以完美的平靜和可怕的優(you) 雅做到這一點。
02Storm Warnings—— by Adrienne Rich
風暴警告，作者 Adrienne Rich
Prompt: Write an essay in which you explain how the organization of the poem and the use of concrete details reveal both its literal and its metaphorical meanings. In your discussion, show how both of these meanings relate to the title.
題目：寫(xie) 一篇文章，解釋這首詩如何在結構上和具體(ti) 細節上揭示其字麵意義(yi) 和隱喻意義(yi) 。並說明這兩(liang) 種含義(yi) 與(yu) 標題的關(guan) 係。
‘Storm Warnings’ is a poem of four stanzas each of which contains seven lines. It is written in free verse, which means that it doesn’t follow any particular form and certainly does not rely on rhymes – which for many people is what a poem should consist of. In modern poetry this isn’t the case in the vast majority of works. In the worst of poems – though submitted in workshops and private little groups, the divorce from rhyming and its subsequent ‘prosy’ tendencies seems to encourage authors to write boring, uninspired, prosaic sentences and then chop them up into verse form, finally adding an enigmatic ‘punch line’ at the end to make it all sort ‘poetical’ i.e., the ambiguous but somehow precious last line is there to save the day. This is the equivalent of a lot of ‘modern art’ which tries to hide mediocrity and downright fraud behind a curtain of inscrutability.
《暴風雨警告》是一首四節詩，每節七行。它是用自由詩寫(xie) 成的，這意味著它不遵循任何特定的形式，當然也不依賴於(yu) 押韻——對許多人來說，押韻就是一首詩應該包含的內(nei) 容。然而在現代詩歌中，絕大多數作品並非如此。在糟糕的詩歌中——盡管這些作品是在研討會(hui) 和私人小團體(ti) 中提交的，詩歌與(yu) 押韻的脫離及其隨後的 “散文” 傾(qing) 向似乎都在鼓勵作者寫(xie) 出無聊、缺乏靈感、平淡無奇的句子，然後將它們(men) 切割成詩歌形式，最後添加一個(ge) 神秘的 “妙語” 讓一切都變得 “詩意” ，也就是說模棱兩(liang) 可但莫名其妙珍貴的最後一行是全文的救星。這相當於(yu) 許多 “現代藝術” 試圖將平庸和徹頭徹尾的欺詐隱藏在神秘的帷幕後麵。
Rich’s poem and, fortunately, many others using the same form, is far from fake or lacking in the intensity of language and insight which constitute real poetry. The language is tight and precise, and even seemingly casual lines such as the opening “The glass has been falling all afternoon” (here ‘glass’ meaning the barometer or thermometer) sets up the entire point of the poem, which is that the instrument recording the change in weather, like the clocks and weather glasses that occur later on in the poem can only monitor and record what is happening; they cannot actually affect it in any way. Thus, the impending storm portends the arrival of a power far beyond anything that the speaker can even comprehend, much less control. Indeed, the winds are ‘walking’ overhead, a conceit or personification that lends godlike force to the wind, compared to which the speaker is left only with a “pillowed chair” from which she can wander from “window to closed window” as she seeks to shut out the force of nature. At this point, at the end of the first stanza we feel the separation of the powerless when confronted with the all-powerful. Illusions of safety and protection are only that: inventions of the fancy that, like all civilizations, can crumble or simply be blown away, but the gales of the universe face no such limits.
幸運的是，Rich的詩以及許多其他使用相同形式的詩，絕非虛假，也不缺乏真正詩歌的語言力度和洞察力。語言緊湊而精確，甚至看似隨意的詩句，如開頭“玻璃整個(ge) 下午都在掉落”（這裏“玻璃”指的是氣壓計或溫度計），也奠定了這首詩的整個(ge) 要點，即儀(yi) 器記錄天氣的變化，它們(men) 就像詩中後來出現的鍾表和氣象儀(yi) 器一樣，隻能監視和記錄正在發生的事情；它們(men) 實際上不能以任何方式影響它。因此，即將到來的風暴預示著一種力量的到來，這種力量遠遠超出了敘述者所能理解的範圍，更不用說控製了。事實上，風在頭頂上“行走”，這是一種賦予風神聖力量的想象和擬人，相比之下，敘述者隻剩下一把“帶枕頭的椅子”，她離開椅子上從(cong) “一扇窗戶走到另一扇關(guan) 閉的窗戶”，試圖排除自然的力量。至此，在第一節的結尾，我們(men) 感受到了當麵對全能者時，無能為(wei) 力的人的崩潰。對安全和保護的幻想隻是這樣：像所有文明一樣，幻想可能會(hui) 被摧毀或被風吹走，但宇宙的狂風不會(hui) 麵臨(lin) 這樣的限製。
Then, in the second stanza, as if some tremendous force had blown down the walls that separate the human from the elements, the poet states: ”Weather abroad/ and weather in the heart alike come on/ regardless of prediction.” And she goes on to say:
然後，在第二節中，仿佛有某種巨大的力量吹倒了將人類與(yu) 自然分開的牆壁，詩人說道：“外麵的天氣/和心中的天氣一樣到來/無論預測如何。”她接著說：
Time in the hand is not control of time,
Nor shattered fragments of an instrument
A proof against the wind: the wind will rise.
We can only close the shutters.
手裏的時間不能掌控時間，
就像破碎的樂(le) 器碎片（不能演奏樂(le) 器）
逆風的證明：風會(hui) 起。
我們(men) 隻能關(guan) 上百葉窗。
The point, expanded to a larger scale, is that for all our little rituals and elaborate defenses, mortal time and definition cannot compete with the natural forces beyond it, and the last stroking images in the final stanza, the lighting of a candle (an ancient way of producing fire and warmth) and the tiny keyhole which locks out the wind but not the insistent whine of its presence – these symbolically are among our defenses against death. But death and all its riddles or all its nothingness – whatever there is – is inexorable, and there is nothing we can do but wait and accept it when it comes: “These are the things we have learned to do/Who live in troubled regions.
擴大到更大的範圍，這一點是說，盡管我們(men) 有宗教儀(yi) 式和精心設計的防禦，凡人的時間和定義(yi) 無法與(yu) 超越它的自然力量競爭(zheng) 。最後一段中的描寫(xie) 的情景，蠟燭的點燃（產(chan) 生火和溫暖的古老方式）和小鑰匙孔（它可以擋住風，但不能擋住風的持續哀鳴）——這些象征性是我們(men) 抵禦死亡的防禦措施之一。但死亡及預期相關(guan) 的所有謎團或所有虛無——無論是什麽(me) ——都是無情的，我們(men) 無能為(wei) 力，隻能等待並在它到來時接受它： “這些是我們(men) 已經學會(hui) 做的事情/生活在動亂(luan) 地區的人”.
Furthermore, if a student wished to apply the wisdom of this poem to present times, he/she might think of the environment and challenges to the ecology which pollution, toxic CO2 and the ‘greenhouse effect’ have made for us. “Save the Planet!” the idealists cry, and who can blame them. But in Rich’s poem a deeper truth lies. The planet is not going anywhere. We are. The planet will be fine long after the homo sapiens is gone, because the planet – and the cosmos surrounding it – are made from forces that clocks and smartphoness and all other manipulative gadgets can only click and squeak against, ultimately controlling nothing.
此外，如果學生希望將這首詩的智慧運用到當今時代，他/她可能會(hui) 想到汙染、有毒二氧化碳和“溫室效應”給我們(men) 帶來的環境和生態挑戰。“拯救地球！” 理想主義(yi) 者在哭泣，誰能責怪他們(men) 呢。但Rich的詩中蘊藏著更深層次的真相。這個(ge) 星球不會(hui) 去往任何地方，我們(men) 會(hui) 。在人類消失後很長一段時間內(nei) ，這個(ge) 星球都會(hui) 很好，因為(wei) 這個(ge) 星球以及它周圍的宇宙是由強大的力量組成的，對於(yu) 這樣的強大的力量，時鍾、智能手機和所有其他裝置隻能吱吱作響，根本無法控製。
Finally, how might a student analyze the structure and technique of this poem if called upon to do so as part of an assignment. To this I suggest the following excerpt from a student named Mara Brian: “The poet uses many different literary devices throughout. For instance, imagery is used constantly describing things the author sees and hears as the storm approaches. Each stanza contains one rhyme or half rhyme(afternoon/zone, abroad/come on, time/rise, season/regions.) Also, the poet uses the technique of alliteration in the opening of the poem, where she uses repeating ‘w’ sounds that allude to the wind and storm (“what winds are walking overhead, what zone of grey’…and…’walk from window to closed window, watching.’) The poet also makes use of both metaphor and personification: metaphor when she says “weather abroad and weather in the heart’ referring to human moods and ‘what the winds are walking overhead.”
最後，如果一個(ge) 學生被要求分析這首詩的結構和技巧。對此，我建議摘錄一位名叫瑪Mara Brian的學生作品：“詩人自始至終使用了許多不同的文學修辭。例如，作者不斷地使用意象（imagery）來描述風暴臨(lin) 近時所看到和聽到的事情。每段都包含一韻或半韻（afternoon/zone, abroad/come on, time/rise, season/regions）。此外，詩人在詩的開頭使用了頭韻技巧，她使用重複的“w” ’的聲音暗示著風和風暴（(“what winds are walking overhead, what zone of grey’…and…’walk from window to closed window, watching.’ ）詩人還同時使用了隱喻和擬人。隱喻的一個(ge) 例子是當她說“外麵的天氣和心中的天氣”指的是“人類的情緒”和“頭頂上吹過的風”“。
03At Grass—— By Philip Larkin
《在草地上》，作者 Philip Larkin
Prompt: What do the horses represent in the poem At Grass? Are they 'mere' horses or statements of something larger? What is the correspondence between the mundane (the races and their attendant 'fame’) and the primordial energy of the animals?
《草地》這首詩中的馬代表什麽(me) ？它們(men) 隻是“馬”還是其它更大事物？世俗（比賽及其隨之而來的“名聲”）與(yu) 動物的原始能量之間的對應關(guan) 係是什麽(me) ？
In this poem, the scene starts with horses standing in a field:
在這首詩中，場景以馬匹站在田野中開始：
The eye can hardly pick them out
From the cold shade they shelter in,
Till wind distresses tail and mane;
Then one crops grass, and moves about
- The other seeming to look on -
And stands anonymous again
肉眼幾乎無法辨別它們(men)
他們(men) 躲在寒冷的樹蔭下，
直到風吹亂(luan) 尾巴和鬃毛；
然後一隻吃草並四處走動
- 另一個(ge) 似乎在看著 -
並再次隱匿
The horses seem no different from countless others: wandering about, sniffing and snorting, cropping the grass, and for a moment one of the horses seems to be studying the other, as if some kind of ‘human’ moment were awakening, only to fade again into apparent dull ‘anonymity’.
這些馬似乎與(yu) 無數其他的馬沒有什麽(me) 不同：四處遊蕩，嗅嗅，噴鼻息，吃草，有一瞬間，其中一匹馬似乎在研究另一匹，仿佛某種“人類”時刻正在覺醒，但又消失了再次陷入明顯沉悶的“隱匿”狀態。
Then in the second stanza, the mood and tone shift abruptly:
然後到了第二節，語氣和語調突然轉變：
Yet fifteen years ago, perhaps
Two dozen distances sufficed
To fable them: faint afternoons
Of Cups and Stakes and Handicaps,
Whereby their names were artificed
To inlay faded, classic Junes
Silks at the start: against the sky
Numbers and parasols: outside,
Squadrons of empty cars, and heat,
And littered grass: then the long cry
Hanging unhushed till it subside
To stop-press columns on the street
然而十五年前，也許
離此地不遠的地方
它們(men) 曾經輝煌：沉悶下午
杯賽、賭注和讓分盤，
他們(men) 的名字因此被藝術化
鑲嵌著褪色、經典的六月
開始時的絲(si) 綢：映襯著天空
數字和遮陽傘(san) ：室外，
成群結隊的空車和炎熱的天氣，
還有散落的草：然後是長長的尖叫或哭泣
一直縈繞著
直至報紙新聞出爐
—and we understand that these were not ordinary horses but famous races, who in the past had names that were on everybody’s lips. It is with great skill that Larkin recalls, detail by sharp details, those ‘fables’ and ‘classic Junes‘. He captures the hush of heat and then the ‘long cry’ and then the news of winners going to press. It is the genius of Larkin that he can capture the bygone days of a whole era just by choosing the exact details and juxtaposing them against one another. In a poem like this, there is no question that Chinese writing students can see and learn from such examples, proving what the English composition teacher always insists: "The truth is in the details!”
現在我們(men) 知道這些馬不是普通的馬，而是著名的賽馬，它們(men) 的名字在過去是被每個(ge) 人談論的。Larkin以高超的技巧，逐個(ge) 清晰地回憶起那些“輝煌”和“經典的六月”。他捕捉到了熱烈的寂靜，然後是“長長的尖叫或者哭泣”，然後是獲獎馬匹的消息被報道。Larkin的天才之處在於(yu) ，他隻需選擇精確的細節並將它們(men) 並置，就能捕捉到過去歲月的整個(ge) 時代。在這樣的一首詩中，毫無疑問，中國學生學習(xi) 到重要的寫(xie) 作技巧，這首詩也證明了英語作文老師一直堅持的一句話：“真理在於(yu) 細節！”
Then the final two stanzas:
然後是最後兩(liang) 節：
Do memories plague their ears like flies?
They shake their heads. Dusk brims the shadows.
Summer by summer all stole away,
The starting-gates, the crowd and cries -
All but the unmolesting meadows.
Almanacked, their names live; they
Have slipped their names, and stand at ease,
Or gallop for what must be joy,
And not a fieldglass sees them home,
Or curious stop-watch prophesies :
Only the grooms, and the grooms boy,
With bridles in the evening come.
記憶會(hui) 像蒼蠅一樣困擾他們(men) 的耳朵嗎？
他們(men) 搖搖頭。黃昏罩上樹蔭。
一個(ge) 又一個(ge) 夏天都溜走了，
起跑門、人群和呼喊聲——
除了這片安靜的草地，什麽(me) 都沒有。
年鑒中，他們(men) 的名字永存；他們(men)
忘記了他們(men) 的名字，安心地站著，
或為(wei) 了快樂(le) 而馳騁，
沒有望遠鏡能看到他們(men) 回家，
也沒有好奇的秒表做出的預言：
隻有看馬的男孩，
晚上帶著韁繩來。
Here the horses, who earlier appeared to study one another, now seem to shake their heads to the poet’s question: “Do memories plague their ears like flies?” For this what it would be for humans, reflecting on lives and years now past and fading. But the horses appear to shake their heads ‘no’. Then come the great lines: “Almanacked, their names live; they have slipped their names.” – as a horse will ‘slip‘ its bridle and go running free, and in so doing they return to the fullness of what they are and always were – creatures of the natural earth, beyond the conditions and restrictions, the bridles and harnesses of the human condition; they are back to a state of primal innocence and wildness. And the “stand at ease/or gallop for what must be joy.” I have always wondered at that: ‘for what must be joy’, for it is as if the horses have returned to a secret that the observer can never know and therefore only speculate on: “for what must be joy. (It must…mustn’t it?--he wonders, as if he has never experienced it in its pure form.)
在這裏，早些時候似乎互相研究的馬現在似乎對詩人的問題(“記憶是否像蒼蠅一樣困擾著它們(men) 的耳朵？”)搖搖頭。對於(yu) 人類來說，這就是反思過去和消逝的生活和歲月。但馬匹似乎搖頭說“不” 。然後是偉(wei) 大的詩句： “年鑒上，他們(men) 的名字永存；但他們(men) 已經忘記了自己的名字。” 就像一匹馬會(hui) 掙脫韁繩，自由奔跑，這樣它們(men) 就會(hui) 恢複到它們(men) 本來的樣子，並且一直都是這樣 – 自然地球的生物，甩脫了條件和限製，沒有了人類的韁繩和挽具，他們(men) 又回到了原始的純真和狂野的狀態。還有“輕鬆站立/或為(wei) 了某種必須是快樂(le) 的感覺而馳騁” 。我總是思考這裏的： “為(wei) 了某種必須是快樂(le) 的感覺” ，因為(wei) 馬匹仿佛回到了一個(ge) 觀察者永遠無法知道的秘密，因此作者隻能推測： “某種必須是快樂(le) 的感覺 “（必須是，不是嗎？——他想知道，就好像他從(cong) 未純粹地經曆過一樣這樣的快樂(le) 。）
And the poem ends quietly, with the all-consuming darkness descending on the primal beasts back in their true element, at grass and at peace.
這首詩安靜地結束了，吞噬一切的黑暗降臨(lin) 在這些野獸(shou) 身上，回到了它們(men) 真正的自我，在草地上，在和平中。
In these three poems, all with separate themes and style, I have tried to show, not only the aesthetic beauty of the poems themselves – which is surely enough justification for reading them – but also, I have sought to demonstrate how looking closely can unveil and unravel deeper meaning, implications, impulses and truths. It is a matter of thinking vertically rather than merely horizontally. I have thought about this concept for a long time, actually. In the high-tech world, I constantly meet highly intelligent people who are almost magical in the swiftness and dexterity with which they skim across the surfaces of things: multitasking, grasping all the Data and Algorithms, absorbing impossibly vast amounts of knowledge, seizing innumerable abstractions and making them give off sparks of information.
這三首詩都有不同的主題和風格，我試圖展示的不僅(jin) 是詩本身的美感——這無疑是人們(men) 閱讀它們(men) 的充分理由——而且我還試圖展示如何通過深層分析來抽絲(si) 剝繭地發現更深層次的意思、含義(yi) 、衝(chong) 擊力和真理。這是垂直思考而不僅(jin) 僅(jin) 是水平思考的問題。事實上，我已經思考這個(ge) 問題很長時間了。在高科技世界中，我不斷遇到高智商的人，他們(men) 神奇地在不同事情上快速靈巧地周旋：可以同時處理多項任務，掌握所有數據和算法，吸收難以置信的大量知識，掌握無數的知識，抓住很多抽象知識並使它們(men) 散發出信息的火花。
Yet I am often disappointed – and sometimes dismayed – by the inability of these very clever people to look deeply into the great subjects of life and death – which they sometimes ought to and eventually must. Many cannot, simply cannot sustain an analysis that plunges into the depths of the human psyche. And by this I don’t just mean long winded ‘bull’ sessions, navel-gazing, and psycho-babble. I mean trying to discover the real purposes behind the endless action of their brains. Moreover, mass media, social networking, videos games (if taken to excess) and most of sound-byte abbreviations of texting – all mitigate against the sustained attention span capacity from which great discoveries are made – as well as the ability to think in metaphor, a skill that more scientists than would first meet the eye employ in service of their prodigious insights.
然而，我經常感到失望——有時甚至是沮喪(sang) ——因為(wei) 這些非常聰明的人無法深入探究生與(yu) 死的偉(wei) 大主題——雖然他們(men) 有時應該而且最終必須這樣做。然而許多人不能，他們(men) 根本無法進行探入人類心靈深處的分析。我所說的不是冗長的小組討論、自我中心的紙上談兵以及充滿心理學術語的胡言亂(luan) 語。我的意思是試圖發現他們(men) 大腦無休止的活動背後的真正目的。此外，大眾(zhong) 媒體(ti) 、社交網絡、視頻遊戲（如果過度使用）和大多數短信的聲音字節縮寫(xie) ——所有這些都削弱了人們(men) 做出偉(wei) 大發現所需要的持續注意力，以及隱喻思維能力，而越來越多的科學家需要隱喻思維能力來實現他們(men) 驚人的見解。
Being able to read a challenging poem effectively feeds the creative appetite and opens the windows of perception. The great Romantic poet and painter Wiilliam Blake wrote” The eye altering alters all.” He meant, I believe, that life changes before our eyes depending on our own shifting perceptions of it. And remember: the cure to most of our diseases, including vaccines that really work long term, do not need to fall out of the sky. The combinations are here already; we just haven’t noticed – as I said earlier. It is all about refreshing our perceptions.
能夠閱讀一首具有挑戰性的詩歌可以有效地滿足創造力並打開感知之窗。偉(wei) 大的浪漫主義(yi) 詩人和畫家William Black寫(xie) 道： “眼睛改變了一切。” 我相信，他的意思是，生活在我們(men) 眼前的變化，取決(jue) 於(yu) 我們(men) 對生活的洞察力的變化。請記住：治療我們(men) 大多數疾病的方法，包括真正長期有效的疫苗，不需要從(cong) 天而降。密碼已經在這裏；我們(men) 隻是沒有注意到——正如我之前所說的。一切都在於(yu) 刷新我們(men) 的觀念。
Poetry does that. It does two things especially well:
(1) It elicits from you a recognition of things you never thought of (noticed) before; and
(2) it reminds you of what you have always known but either refused to confront or simply couldn’t find expression for. It is NOT didactic. It is NOT a sermon nor an ideology or a religion. It is a mirror. It is a soliloquy. It is the nightingale or crow or owl that sits on the fence post, sings, and then flies away. And these birds sing to the mathematician the same as to the artist. 詩歌就是這麽(me) 做的。它在兩(liang) 件事上做得特別好：
（1）它讓你認識到你以前從(cong) 未想過（注意到）的事情；
(2)它讓你想起你一直都知道但拒絕麵對或隻是無法表達的事情。這不是說教。它不是布道，也不是意識形態或宗教。它是一麵鏡子。這是一個(ge) 獨白。夜鶯、烏(wu) 鴉或貓頭鷹坐在柵欄柱上唱歌，然後飛走。這些鳥兒(er) 向數學家唱歌就和他們(men) 向藝術家唱歌是一樣。 想參加機構的國際課程嗎？趕快來掃碼谘詢吧！
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