读Shakespeare's Sonnets（1）

舞者

准备读。共154首。欢迎一起读。

请参考http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/comm01.htm。有line-by-line comments，解释得很清楚。

今天发现这个链接，大喜过望，真是有福气，感激那些作网站的人们。

SONNET I

1. From fairest creatures we desire increase,
2. That thereby beauty's rose might never die,
3. But as the riper should by time decease,
4. His tender heir might bear his memory:
5. But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes,
6. Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,
7. Making a famine where abundance lies,
8. Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel:
9. Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament,
10. And only herald to the gaudy spring,
11. Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
12. And, tender churl, mak'st waste in niggarding:
13. Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
14. To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.

As the opening sonnet of the sequence, this one obviously has especial importance. It appears to look both before and after, into the future and the past. It sets the tone for the following group of so called 'procreation' sonnets 1-17. In addition, many of the compelling ideas of the later sonnets are first sketched out here: the youth's beauty; his vulnerability in the face of time's cruel processes; his potential for harm, to the world, and to himself, (perhaps also to his lovers); nature's beauty, which is dull in comparison to his; the threat of disease and cankers; the folly of being miserly; the need to see the world in a larger sense than through one's own restricted vision.

'Fair youth, be not churlish, be not self-centred, but go forth and fill the world with images of yourself, with heirs to replace you. Because of your beauty you owe the world a recompense, which now you are devouring as if you were an enemy to yourself. Take pity on the world, and do not, in utter selfish miserliness, allow yourself to become a perverted and self destructive object who eats up his own posterity'.

上面这段介绍了第一首的重要性。始知第一到十七首跟“延续基因”有关。非常有意思。

沙先生用音乐般的语言说不繁衍后代是件很自私的事：

"5. But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes,
6. Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,
7. Making a famine where abundance lies,
8. Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel:"

当然他说的“fairest", "beauty's rose" 云云，决定作metaphor来理解，否则对相貌平实的人不公。当然也可以说，每个人，在某种意义上，都是"world's fresh ornament"和"only herald to the gaudy spring", 都是one and only, and beautiful and fairest in his/her unique way.

对于是否进一步加重世界人口负担这件事，模棱两可。然对“making a famine where abundance lies, Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel", 感触极深。凡为人，可不是大多数都这么过的？

他进一步又说“只开花不结果”这种吝啬也是一种浪费，以自己的贪婪剥夺了造化应得的回报（延续）。

附梁宗岱先生翻译的中文。

一

对天生的尤物我们要求蕃盛，
以便美的玫瑰永远不会枯死，
但开透的花朵既要及时雕零，
就应把记忆交给娇嫩的后嗣；
但你，只和你自己的明眸定情，
把自己当燃料喂养眼中的火焰，
和自己作对，待自己未免太狠，
把一片丰沃的土地变成荒田。
你现在是大地的清新的点缀，
又是锦绣阳春的唯一的前锋，
为什么把富源葬送在嫩蕊里，
温柔的鄙夫，要吝啬，反而浪用？
　　可怜这个世界吧，要不然，贪夫，
　　就吞噬世界的份，由你和坟墓。

[ 本帖最后由 舞者 于 2006-6-8 00:20 编辑 ]

怀抱花朵的孩子

今天发现这个链接，大喜过望，真是有福气，感激那些作网站的人们

谢谢!!好网站!好介绍,期待你下面进一步的解读!!

[ 本帖最后由 怀抱花朵的孩子 于 2006-6-8 02:08 编辑 ]

mu

154首，庞大的数字！以前对于Shakespeare的sonnets接触甚少，这次要好好学习一下！

assking

谢谢楼主,对我的翻译真是太有用了