诗歌所追求的真实感

                         诗歌所追求的真实感
                                ——评艾米莉·狄金森的诗歌“I like a look of Agony”

艾米莉·狄金森(1830-1886)是美国诗坛上最有天赋的诗人之一，尽管她生前并没有得到广泛的承认。她的诗歌通常短小但精悍，充满了幻觉、死亡、悲 观、颓废甚至自恋和自虐，这使得她的诗歌不太容易读懂，特别是在她生活的那个年代，就更加如此，是故她已被整理出的约两千首诗歌之中，她生前只发表了约十 首，虽然这和她那种淡泊乃至遁世的孤僻性格不无关系。例如我们来看看她的一首八行短诗“I like a look of Agony”:

I like a look of Agony，
Because I know it's true；
Men do not Sham convulsion，
Nor simulate a Throe。

The eyes glaze once, and that is Death，
Impossible to feign
The Beads upon the Forehead
By homely Anguish strung。

乍读之下，读者很可能就会震惊于诗歌第一行那种充满冷酷和虐待的笔调，然而下一行“因为我知道这是真实的”却是话锋一转，很明显这种“真实性”才是作者要表 达的，那种冷酷和虐待的笔调所描述的“痛苦表情”不过是比鲜花绿草更加能表达真实的一种承载而已，作者欣赏的其实并不是这些表象，而是其中蕴含的真实。实 际上，当读完整首诗歌以后，很明显可以看出作者其实是借助痛苦、不幸和痉挛等间接和反常的表现手法来倾诉对真实的渴望，而这些痛苦、不幸和痉挛等又反过来 使得这种对真实的渴望显得更加强烈，从而使得诗歌更具有震撼力。

如果逐字逐句来考察整首诗歌，也可以看出对真实性的追求是这首八行短诗的基调和灵魂。比如说，“我知道这是真实的——”(第二行)，“人们不会假装痉挛” (第三行)，“也不会模仿阵痛——”(第四行)，“不可能去伪装”(第六行)，等。这些类似的词句在诗歌中频繁地出现，也支持了本文的观点，那就是作者对 真实的渴望，对虚伪的憎恶，只不过在借助一种宣泄的情感来表达而已。在作者看来，借助于这种宣泄来表达在某种程度上是必要的，因为它们不容易伪装。比如说 人们不能伪装或者模仿产妇的那种痉挛和阵痛；又比如在濒临死亡时，人们因无力去伪装什么而往往会展示人性真实的一面，尽管表面上看来显得有些不近常理，甚 至显得变态，不可理喻。实际上，诗歌的第一行里作者直接引述了她的思想状态的一个切如点，第二句是对第一句的解释和补充，亦即表明作者欣赏和渴望的是一种 真实感，而不是那种痛苦感或者痛苦的表情，只不过它们往往联系在一起罢了。在第三、四行“人们不会假装痉挛/也不会模仿阵痛”中，作者在为自己的这种渴望 提供了另外一个例子以阐释。显然，作者在诗歌里强调了“不会假装”，“不会模仿”等字眼(人们们难以或者不会伪装产妇那种痛苦感觉和状态)来阐释其观点， 或者等价地说，这实际上强烈地表达了对真实的渴望，至少对作者来说，是如此。“双眼若如上釉般呆滞，那正是死亡--”(第五行)也支持了这个观点。这行写 出了死亡那种缓慢但是残酷的过程并且将它视觉化了，用死亡“不可能去伪装”(第六行)这个事实去强调其真实性。最后两行“额头前的滴滴汗珠/ 被一种真切的极度痛苦串起”里，表达她的痛苦、厌世和悲观。这种痛苦、厌世和悲观是作者对现实和社会的极度失望、对真实的强烈渴求的一种强烈呼唤。

通过痛苦和悲观来表达对真实的渴望和作者的生活背景和经历是密切相关的。狄金森出生于马萨诸塞州西部的小镇阿默斯特(Amherst)，阿默斯特是个只有三 万人口的大学城，那里有两个著名学府: 马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校 (University of Massachusetts at Amherst)，以及阿默斯特学院(Amherst College)。马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校是马萨诸塞大学几个校园的主校园和本部所在地，也是马塞诸塞最主要的公立大学，而阿默斯特学院就是个致力于培 养本科生的贵族学校，也是美国入学竞争最激烈的二十所大学之一，不亚于同州位于波士顿的私立名牌哈佛大学和身省理工学院。狄金森的父亲是有名的律师，也是 阿默斯特学院的财政官，家境富有，这使得狄金森从小到老都无须为生活奔波，从而能专心致志于她的内心探索和诗歌创作。狄金森从阿默斯特学院毕业后，就基本 上过着与世隔绝的隐士生活，到后来她甚至很少走出她自己的房间。她父亲尽管性格开朗，善于结交朋友，但是她性格却极度孤僻，极少与人来玩，她的家人甚至不 知道她躲在她那间房子里独自写下了近两千首诗歌。她终身未嫁，也基本上没有对谁动过感情——除了后来人们整理她的诗稿时发现她隐约只对当地的某位牧师有过 好感以外，不过他们却是连手都没有碰过，那位牧师甚至压根儿就不知道有这么回事情。孤僻的性格、优越的家境以及过人的才华，加上尘世的污浊、谎言和虚伪， 使得她越来越厌世，越来越痛苦。在她看来，世界到处充满了虚伪、欺骗和狡诈，除了在一些很极端的情形，例如死亡前夕或者极度痛苦之中等方可找到一些真实以 外，因为这时人们往往受自身卑微力量的束缚，无力掩藏真实，以伪装的面孔出现。因此死亡、痛苦、自虐等尽管会使得她显得更加怪异、被人误解，它们却是在她 的诗歌中频繁出现，成了她表达自己展示自己心灵的主要方式。

诗歌只有包含某种真实的元素才能持久永恒，而这种真实的元素通常来自对自己心灵的挖掘。在诗歌写作形式上，狄金森使用了“宽韵”，使得她的诗歌既不太受词句 的束缚、又能保证诗歌的韵律，除此之外她诗歌的成功之处更主要的是在于她的冷静和无畏，用Galway Kinnell 的评语来说，她是个恣意妄为的天才(reckless genius)。她的无畏和消极厌世使她显得冷酷无情、孤傲而冷冰冰的，不过这也使得她更能自由地、无拘无束地将自己心灵深处挖掘出来，借助诗歌表达出 来，而可以不顾世俗和传统的束缚。她的诗歌意识颇有后现代主义的风范，超越当时的诗歌主流和社会规范准则甚多。她生前只投稿了很有限的一些诗歌，很多还被 退稿了，她一生只看到自己的诗歌发表了十首就是个明证(一说在正式刊物发表了七首)，何况她发表的诗歌很快被埋没了，从来没有引起评论家的注意。有个位于 纽约的诗歌编辑甚至还对她思维的贫乏、写作的拙劣产生严重的同情。狄金森的诗歌从文本意义上说，和后现代主义的特征一样，没有那种浅薄而无根基的表层抒 情。它们表现出来的往往是一种晦涩和乏味，显得黑色而阴暗。从诗学角度看，这些往往是对诗歌主题的深度挖掘的表征，尽管她的诗歌也许只涉及到某些内容和层 次，难免显得片面。在这点上，狄金森的诗歌和她本人的遭遇和她同时代的著名诗人惠特曼一样，甚至有过之而无不及。他们的诗歌创作都是以本能反叛来书写社 会、生活、文化、历史和感情对他们内心的撞击，一度遭到世人的冷遇和不理解，甚至抨击。然而在他们逝世几十年后，他们的诗歌才真正地唤醒了一代人，他们的 诗歌所传达的精神和理念不光是被诗歌界所接受所认可而已，它们其实更深远地影响著美国文学乃至世界文学。

                       The Genuineness in "I like a look at Agony"

      Emily Dickinson is one of the most talented poets in American literature history. Her poems are well known for fanaticisms, death, and sadism, which make her poems difficult to understand. For example, in the 8-line poem "I like a look at Agony," readers usually may be shocked by the sadism and coldness in the opening line "I like a look at Agony," (line 1) at first glances. However the next line "Because I know it's true-," (line 2) may suggest that sadism and fanaticisms are actually not what the speaker really wants to express. In fact, after reading and analyzing the poem carefully, readers may draw a conclusion that the speaker actually expresses the eagerness of genuineness and truth in the world, though through an indirect way, an abnormal obsession with pain and suffering.

      It is convincible that genuineness is the central point and plays the key role in this 8-line poem. Literally, some words related to genuineness can be found throughout the poem. For example, "Because I know it's true-," (line 2) "Men do not sham convulsion," (line 3) "Nor simulate, a Throe-," (line 4) "Impossible to feign.” (line 6) Actually these words and phrases can be explained as supporting the conclusion, through Dickinson’s extremely emotional writing style.

      In some detail, in the first line of the poem "I like a look at Agony," (line 1) the speaker introduces a state of his or her mind directly. The second line "Because I know it's true-," (line 2) can be considered as an explanation to the first line, stating what the speaker actually appreciates is the genuineness, not the actual expression of agony. In lines 3 & 4 "Men do not sham convulsion, / Nor simulate, a Throe--, " (line 3-4) the speaker strengthens this point by more examples. It is clear here that the speaker emphasizes the words "not sham", "nor simulate", a connotation of uncontrollable pain and anguish, which makes people hard to sham and simulate. Equivalently to say, this kind of connotation signals more genuineness, at least to the speaker. "The Eyes glaze once- and that is Death-," (lines 5) gives another support to the point. This line creates a vision of a slow process of death with fanaticism, emphasizing the genuineness through "Impossible to feign." (line 6) In the last two lines, "The Beads upon the Forehead / By homely Anguish strung." (lines 7-8) the speaker utilizes a literary device called personification (anguish is personified as being able to string and homely is used to personify agony) to express his or her distress and pessimism, which is an indication as disappointment with the reality and society, an indication of yearning for genuineness, even though the genuineness can only be found through an "abnormal" way, such as agony, convulsion, and death, according to the speaker’s point of view.

      The eagerness of genuineness from the society is somehow consistent to Emily's life experience. She lived in a simple, introverted and hermetic life, and isolated herself from the world after graduating from Amherst College (The Academy of American Poets). And she was a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, a "reckless genius" (Kinnell). The reason why she preferred a hermetic life is that she was tired of the hypocritical and fake things; to her, almost everything is hypocritical except in some special cases such as agony and convulsion, because in this case people can hardly to disguise themselves. She seldom published her poems (only a few of them were published while she was alive), which may suggest her writing motivation in this poem is to express her yearning of genuineness through sadism, not try to grab reader's attention.

      A poem could be everlasting only when it brings elements of genuineness into the poetry. Due to Dickinson’s plain and simple lifestyle, the poem uses some extreme emotions to develop the character. This poem brings a state of her unconventional mind and genuine feeling to the readers, and thus makes it extremely intriguing to read and compelling to write about even though it is tiny (only 8 lines long).

      Works Cited
      Dickinson, Emily. "I like a look at Agony."  Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and  Writers. 3rd ed. Ed. John Schilb and John Clifford. Boston: Bedford,  2006. 1447.
      Kinnell, Galway. “reckless genius.” World Wide Web. 3 Nov. 1997. (28 Sep. 2006)  .
      The Academy of American Poets. “Emily Dickinson.” World Wide Web. (29 Sep, 2006)  .

[Wuyiwuyian]

谢谢分享好文,好评~~~
收进我的书签了哈~~~

[紫色王家]

狄金森的几首有代表性的诗

《我为美而死，对坟墓》

我为美而死，对坟墓
几乎还不适应
一个殉真理的战士
遂成了我的近邻

他低声问我：“为什么倒下”
我回答他：“为了美”
他说：“我为真理，真与美
本是一家，我们是兄弟”

就这样，像亲人，黑夜相逢
我们隔着石壁谈天
直到苍苔爬上我们的嘴唇
覆盖掉我们的名姓
　
《如果我能使一颗心免于哀伤》
　
如果我能使一颗心免于哀伤
我就不虚此生
如果我能解除一个生命的痛苦
平息一种酸辛

帮助一只昏厥的知更鸟
重新回到巢中
我就不虚此生。

[紫色王家]

以前 English Composition 作文课作业的汉语翻译。