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Of Modern Poetry The poem of the mind in the act of finding What will suffice. It has not always had To find: the scene was set; it repeated what Was in the script. Then the theatre was changed To something else. Its past was a souvenir. It has to be living, to learn the speech of the place. It has to face the men of the time and to meet The women of the time. It has to think about war And it has to find what will suffice. It has To construct a new stage. It has to be on that stage, And, like an insatiable actor, slowly and With meditation, speak words that in the ear, In the delicatest ear of the mind, repeat, Exactly, that which it wants to hear, at the sound Of which, an invisible audience listens, Not to the play, but to itself, expressed In an emotion as of two people, as of two Emotions becoming one. The actor is A metaphysician in the dark, twanging An instrument, twanging a wiry string that gives Sounds passing through sudden rightnesses, wholly Containing the mind, below which it cannot descend, Beyond which it has no will to rise. It must Be the finding of a satisfaction, and may Be of a man skating, a woman dancing, a woman Combing. The poem of the act of the mind. 论现代诗歌 这诗写思想在行动中寻找 令人满足的东西。却并不总需要 去寻找；布景已搭好，它重复 脚本中已有的东西。 然后剧院变成 别的什么。它的过去是一种回忆。 它必须活着，学习当地的语言。 它必须面对这时代的男人，会见 这时代的女人。它必须思考战争， 寻找令人满意的东西。它必须重新 搭一个舞台。它必须站在台上 像位永不满足的演员，慢慢地， 沉思地，诵出台词，在耳朵中 在思想敏锐的耳朵中，准确地 重复它想听见的东西，一群无形的 观众，正在倾听这声音， 不是在听剧，而是听自己 在两个人的情感中得以表现， 两种情感结合为一体。演员 是黑暗中的玄学家，拨动 乐器，拨动一根金属琴弦， 发出的声音突然穿透正确，整个 包容了思想，既不低于思想， 也没超越思想的欲望。 它必须 成为令人满意的东西，可以是 滑冰的男人，跳舞的女人． 或梳头的女人，思想的行动的诗。 （西蒙 水琴译） 英文寒酸的我头一次见到这么古怪的标题，据英文更好的人士说，所有格结构倒装的用法也是有的，比如A of B有时会写成of B,A。于是从形式上看，整首诗的内容好像都成了对modern poetry的阐释。首句和末句两个不寻常的名词性所有格结构则直接承题目而来:of modern poetry, the poem(of…) 即the poem of modern poetry is the poem of the mind in the act of finding what will suffice; is the poem of the act of the mind。这里act 的双关义很难通过汉语翻译出来，它既作行动行为讲，又含有表演扮演之意，恰恰对应着下文关于舞台、演员的比喻。 西蒙、水琴对第一句的翻译差强人意（以下简称西水译），虽然值得体谅。The poem of the mind in the act of finding what will suffice硬译就是在寻找（令人满足的东西）的行动中的思想的诗，“在行动中寻找”和“在寻找的行动中”意思还是有些差别的，可考虑到原诗的分行和节奏，恐怕只能这样处理。“寻找”的语法主体是the poem，语义重心却在the mind，西水译迁就了后者，但直译或许更好： 思想的诗在行动中寻找 令人满足的东西 在关于剧场、演员的一系列比喻中，不变的是scene, script,变化的是theatre, stage. Then the theatre was changed To something else. Its past was a souvenir. 剧目演出硬环境（the theatre）的变迁暗示着诗歌软环境（政治、经济、技术、语言）的变迁。不同时代不同地域，人们往往歌咏着同样的主题，这些歌咏随时间消逝并形成某种文化遗产：a souvenir，an object kept as a reminder of something.它作为固定形体的死亡状态并不能令人满足。 It has to be living, to learn the speech of the place. It has to face the men of the time and to meet The women of the time. It has to think about war 史蒂文斯是一个积极关注社会现实的诗人（即使他的诗很少直接书写现实），他通过这几行表白：真正有生命力的诗必须基于对现世的关怀。the time, the place, the men and women作为时间、地点、人物也可以看作剧场比喻的延续。war 是现实世界最重大的事（同时指涉人物之间的戏剧冲突）。It has to think about war把前两行的列举推到了一个至高点。但这些仍然不能令人满足。 And it has to find what will suffice. It has To construct a new stage. It has to be on that stage, And, like an insatiable actor, slowly and With meditation, speak words that in the ear, In the delicatest ear of the mind, repeat, Exactly, that which it wants to hear, at the sound Of which, an invisible audience listens, Not to the play, but to itself, expressed In an emotion as of two people, as of two Emotions becoming one. And it has to find what will suffice.就像音乐中的主题重现一样，这里并非简单重复，而是抛下已有的论述，在另一个层次上继续推进，继续寻找。如果说第二节前三行都在谈论诗歌的思想内容，主题变奏之后话题就转向：如何进行表达？it与其说是the poem of the mind，不如说是隐藏着的诗人自身（说话者的声音始终清晰，坚决，但从未露面）。对actor的大段描述其实在还原一个创作过程，这个高度抽象化的隐喻结构中，actor, audience. People仅仅作为虚化的符号，因此没有任何富有人情味的代词he, she,通篇只有it，它。 它必须用语言创建一个新的秩序世界，它是这个世界孤独的中心：the one on the stage. speak words that in the ear让我们想起《齐维斯特的秩序的观念》：even if what she sang was what she heard.永不满足的演员诵出他耳中已有的台词，这些词是他听到过的，早就写在脚本里的，是经过一次次排演观众所习惯所期待听到的，而观众听戏不过是从中辨认自己熟悉的个人经验——字面上史蒂文斯好像在说期待视野接受屏幕之类并不高深的美学常识，但他显然意不在此。 创作过程中，一个人必须面对前人的遗留，不管他愿不愿意。当我们使用“大海”“橡木”“爱情”，这些词无不像行星一样，行动时总是带出它们千百年来形成的气场。那些被称作传统的东西使其子民学会在类似的情境召唤类似的情感，并用类似的词予以描述——如同写就的剧本。但一个真正的演员，即使同一幕戏，念着同样的台词，他在台上的每一次演出都是不可复制的全新的创作。 这里words that in the ear和 which it wants to hear是有差别的。It代指the delicatest ear of the mind而非ear——从in the ear到In the delicatest ear of the mind，这不仅仅是一个补充性的修正，更对众人之耳和思想最敏锐的耳朵做出区分。如果说words that in the ear是脚本中固有的台词，words in the delicatest ear of the mind则是演员运用个人经验与体悟赋予台词的独特意蕴，这才是演出精华所在，是“它”真正想听到的东西。 诗行间的结构十分精美，像交错的齿轮一样，紧紧相扣，螺旋状深入：Speak→repeat相对speak的随意粗率，repeat更加审慎、细密；delicatest对应exactly；而which it wants to hear前承the delicatest ear of the mind,后启an invisible audience。 这个无形的观众可以理解为actor抽象的私我，他对戏剧本身毫不在意( not to the play)，只关注台词背后个体真实的情感体验是否得以准确表达。 Actor audience Play itself Words in the ear in the delicatest ear of the mind Listen (NO) which it wants to hear 诗中出现的基本对立可作以上排列，我认为史蒂文斯其实在谈传承与原创、公众共同经验与个体独特体悟的关系，也是关于诗歌如何从陈词滥调中突围的问题——必须在二者间找到一个平衡，比如同样描述爱情这件古老的事，玫瑰、美好、甜蜜已是最普泛最苍白的形容。必须依赖个体经验，挖掘独特的真实情感，“找到那个能极其精确地表达思想，那个既能准确表现它的细微层次，又能确切表现它的感情强度的唯一一个恰当的词”（纳博科夫语）。 下一段说得更加明白： The actor is A metaphysician in the dark, twanging An instrument, twanging a wiry string that gives Sounds passing through sudden rightnesses, wholly Containing the mind, below which it cannot descend, Beyond which it has no will to rise. 黑暗中的玄学家意味着深思，独处，屏蔽外界只面对自己的灵魂。这个角色是内向性的，和外向性的取悦众人的actor不同，是另一个身份invisible audience的延伸。rightnesses即那些因袭下来的绝对正确却空洞滥俗的表达。必须穿透它们才能忠实确切地表达思想。 It must Be the finding of a satisfaction, and may Be of a man skating, a woman dancing, a woman Combing. The poem of the act of the mind. “find what will suffice”的主题再一次出现，声音越发有力（语气上must强于has to）。Skating, dancing, combing的比喻看似与前文没有联系，实则非常精妙。Skating需要小心翼翼地在冰面上保持平衡，利用永恒的力的作用完成身体各项花哨动作，比之与传统的结合；dancing没法脱离音乐节拍，这个内在的引导性的声音才是主角；而combing的动作缓慢细致，将零乱的发丝一一理顺，就像对待词语应有的精细态度。 娟子 2008 |
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