據諾貝爾獎官方網站消息,諾貝爾文學獎於北京時間10月8日19時正式揭曉,來自美國的詩人Louise Glück獲獎,獲獎理由是「因為她那無可辯駁的詩意般的聲音,用樸素的美使個人的存在變得普遍」。
據諾貝爾獎官方網站介紹,美國詩人Louise Glück於1943年出生於紐約,現居麻薩諸塞州劍橋市。除了寫作,她還是耶魯大學的英語教授。
今天我們來欣賞幾首來自她的詩篇。
詩歌是超越語言的藝術,閱讀詩歌也是英語啟蒙的最佳方式。例如我們的教材hats on top中,有許多歌謠也是一首首動人的小詩,為孩子們勾勒精彩的世界。詩歌是一種語言的存在,但有時它可以超越語言,千百年來各民族都創作出優秀的詩篇,值得我們傳頌和學習。
詩歌的核心是創造力,而在創造中充滿了神秘與未知,優秀的詩人總能用文字勾畫出令人嚮往的世界,生活是創作的源泉,而詩歌是生活的凝練,有所飛躍,將平淡的生活升華為雋永的印象,持續地打動讀者。Glück的詩歌總是抒寫一些人類所共有的情感和體驗,並將源自生活的事件編織成精美篇章,所以動人,
詩歌一邊牽連生活,另一邊牽連著哲學,不過詩歌和哲學的思維方式全然不同,它不屬於所謂的理性——科學理性、技術理性,也不屬於通用的理性範疇。準確來定義,它是超理性。這就是蘭波所言的「我也是他者。(I is someone else)」 寫詩和讀詩都是一種心靈的對話,我們在閱讀Glück詩歌時,也會被作者引誘,思考內在的問題。
A Myth of Devotion
Louise Glück - 2006
When Hades decided he loved this girlhe built for her a duplicate of earth,everything the same, down to the meadow,but with a bed added.Everything the same, including sunlight,because it would be hard on a young girlto go so quickly from bright light to utter darknessGradually, he thought, he'd introduce the night,first as the shadows of fluttering leaves.Then moon, then stars. Then no moon, no stars.Let Persephone get used to it slowly.In the end, he thought, she'd find it comforting.A replica of earthexcept there was love here.Doesn't everyone want love?He waited many years,building a world, watchingPersephone in the meadow.Persephone, a smeller, a taster.If you have one appetite, he thought,you have them all.Doesn't everyone want to feel in the nightthe beloved body, compass, polestar,to hear the quiet breathing that saysI am alive, that means alsoyou are alive, because you hear me,you are here with me. And when one turns,the other turns—That's what he felt, the lord of darkness,looking at the world he hadconstructed for Persephone. It never crossed his mindthat there'd be no more smelling here,certainly no more eating.Guilt? Terror? The fear of love?These things he couldn't imagine;no lover ever imagines them.He dreams, he wonders what to call this place.First he thinks: The New Hell. Then: The Garden.In the end, he decides to name itPersephone's Girlhood.A soft light rising above the level meadow,behind the bed. He takes her in his arms.He wants to say I love you, nothing can hurt youbut he thinksthis is a lie, so he says in the endyou're dead, nothing can hurt youwhich seems to hima more promising beginning, more true.
Persephone the Wanderer
Louise Glück - 2006
In the first version, Persephoneis taken from her motherand the goddess of the earthpunishes the earth—this isconsistent with what we know of human behavior,that human beings take profound satisfactionin doing harm, particularlyunconscious harm:we may call thisnegative creation.Persephone's initialsojourn in hell continues to bepawed over by scholars who disputethe sensations of the virgin:did she cooperate in her rape,or was she drugged, violated against her will,as happens so often now to modern girls.As is well known, the return of the beloveddoes not correctthe loss of the beloved: Persephonereturns homestained with red juice likea character in Hawthorne—I am not certain I willkeep this word: is earth"home" to Persephone? Is she at home, conceivably,in the bed of the god? Is sheat home nowhere? Is shea born wanderer, in other wordsan existentialreplica of her own mother, lesshamstrung by ideas of causality?You are allowed to likeno one, you know. The charactersare not people.They are aspects of a dilemma or conflict.Three parts: just as the soul is divided,ego, superego, id. Likewisethe three levels of the known world,a kind of diagram that separatesheaven from earth from hell.You must ask yourself:where is it snowing?White of forgetfulness,of desecration—It is snowing on earth; the cold wind saysPersephone is having sex in hell.Unlike the rest of us, she doesn't knowwhat winter is, only thatshe is what causes it.She is lying in the bed of Hades.What is in her mind?Is she afraid? Has somethingblotted out the ideaof mind?She does know the earthis run by mothers, this muchis certain. She also knowsshe is not what is calleda girl any longer. Regardingincarceration, she believesshe has been a prisoner since she has been a daughter.The terrible reunions in store for herwill take up the rest of her life.When the passion for expiationis chronic, fierce, you do not choosethe way you live. You do not live;you are not allowed to die.You drift between earth and deathwhich seem, finally,strangely alike. Scholars tell usthat there is no point in knowing what you wantwhen the forces contending over youcould kill you.White of forgetfulness,white of safety—They saythere is a rift in the human soulwhich was not constructed to belongentirely to life. Earthasks us to deny this rift, a threatdisguised as suggestion—as we have seenin the tale of Persephonewhich should be readas an argument between the mother and the lover—the daughter is just meat.When death confronts her, she has never seenthe meadow without the daisies.Suddenly she is no longersinging her maidenly songsabout her mother'sbeauty and fecundity. Wherethe rift is, the break is.Song of the earth,song of the mythic vision of eternal life—My soulshattered with the strainof trying to belong to earth—What will you do,when it is your turn in the field with the god?
Vespers
Louise Glück - 1992
In your extended absence, you permit meuse of earth, anticipatingsome return on investment. I must reportfailure in my assignment, principallyregarding the tomato plants.I think I should not be encouraged to growtomatoes. Or, if I am, you should withholdthe heavy rains, the cold nights that comeso often here, while other regions gettwelve weeks of summer. All thisbelongs to you: on the other hand,I planted the seeds, I watched the first shootslike wings tearing the soil, and it was my heartbroken by the blight, the black spot so quicklymultiplying in the rows. I doubtyou have a heart, in our understanding ofthat term. You who do not discriminatebetween the dead and the living, who are, in consequence,immune to foreshadowing, you may not knowhow much terror we bear, the spotted leaf,the red leaves of the maple fallingeven in August, in early darkness: I am responsiblefor these vines.
The Red Poppy
Louise Glück - 1992
The great thingis not havinga mind. Feelings:oh, I have those; theygovern me. I havea lord in heavencalled the sun, and openfor him, showing himthe fire of my own heart, firelike his presence.What could such glory beif not a heart? Oh my brothers and sisters,were you like me once, long ago,before you were human? Did youpermit yourselvesto open once, who would neveropen again? Because in truthI am speaking nowthe way you do. I speakbecause I am shattered.
The Past
Louise Glück - 2014
Small light in the sky appearingsuddenly betweentwo pine boughs, their fine needlesnow etched onto the radiant surfaceand above thishigh, feathery heaven—Smell the air. That is the smell of the white pine,most intense when the wind blows through itand the sound it makes equally strange,like the sound of the wind in a movie—Shadows moving. The ropesmaking the sound they make. What you hear nowwill be the sound of the nightingale, Chordata,the male bird courting the female—The ropes shift. The hammocksways in the wind, tiedfirmly between two pine trees.Smell the air. That is the smell of the white pine.It is my mother’s voice you hearor is it only the sound the trees makewhen the air passes through thembecause what sound would it make,passing through nothing?
October (section I)
Louise Glück - 2004
Is it winter again, is it cold again,didn't Frank just slip on the ice,didn't he heal, weren't the spring seeds planteddidn't the night end,didn't the melting iceflood the narrow gutterswasn't my bodyrescued, wasn't it safedidn't the scar form, invisibleabove the injuryterror and cold,didn't they just end, wasn't the back gardenharrowed and planted—I remember how the earth felt, red and dense,in stiff rows, weren't the seeds planted,didn't vines climb the south wallI can't hear your voicefor the wind's cries, whistling over the bare groundI no longer carewhat sound it makeswhen was I silenced, when did it first seempointless to describe that soundwhat it sounds like can't change what it is—didn't the night end, wasn't the earthsafe when it was planteddidn't we plant the seeds,weren't we necessary to the earth,the vines, were they harvested?
作者簡介
路易絲·格呂克(Louise Glück)於1943年出生於紐約,在長島(Long Island)長大,曾就讀莎拉·勞倫斯學院(Sarah Lawrence College)和哥倫比亞大學(Columbia University),被許多人認為是美國最有才華的當代詩人之一,她的詩歌以其精湛的技術,敏銳的洞察力以及對孤獨、家庭關係、離婚和死亡的洞察力而聞名。詩人羅伯特·哈斯(Robert Hass)稱她為「現在寫作的最純正,最有成就的抒情詩人之一」。 2020年,她以「樸實的美感使個人存在普世化的鮮明詩意之聲」( "for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.")獲得了諾貝爾文學獎。
格呂克創作了12本詩歌集,其中包括近期的《忠實與賢惠之夜》(Faithful and Virtuous Night,2014,榮獲美國國家圖書獎),以及《1962-2012年詩選》(2012,曾獲得洛杉磯時報圖書獎)以及論文集《美國獨創性》(2017年)。
格呂克(Glück)的早期作品中,人物角色經歷了失戀、家庭變故或身處絕望的餘波中,而她的後來作品繼續探索自我的痛苦。她的第一本詩集《第一胎》(Firstborn,1968年)因其純熟的技藝以及對孤獨的敘述而受到認可。海倫·范德勒(Helen Vendler)在《新共和國》(New Republic)對《沼澤地上的房子》(The House on Marshland,1975)的評論中論述了格呂克對故事的運用。 「格呂克的神秘敘事邀請我們參與:我們必須填充故事創造情境,用虛構人物代替自己,讓講述者可以說出自己的臺詞,解讀其含義,揭示這個寓言,」 海倫·范德勒補充說:「後來,我想……我們讀這首詩,而是將其作為一個用自己的術語完成的真理,反映出經驗所包含的無數種構型。」詩人批評家羅莎娜·沃倫(Rosanna Warren)認為,格呂克詩歌的力量「使抒情詩人「我」成為關注的主體和對象」。
格呂克的詩集包括《第一胎》,《沼澤地上的房子》,《花園》(The Garden,1976年),《降落的人物》(Descending Figure ,1980年),《阿喀琉斯的勝利》(The Triumph of Achilles ,1985年),《阿拉拉特》(Ararat ,1990年)以及普立茲獎獲獎的《野生鳶尾》(The Wild Iris ,1992年),通過探索他們最深刻,最親密的感受,引導讀者進入內心旅程。
格呂克(Glück)創造詩歌的能力是很多人可以理解,相關,甚至是完全地經歷過的,這源於她直截了當的語言和詩意的聲音。溫迪·萊瑟(Wendy Lesser)在對格呂克(Glück)的《阿喀琉斯的勝利》(Triumph of Achilles)的評論中指出,「直接」是這裡的常用詞:格呂克的語言非常直截了當,非常接近普通語言的用法。然而,她對節奏和重複的精心選擇,甚至是慣用的模糊短語的特殊性,都使她的詩歌具有非口語化的意義。這種聲音的力量很大一部分來自於以自我為中心,因為從字面上看,格呂克詩歌中的詞語似乎直接來自於自身的中心。」
因為格呂克(Glück)如此有效地撰寫了有關失望,拒絕,失落和孤立的文章,所以評論者經常將她的詩歌稱為「荒涼」或「黑暗」。評論家唐·博根(Don Bogen)感到格呂克(Glück)的「基本關切」是「背叛,死亡,愛和伴隨的失落感……她是墮落世界的詩人。」史蒂芬·伯特(Stephen Burt)回顧了自己的作品集《阿韋諾(Averno)》(2006),並指出:「除西爾維亞·普拉斯(Sylvia)Plath)之外,很少有詩人聽起來如此疏遠,如此沮喪,並從美學上使這種疏離變得有趣。」
讀者和評論家也為格呂克的創造力而讚嘆不已,這些詩歌創造出具有夢幻般品質的詩歌,同時又處理了充滿激情和情感主題的現實。霍莉·普拉多(Holly Prado)在《洛杉磯時報》關於《阿奇裡斯的勝利》(1985年)的書評中宣稱,格呂克的詩歌之所以行之有效,是因為她的聲音無可挑剔,在我們的當代世界中引起了共鳴,使詩歌和有遠見的人交織在一起。
格呂克(Glück)的普立茲獎獲獎作品《荒野鳶尾》(The Wild Iris,1992)清楚地展示了她富有遠見的詩意。這本書分三部分寫在一個花園裡,想像著三種聲音:花朵對園丁詩人,園丁詩人和無所不知的神像說話。海倫·文德勒(Helen Vendler)描述了「格呂克的語言如何復興了深度斷言的可能性,就像德爾菲三腳架一樣斷言。」斷言的話通常是謙虛,平淡,平常的。正是他們的層級和超凡脫俗的語氣使他們與眾不同。這不是社會預言的聲音,而是精神預言的聲音,這種聲音沒有多少女性敢於主張。
草地叢(Meadowlands)(1996)是格呂克(Glück)繼《荒野鳶尾》之後的第一部新作品,其靈感來自希臘和羅馬神話。根據《紐約時報》書評中的黛博拉·加裡森(Deborah Garrison)的說法,這本書利用奧德修斯和佩內洛普的聲音來創建「一種在婚姻中的高低修辭實驗」。
維塔·諾瓦(Vita Nova,1999年)在耶魯大學授予格呂克(Glück)著名的波林根獎。格呂克在接受哈佛大學倡導者布萊恩·菲利普斯(Brian Phillips)的採訪時說:「這本書寫得非常快……一開始,我想這是一卷書,開始寫了就停不下來。」儘管該系列的表面主題是對婚姻破裂後遺症的考察,但Vita Nova充滿了從個人夢想和經典神話原型中汲取的象徵。
格呂克(Glück)的下一個作品集《七世紀》(Seven Ages(2001))同樣用四十四首詩講述了神話和個人,這首詩的主題涉及作者一生,從她最早的回憶到對死亡的沉思。格呂克(Glück)的下一本書《阿弗諾(Averno)(2006)》將波斯的神話作為試金石。這本書的詩歌圍繞著母女之間的紐帶,詩人自己對衰老的恐懼以及關於現代Persephone的敘述。在《紐約時報》上,尼古拉斯·克里斯多福(Nicholas Christopher)指出格呂克(Glück)的獨特興趣在於:「挖掘集體和個人神話的源泉,以激發她的想像力,並以來之不易的清晰感知和微妙的音樂探求我們最古老、最難以克服的恐懼——孤獨和遺忘、愛的消散、記憶的衰退、身體的崩潰和精神的潰敗。」
威廉·洛根(William Logan)稱格呂克(Glück)的《鄉村生活》(A Village Life)(2009年)是「對一位詩人的顛覆性離去,該詩人過去的含義超出了她的能力範圍。」這本書是格呂克(Glück)的標誌性正式啟程,採用長排句來取得新穎如短篇小說的效果。洛根(Logan)將鄉村生活看作是後來的《勺子河選集》,因為它使用了「鄉村作為考察內部生活的便利鏡頭,這抵消了她[格呂克]沒有生活的記憶」。丹娜·古德伊爾(Dana Goodyear)在為《洛杉磯時報》(Los Angeles Times)審閱這本書時發現,「鄉村生活」令人「著迷」,儘管它被認為是講述「一個垂死的農業社區的故事」,這可能是在義大利,也許是在1950年代到今天之間。 」固特異補充說:「平凡是這些詩詞冒險的一部分;在他們身上,格呂克(Glück)閃避,感傷。差點錯過讓我們顫抖。」
格呂克(Glück)選取的《 1962-2012年詩歌》(2012年)廣受好評。用《紐約時報》評論員德懷特·加納(Dwight Garner)的話,在強調她的作品的兇猛和「不斷提高的道德強度」的同時,該系列還使讀者能夠看到格呂克形式和主題發展的弧度。亞當·普倫凱特(Adam Plunkett)在回顧新共和國收集的詩歌時說:「很少有作家分享她將水變成血液的才華。但是,從這個嶄新的,全面的作品集(涵蓋了她的整個職業生涯)中得出的是一幅詩人的肖像,他發出了很多毒液,但現在卻以柔和的語氣出色地寫作。
2003年,格呂克(Glück)被評為美國第十二屆詩人桂冠。同年,她被任命為耶魯大學青年詩人系列的法官,此職位一直任職至2010年。她的論文《論證與理論》(1994年)獲得了PEN / Martha Albrand非小說類獎。除了獲得普立茲獎和波林根獎之外,她的作品還獲得了許多獎項和榮譽,包括蘭南詩歌獎、薩拉·泰茲代爾紀念獎、麻省理工學院周年獎、華萊士·史蒂文斯獎、國家人文獎以及獲得美國藝術與文學學院的詩歌金獎。她獲得了古根海姆基金會和洛克菲勒基金會以及國家藝術基金會的研究金。 2020年,她被授予諾貝爾文學獎。
格呂克目前是耶魯大學的作家,居住在麻薩諸塞州的劍橋。