徐儉

奧登是二十世紀(jì)英語詩歌的巨人，于1907年1月21日出生在英格蘭中北部臨海的約克郡，畢業(yè)于牛津大學(xué)，32歲移居紐約，并加入美國籍，在美國皈依了新教。1973年秋天，奧登在維也納的一次詩歌朗誦之后，因心臟病發(fā)作突然去世。

本文討論的詩作《美術(shù)館》寫作于1938年12月，首次出版于1939年春，是奧登參觀了布魯塞爾的美術(shù)館，欣賞了古代大師的繪畫后，有感而作的。

下面先來讀作品的原文：

Musee des Beaux Arts

by W.H.Auden

About suffering they were never wrong，

The Old Masters；how well，they understood

Its human position；how it takes place

While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along；

How，when the aged are reverently，passionately waiting

For the miraculous birth，there always must be

Children who did not specially want it to happen，skating

On a pond at the edge of the wood：

They never forgot

That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course

Anyhow in a corner，some untidy spot

Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturers horse

Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Breughels Icarus，for instance：how everything turns away

Quite leisurely from the disaster；the ploughman may

Have heard the splash，the forsaken cry，

But for him it was not an important failure；the sun shone

As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green

Water；and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen

Something amazing，a boy falling out of the sky，

had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

再看一些詞的理解：

dull：1.lacking in alertness or speedy responsiveness

2.lacking in energy or enthusiasm

dreadful：causing fear or suffering

forsake：to leave somebody or something，especially when you have a responsibility to stay

failure：lack of success in doing or achieving sth；an act of not doing sth，especially sth that you are expected to do

對于別人的悲劇或苦難，人們大都淡然處之，退避三舍。詩歌先概括后具體，主要分成兩個部分描繪，深化主題，發(fā)人深省。

奧登曾寫道：至于詩歌，或任何藝術(shù)，都可以說具有這樣的潛在目的：通過講出真話來根除人們的幻想，使人們不再陶醉。（“In so far as poetry，or any of the arts，can be said to have an ulterior purpose，it is，by telling the truth，to disenchant and disintoxicate.”）

詩歌通過把平淡的瑣事和宏大的事件并置，取得反諷（irony）和突降（bathos）的效果。

結(jié)合上面單詞的英文解釋，再看一些詞句的理解：

it takes place，

While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along；

此處呈現(xiàn)了兩幅畫面：一個人在遭罪；而別的人或吃東西，或開窗戶，或麻木地前行。也許看見了別人的苦痛，卻熟視無睹？此處的dully不應(yīng)該理解為“無聊的”。

dreadful martyrdom must run its course可以說是殺猴儆雞式的白色恐怖，dreadful不應(yīng)該理解成“悲慘的”，must也不是“必須”，而是終歸、必然、自然——不管怎樣，總有結(jié)束的時候。Have heard the splash，the forsaken cry，

But for him it was not an important failure；

也許聽到了落水的聲音，聽到了呼救的聲音，卻兩耳不聞身外事，置之不理，因為救不救那個落水的人對他來說無關(guān)緊要。筆者認(rèn)為failure指對呼救（cry）不予理睬（forsaken）—failure to respond to the cry（was of no importance for him.）—不去救人，無所謂的。“不是了不得的/重要的/重大的失敗”，這樣的譯文有點讓人不知所云。

再讀這首詩歌，越發(fā)體會到詩人在輕描淡寫中蘊含沉郁的悲涼，也許這就是詩人看了先賢的畫作后有感，又通過自己的文字想向讀者傳達(dá)信息。