Mending Wall Robert Frost, 1874 - 1963 Something there is that doesn't love a wall, 1 注析1：此句开头和结尾句，诗人精心构造，在结构上具有非常重要的作用。这两句在诗中各重复出现了2次，代表着“我”和“邻居”对“墙”的两种截然不同同时又都坚定不移的态度。 Something there is that doesn't love a wall.按正常语序应该表述为There is something that doesn't love a wall.诗人有意打破常规表述意在强调突something，同时做下面三句的主语，引领拟人化极强三个动词，sends,spills,makes发音急促有力,强化了“something”对“wall”的极度厌恶，其实也表明作为两邻居之一的“我”的态度，也是诗人想表达的情歌，奠定了全诗的主基调。在此处Something的意涵应该指的是“自然”，即人在自然本性上是喜爱自由开放、保有对外界的热情而反对象征封闭、阻隔的“墙”。 That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun, And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. 注析2：gaps even two can pass abreast，“可供两人并肩而行的裂缝/豁口”，象征着打破墙的阻隔后邻里间的无间隙的亲密沟通。 The work of hunters is another thing: 5 注析3：hunters指称的是谁？或许就是the writer and the readers,前面四行诗表达自然之力对“墙”的厌弃和破坏，此处则指向人为的倦怠和破坏。猎人的行为意味着邻里间关于“墙”的态度冲突是不可避免的。 I have come after them and made repair 注析4：“I”作为叙述主体既然厌倦“墙”，为什么还要跟在猎人身后“made repair”呢？实则表明“I”的态度的克制与宽容，对邻居态度的理解与和解，这也是诗人在字里行间所呼吁的态度：理解、克制、包容、交流才可能是解决“墙”的阻隔问题的最正确方式。 Where they have left not one stone on a stone, But they would have the rabbit out of hiding, To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean, No one has seen them made or heard them made, 10 But at spring mending-time we find them there. 注析5：“罅隙无人见，崩塌未曾闻；待到春葺时，裂缺视已真。”第10句形式整齐对称，突出强调了在人们的无知无觉中人与人的隔阂在潜滋暗长，当我们有所意识的时候，问题和矛盾已经非常显明和突出了，暗示人们应该时刻警惕，防微杜渐。诗歌中类似的整齐对称的平行结构的句子还有很多，比如第14、15句，两次重复使用“the wall between us”，意在强化邻里之间的这堵墙的客观和不可漠视。第16句，首尾都用了“to each”,突出了因为被阻隔后个体的孤寂。第45句，"Good fences make good neighbors.”简洁，对称的表述里蕴含着斩钉截铁的态度和不容更改的信条，和首句松式的句法变换形成对照，句法的松散与整饬暗示的正式两种截然相反的观念和思维。诗人这些有意义的形式安排都很好的加强了诗歌的深刻意味。 I let my neighbor know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go. 15 To each the boulders that have fallen to each. And some are loaves and some so nearly balls 注析6：“loaves”一词蕴含了幽默态度，把砌墙的石头谑称为“长条形面包”，“balls”一词则含有讽刺态度，讽刺用圆球形的石头来砌墙是不可能的，前后两个词的运用一谐一庄表达出叙述者“我”的现代化的幽默与洒脱。同样下文第18行中的“spell”(咒语)一词也具有类似的幽默与讽刺，具有上面相似诗歌韵味。 We have to use a spell to make them balance: 'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!' We wear our fingers rough with handling them. 20 Oh, just another kind of out-door game, One on a side. It comes to little more: There where it is we do not need the wall: 注析7：第23句位于全诗的正中间，因此潜藏期间的句子“we do not need the wall”应该是经过诗人精心的选择和构造，表明了诗人的真正的态度。 He is all pine and I am apple orchard. 注析8：这一句从英语语法逻辑上讲是句法不通的，作为物的“pine”和“apple orchard”是不能作为主体词“he” “I”的表语的, 诗人正是用这一不合正常语法逻辑的句子来暗示此处“墙”的存在不合理性和反逻辑性，本不应该存在之物它却在次赫然存在，让人殊不可解。诗人造句用心可谓非常巧妙，形神统一。这种意味是翻译所无法体现出来的。 My apple trees will never get across 25 And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'. Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder If I could put a notion in his head: 注析9：Spring is the mischief in me是一个充满感性的句子，春意弄人，让人突发奇想：I wonder If I could put a notion in his head. 这其实正是人类的深处的潜意识体现——沟通的愿望，改变他人的思维和观念的愿望。不过诗人正是意识到将各自的观念加之于他人是极其困难的，所以诗人巧妙的把深沉的沟通理性愿望和“mischief”的感性幽默的形式结合在一起，既有庄重性，有兼有调侃意味，品咂之下顿觉妙趣横生。 'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it 30 Where there are cows? But here there are no cows. Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. 注析10：理性的挣扎——围进谁？堵住谁？防御谁？ Something there is that doesn't love a wall, 35 That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him, But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather He said it for himself. I see him there Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top 40 In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. He moves in darkness as it seems to me~ Not of woods only and the shade of trees. He will not go behind his father's saying, 注析11：“father's saying”（父亲的格言）和第40行的“old-stone savage”（旧石器时代的粗野）这都象征着邻居的保守，守旧，是一个落后时代的信仰者，未能跟上现代文明的步伐，缺乏文明感，或者观念逆历史而行。 And he likes having thought of it so well He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors." 45 注析12：尾句跟首句形成强烈的挑战，两句的张力让读者在这两极当中进行来回的思想漫游和辩驳。 这是一首真正值得玩味的诗歌。解读的角度可以是社会学的、历史学的、政治学的、哲学的、文化的，还可以是精神分析的角度和语言技巧的角度。总之弗罗斯特的这首诗从内容到形式的每一方面都成为了杰出的典范。诗人从日常之物中发现人类精神里的深刻悖论和秘密。见于本诗语言的口语化及其蕴含丰富的种种情味儿——幽默反讽、开放包容、温和友善、质疑与批评等等，此处就不另列中译文本，回到语言的原生状态才更能嚼出诗味。 |
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