Dover Beach---对爱的诉求
Mathew Arnold, 最初听到这个名字，是因为他文学评论家的身份，那时候正在学英国文学吧，英文课的老师Robin让我们用他的文学“试金石”理论分析一篇诗歌。于是我写了关于Elizabeth Barret Browning的诗“Let the World's Sharpness"如何反映了Mathew Arnold “touchstone” theory中 “high truth”和“high seriousness”的小论文。
再后来了解，他也写诗，只是比起同时代的丁尼生和勃朗宁，他并不是个多产的诗人。
这首《多佛海滩》，是他最著名的一首，第一次读便喜欢上了。
诗中的对比和tension都很到位，从形式上看，长短句的结合也像海浪一般，朗朗上口之于，也觉得诗中意味发人深省。
诗的最后，阿诺德为了拯救这个混乱荒芜的世界，最终求助于爱：“啊，我的爱，愿我们 / 彼此忠诚！”
可是“爱”真的能拯救这个世界吗？
The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand;
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
今夜大海宁静，
潮水正满，月色皎洁。
多佛海岸，灯光闪烁夜色中。
英伦绝壁矗立，
横卧港湾，宁静里。
走到窗前，
夜色如此甘甜！
波涛起，月接岸。
听，怒吼声，
碎石迭起，浪拍岸。
潮落潮起，潮起潮落
大海的节奏，渐渐舒缓，
奏出永恒的伤感。
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the A gaean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.
埃及的涛声，
流入古人的耳畔，
索福克勒斯追忆着，
历史的画面——
人类的磨难，
起伏，循环。
同样的涛声，
也给我们启示，
在这遥远的北海边。
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
信仰之海，
曾满流全地，如银带缠绕。
今日只闻悠长的哀鸣。
夜风里，
层层海浪，
从岸边退离。
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
让我们彼此真诚相爱，
这世界太多梦幻——
无常，魅力，新奇，
却找不到喜乐、爱情、亮光，
没有确据，没有和平，
没有手替我疗伤。
挣扎和退却
席卷
萤火闪烁的平原，
无知的军兵
夜战依然。
再后来了解，他也写诗，只是比起同时代的丁尼生和勃朗宁，他并不是个多产的诗人。
这首《多佛海滩》，是他最著名的一首，第一次读便喜欢上了。
诗中的对比和tension都很到位，从形式上看，长短句的结合也像海浪一般，朗朗上口之于，也觉得诗中意味发人深省。
诗的最后，阿诺德为了拯救这个混乱荒芜的世界，最终求助于爱：“啊，我的爱，愿我们 / 彼此忠诚！”
可是“爱”真的能拯救这个世界吗？
The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand;
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
今夜大海宁静，
潮水正满，月色皎洁。
多佛海岸，灯光闪烁夜色中。
英伦绝壁矗立，
横卧港湾，宁静里。
走到窗前，
夜色如此甘甜！
波涛起，月接岸。
听，怒吼声，
碎石迭起，浪拍岸。
潮落潮起，潮起潮落
大海的节奏，渐渐舒缓，
奏出永恒的伤感。
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the A gaean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.
埃及的涛声，
流入古人的耳畔，
索福克勒斯追忆着，
历史的画面——
人类的磨难，
起伏，循环。
同样的涛声，
也给我们启示，
在这遥远的北海边。
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
信仰之海，
曾满流全地，如银带缠绕。
今日只闻悠长的哀鸣。
夜风里，
层层海浪，
从岸边退离。
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
让我们彼此真诚相爱，
这世界太多梦幻——
无常，魅力，新奇，
却找不到喜乐、爱情、亮光，
没有确据，没有和平，
没有手替我疗伤。
挣扎和退却
席卷
萤火闪烁的平原，
无知的军兵
夜战依然。
