n******8
发帖数: 558 | 1 Song
Christina Rossetti
When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.
I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.
歌
我死去时， 最亲爱的你，
请不要悲歌伤心；
不要给我玫瑰芳邻，
也不要给我松柏成荫：
我只要绿草覆盖
雨露绵长；
如你愿意， 请把我怀念，
如你愿意， 可将我遗忘。
我不再见荫影，
我不再抚雨丝；
我不再听夜莺
带着伤痛，悲啼：
我伴着暮光入梦
不再等朝阳夕阳，
也许我可以怀念，
也许我可以遗忘。
开始读英文诗没有多久， 不知道 “Song” 如此流行， 有徐志摩的译文， 罗大佑的
歌。 忍不住翻译一下， 自娱和献丑。 附上找到的分析。 有意思的是分析中提到的
pun， 无奈 lost in translation :-(
Tim Jackson, ‘01
West Chester University
An Explication of Christina Rossetti’s "Song"
Death, as a subject, has inspired many writers to put pen-to-paper and
create works that make an attempt to shed light upon this morbid idea.
Christina Rossetti was one of these writers. The majority of her poetry
grappled with her constant fascination with the concept of death, however,
she was also very interested in the mystery of transition. The transition
between life and death entranced Rossetti, and she embodied her
preoccupations with the mystique of transition in the creation of her poem
entitled "Song".
The poem is divided up into two, eight-line stanzas, whereas each half of a
stanza contains four lines of rhymed verse. The first stanza of the poem
gives the reader a set of instructions on how the speaker is to be cared for
once she is deceased. For the speaker, death seems to be a place where she
has the ability to start anew, because she charges her readers not to grieve
weaves, into this first stanza, her views on how one should accept death as
a part of life. These views show the reader that the speaker of the poem
puts herself on a plane of existence that has no physical form but, then
again, is not entirely spiritual.
The second stanza of "Song" is a great deal more encoded than the first. In
this stanza, the speaker envisions herself deceased. She detaches herself
from all earthly form which is a reinforcement of Rossetti’s concerns in
regard to being between two worlds.
"I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not here the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight,
That doth not rise nor set," (NAEL, 1584)
Further proof of Rossetti’s fixation upon being caught between two worlds
is the last lines of the quoted text: "And dreaming through the twilight/
That doth no rise nor set" (NAEL, 1584). These lines illustrate that the
speaker is in a state that is both spiritual, and corporal. Again, Rossetti
has spliced her commentary back into the work and presses her readers to
contemplate her notion of transition.
It is also interesting to note Rossetti’s choice of a "nightingale" within
this work. John Keats also used the image of a nightingale in his work "Ode
to a Nightingale". Keats’ nightingale was a thing of beauty and freedom
that he wanted to emulate. Rossetti’s speaker, in death, loses the ability
to hear the nightingale. Her nightingale is also of sharp contrast to Keats
’ in that, her nightingale sings "in pain" and his did not (NAEL, 1584).
Another type of transition that occurs, is that of word choice and phrasing.
Rossetti creates a pun, if you will, in the last lines of the work: "Haply
I may remember/And haply may forget" (NAEL, 1584). The pun occurs with the
word haply. By definition, haply means perhaps; however, if one would glance
over the word it may be misconstrued and read as happily. These lines could
very well take on a satirical view of death, which would strengthen the
assertion that the speaker makes in the first stanza that death is not as
unfortunate as it seems.
Through imagery, word choice, and phrasing, Rossetti achieves her goal in
persuading the reader to comprehend the many facets of life and death. In
order to understand this multi-faceted concept, she embeds "Song" with
transitions. These transitions occur through the mechanisms mentioned above.
The reader is also given insight as to how Rossetti deals with her
preoccupations regarding death, as well as her fixation for transition. | M********c
发帖数: 11672 | 2 喜欢这首，好感伤的诗，接连看到你好几个诗帖，最近太忙，等闲下来我也试着翻一下 | s*l
发帖数: 9421 | 3 翻得好
【在 n******8 的大作中提到】
: Song
: Christina Rossetti
: When I am dead, my dearest,
: Sing no sad songs for me;
: Plant thou no roses at my head,
: Nor shady cypress tree:
: Be the green grass above me
: With showers and dewdrops wet;
: And if thou wilt, remember,
: And if thou wilt, forget.
| n******8
发帖数: 558 | | e***e
发帖数: 3872 | 5 用兴许代替也许，读起来就会有一点原诗pun的感觉？
【在 n******8 的大作中提到】
: Song
: Christina Rossetti
: When I am dead, my dearest,
: Sing no sad songs for me;
: Plant thou no roses at my head,
: Nor shady cypress tree:
: Be the green grass above me
: With showers and dewdrops wet;
: And if thou wilt, remember,
: And if thou wilt, forget.
| n******8
发帖数: 558 | 6
a brilliant point! thanks etude
【在 e***e 的大作中提到】
: 用兴许代替也许，读起来就会有一点原诗pun的感觉？
| e***e
发帖数: 3872 | 7 A.S.Byatt的Possession里女诗人的原型就很Rossetti。书中Byatt按着她的风格写了好
多诗，比这首要“前拉”很多
【在 n******8 的大作中提到】
:
: a brilliant point! thanks etude
| n******8
发帖数: 558 | 8 "前拉“ 是什么意思？ ”Possession" 是一个穿越的电影吗？ 可能看过。 | e***e
发帖数: 3872 | 9 以她哥哥为代表的Pre-Raphael派。Possession小说得了1990年Man Booker奖，后来是
有改编过电影
【在 n******8 的大作中提到】
: "前拉“ 是什么意思？ ”Possession" 是一个穿越的电影吗？ 可能看过。
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