《四季隨筆》節(jié)選 - 夏 27

《四季隨筆》是吉辛的散文代表作。其中對(duì)隱士賴克羅夫特醉心于書籍、自然景色與回憶過去生活的描述，其實(shí)是吉辛的自述，作者以此來抒發(fā)自己的情感，因而本書是一部富有自傳色彩的小品文集。

吉辛窮困的一生，對(duì)文學(xué)名著的愛好與追求，以及對(duì)大自然恬靜生活的向往，在書中均有充分的反映。本書分為春、夏、秋、冬四個(gè)部分，文筆優(yōu)美，行文流暢，是英國文學(xué)中小品文的珍品之一。

以下是由網(wǎng)友分享的《四季隨筆》節(jié)選 - 夏 27的內(nèi)容，讓我們一起來感受吉辛的四季吧!

Today I have read The Tempest20. It is perhaps the play that I love best, and, because I seem to myself to know it so well, I commonly pass it over in opening the book. Yet, as always in regard to Shakespeare, having read it once more, I find that my knowledge was less complete than I supposed. So it would be, live as long as one might; so it would ever be, whilst one had strength to turn the pages and a mind left to read them.

今天，我讀了《暴風(fēng)雨》。這可能是我最喜歡的一部戲劇作品，一直以來，我自認(rèn)為對(duì)它非常熟悉，所以常常不會(huì)打開書來看。但是，正如莎士比亞的所有作品一樣，每讀上一遍，我就發(fā)現(xiàn)我對(duì)這部戲劇的了解并非我自以為的那樣完整。不管一個(gè)人活到多久都是這樣的，只要他還有翻動(dòng)書頁的力氣和閱讀的心思，這一點(diǎn)都永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)改變。

I like to believe that this was the poet's last work, that he wrote it in his home at Stratford, walking day by day in the fields which had taught his boyhood to love rural England. It is ripe fruit of the supreme imagination, perfect craft of the master hand. For a man whose life's business it has been to study the English tongue, what joy can equal that of marking the happy ease wherewith Shakespeare surpasses, in mere command of words, every achievement of those even who, apart from him, are great? I could fancy that, in The Tempest, he wrought with a peculiar consciousness of this power, smiling as the word of inimitable felicity, the phrase of incomparable cadence, was whispered to him by the Ariel21 that was his genius. He seems to sport with language, to amuse himself with new discovery of its resources. From king to beggar, men of every rank and every order of mind have spoken with his lips; he has uttered the lore of fairyland; now it pleases him to create a being neither man nor fairy, a something between brute and human nature, and to endow its purposes with words. These words, how they smack of the moist and spawning earth, of the life of creatures that cannot rise above the soil! We do not think of it enough; we stint our wonder because we fall short in appreciation. A miracle is worked before us, and we scarce give heed; it has become familiar to our minds as any other of nature's marvels, which we rarely pause to reflect upon.

我愿意相信這是詩人最后的作品，是他在斯特拉特福的家中創(chuàng)作的，那時(shí)他每天在原野上散步，這里的原野景色也培養(yǎng)了他從小對(duì)英國鄉(xiāng)村的熱愛。這部作品是高超想象力的成熟果實(shí)，是文壇巨擘的完美作品。對(duì)于一個(gè)終身致力于研究英語語言的英國人，能夠體會(huì)到莎士比亞僅僅在文字的駕馭上，便輕松怡然地超越了所有可稱為偉大作家的成就，試問有什么能與這種快樂相比？我能想象，在創(chuàng)作《暴風(fēng)雨》時(shí)，他對(duì)這種力量一定有強(qiáng)烈的感受，他面帶笑容傾聽埃里厄爾—他的天才精靈—將那巧妙無雙的詞匯和節(jié)奏優(yōu)美無比的短語輕聲告訴他。他似乎在和文字做游戲，靠發(fā)現(xiàn)文字的新妙用來取悅自己。從國王到乞丐，每個(gè)階層每種心性的人，都通過他來說話；他將仙境的傳說娓娓道來；現(xiàn)在他懷著快樂的心情，創(chuàng)造出一個(gè)非人非神的生物，一個(gè)介于獸和人之間的東西，并賦予它語言表達(dá)的能力。這些語言帶著孕育生機(jī)的溫潤泥土的味道，帶著未能超越大地的生靈的味道。我們對(duì)它的思索還不夠，因?yàn)樾蕾p能力不夠，我們的驚嘆還顯得吝嗇。一個(gè)奇跡在我們面前再現(xiàn)，而我們幾乎沒有留意；它像大自然的奇跡一樣，我們已經(jīng)司空見慣，很少會(huì)停下來仔細(xì)考慮。

The Tempest contains the noblest meditative passage in all the plays; that which embodies Shakespeare's final view of life, and is the inevitable quotation of all who would sum the teachings of philosophy. It contains his most exquisite lyrics, his tenderest love passages, and one glimpse of fairyland which—I cannot but think—outshines the utmost beauty of A Midsummer Night's Dream22: Prospero's farewell to the "elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves." Again a miracle; these are things which cannot be staled by repetition. Come to them often as you will, they are ever fresh as though new minted from the brain of the poet. Being perfect, they can never droop under that satiety which arises from the perception of fault; their virtue can never be so entirely savoured as to leave no pungency of gusto for the next approach.

在《暴風(fēng)雨》中，能找到所有戲劇里最高貴的沉思段落：它表達(dá)了莎翁對(duì)生命的終極思考，是所有想總結(jié)哲學(xué)教育精義的人不可避免都會(huì)引用的。這部作品里還有莎翁最優(yōu)美的詩行，有關(guān)于愛情最溫柔的段落，有對(duì)仙境的驚鴻一瞥—我不得不認(rèn)為—《仲夏夜之夢(mèng)》最美的文字在它面前也會(huì)黯然失色，那就是普洛斯彼羅對(duì)“小山、溪流、靜湖和叢林的精靈們”的告別詞。這又是一個(gè)奇跡，這些東西是無論如何重復(fù)都不會(huì)變味的。不管你看多少遍，這些文字都好像剛從詩人頭腦中產(chǎn)生時(shí)那樣新鮮。它們是完美的，不會(huì)讓你發(fā)現(xiàn)瑕疵而心生厭膩。它們的好處永遠(yuǎn)無法完全品味殆盡，讓你總是心存再次探究它的熱情。

Among the many reasons which make me glad to have been born in England, one of the first is that I read Shakespeare in my mother tongue. If I try to imagine myself as one who cannot know him face to face, who hears him only speaking from afar, and that in accents which only through the labouring intelligence can touch the living soul, there comes upon me a sense of chill discouragement, of dreary deprivation. I am wont to think that I can read Homer, and, assuredly, if any man enjoys him, it is I; but can I for a moment dream that Homer yields me all his music, that his word is to me as to him who walked by the Hellenic shore when Hellas lived? I know that there reaches me across the vast of time no more than a faint and broken echo; I know that it would be fainter still, but for its blending with those memories of youth which are as a glimmer of the world's primeval glory. Let every land have joy of its poet; for the poet is the land itself, all its greatness and its sweetness, all that incommunicable heritage for which men live and die. As I close the book, love and reverence possess me. Whether does my full heart turn to the great Enchanter, or to the Island upon which he has laid his spell? I know not. I cannot think of them apart. In the love and reverence awakened by that voice of voices, Shakespeare and England are but one.

有許多原因讓我為自己生在英國而高興，其中最重要的便是我能夠用母語閱讀莎翁的作品。試想一下，如果我不能面對(duì)面地認(rèn)識(shí)他，只能在遙遠(yuǎn)的地方聽到他的聲音，并且還是方言，需要費(fèi)盡心思才能觸摸到鮮活的靈魂，那我會(huì)感到多么冷落沮喪，多么憂郁失落。我總自以為能讀懂荷馬，如果只有一個(gè)人能欣賞他，那就是我；但是我怎能夢(mèng)想荷馬把他全部的音樂獻(xiàn)給我，而我聽到的和在昔日古希臘海灘上散步的人聽到的是一樣的話？我知道，穿過漫長歲月的阻隔，現(xiàn)在傳入我耳中的不過是若有若無時(shí)斷時(shí)續(xù)的回聲罷了；如果不和幼時(shí)的記憶相融合，這回聲會(huì)變得更加微弱，因?yàn)橛讜r(shí)的記憶猶如世界遠(yuǎn)古時(shí)代輝煌的一絲微光。讓每塊土地都享受它的詩人帶來的快樂吧；因?yàn)樵娙舜碇恋乇旧恚碇械膫ゴ笈c可愛，代表著人們?yōu)橹鸀橹赖臒o以言傳的傳統(tǒng)。我合上這本書，心中充滿著熱愛和崇敬。我的心是屬于這位偉大的“魔術(shù)師”，還是屬于那座被他施了魔法的“島嶼”呢？我不知道。我無法將兩者分開考慮。當(dāng)我的熱愛與崇敬之情被他那個(gè)最優(yōu)美的詩音喚醒時(shí)，莎士比亞和英格蘭已經(jīng)融為一體了。