評(píng)論
打印
Books and arts;book review;
文藝；書評(píng)；
James Fenton's poetry;Flower power;
詹姆士.芬頓的詩；詩歌的力量；
A modern master goes from strength to strength;
一位逐漸成長起來的當(dāng)代詩壇巨匠；
"Yellow Tulips"poem;by JAMES FENTON；
詩集《黃色郁金香》；詹姆斯.芬頓著；
JAMES FENTON has led a busy life. In the late 1970s, while an undergraduate at Oxford University, he began his career in journalism: as a book reviewer, then as a war reporter, a foreign correspondent, a theatre critic and now as a popular commentator on American politics. From 1994 until 1999 he was Oxford professor of poetry and, more lucratively, wrote an early libretto for “Les Miserables”, the hit musical of Victor Hugo's sprawling novel. During all this time, he has also written poetry.
詹姆斯.芬頓的人生極為豐富。20世紀(jì)70年代后期,詹姆斯.芬頓還只是牛津大學(xué)在讀大學(xué)生時(shí),就開始了他的新聞事業(yè)：書評(píng)撰稿人、戰(zhàn)地記者、駐外通訊記者、戲劇批評(píng)家，而現(xiàn)在他是著名的美國政治時(shí)事評(píng)論員。1994年至1999年間，詹姆斯.芬頓任牛津大學(xué)教授,主講詩學(xué)。而且他曾為維克多.雨果的長篇巨作《悲慘世界》的音樂劇寫過劇本，該音樂劇風(fēng)靡一時(shí)，芬頓獲利頗豐。在此期間,他亦有寫詩。
Covering the period from 1968 to 2011, “Yellow Tulips”, Mr Fenton's latest collection of new and previously published poems, traces his constant movement from place to place. In many respects it is remarkable that these poems were written at all. Some were composed after Mr Fenton fled from Cambodia in 1975, just before it fell to the Khmer Rouge, or in Hong Kong, Germany and the Philippines, where he was posted on various assignments. They feature downtrodden hotels or bars, diplomatic dinners and country estates, reflecting the life of a journalist who finds himself continually displaced. He describes student hangovers and heartbreak (and shows the uncanny similarities between the two). But his most common theme is combat, and how it affects those who have the least say in it, “those whom geography condemns to war”.
芬頓的最新詩集《黃色郁金香》收錄了他1968年至2011年間出版的新舊詩篇，從這些詩，我們可以看到他在這段時(shí)間輾轉(zhuǎn)于不同地方的經(jīng)歷。從很多方面來說，能寫出這樣的詩本身便是很神奇的。一些詩歌是在芬頓1975年逃離柬埔寨之后創(chuàng)作的，也就是紅色高棉事件發(fā)生之前，一些是香港、德國和菲律賓寫的。他曾因各種原因被派到這些地方。這些詩歌以那些被剝削壓迫的小旅館或酒吧，外交晚宴還有鄉(xiāng)村莊園為背景，反映了詩人長期背井離鄉(xiāng)的記者生涯。他描述了學(xué)生的宿醉與心碎（并且在他的詩間，我們可見兩者之間離奇的相似之處）。而芬頓最常寫的其實(shí)是“戰(zhàn)爭”，以及那些在戰(zhàn)爭中最沒發(fā)言權(quán)的人們，“那些人為艱苦的地理環(huán)境所迫，不得不選擇戰(zhàn)爭”。
Mr Fenton describes visiting an orphanage of exiled Cambodian children, each “caught in the tight security of grief”. He writes from the perspective of a 16-year-old soldier in Phnom Penh, his verse suddenly bristling with danger. His poetry waits “for reinforcements to arrive” or remembers “drivers, interpreters” and how “Death waved them through the checkpoint. They were lost.” On the whole, he manages to tackle these political themes without descending into sentimentality.
芬頓描繪了他在一家收容那些流亡的柬埔寨孤兒的孤兒院的所見所聞，在那里，每個(gè)人都被憂傷所纏繞。他從一位柬埔寨金邊的16歲戰(zhàn)士的視角切入，整首詩彌漫著一種危險(xiǎn)的氣息。他的詩描繪了他們是如何等待救兵，回憶了他們的司機(jī)和翻譯，講述了“他們?nèi)绾卧陉P(guān)卡死里逃生。那時(shí)他們已經(jīng)迷路啦。”概言之，芬頓在處理這些政治主題時(shí)成功地沒有陷入到情緒化的漩渦當(dāng)中。
Instead, there is a constant satirical edge, and a certain bite to his tightly rhythmic verse. A keen observer, his poetry excels in the minute description, and the audacity of a rhyming phrase: “Tiananmen/ Is broad and clean/And you can't tell/Where the dead have been.” Often impersonating the voices of others, Mr Fenton revels in using the forms of narrative poems or ballads, taking these older poetic structures and bringing them up to date.
相反，他的詩節(jié)奏緊湊，往往似諷非諷。讀者如果足夠敏銳，便會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)他的細(xì)節(jié)描寫極為杰出，且敢于用押韻的詞句：“天安門廣場，潔凈而寬敞，難以分辨，亡者曾幾何處葬。”芬頓善用敘事詩或者情詩的形式，擬聲的手法，將舊的詩歌形式適用于新的時(shí)代，來表達(dá)自己的思想。
However, some of his poems are less powerful. Mr Fenton's early love poetry, in particular, lacks the wit of his later work, and his political statements are occasionally rather crude: “Blank terror doth stalk/ The poets of New York.” This is a shame; the many fine poems in the collection stand proud on their own.
但他的一部分詩卻有些軟綿綿的。尤其是他早期的愛情詩，不及他后期作品來得靈動(dòng)。而且他言及政治時(shí)，偶有粗魯處：“極度的恐慌驚擾了紐約的詩人們。”這是一種缺憾吧，但那些收到了詩集里的好詩，數(shù)目眾多，卓然于世。
Mr Fenton's recent work is particularly good. More contemplative and meditative, poems such as “At the Kerb”, which is dedicated to Mick Imlah, a British poet who died at 52 in 2009 of motor neurone disease, show the more mature side of Mr Fenton's voice.
芬頓先生的近期作品尤是優(yōu)異，其思想愈見成熟，亦更見深度，便如他獻(xiàn)給英國詩人米克.伊姆拉的《在路邊石》。米克.伊姆拉因運(yùn)動(dòng)神經(jīng)疾病，卒于2009年，享年52歲。于此詩間，我們可見芬頓詩歌更為成熟的一面。
Brutal disease has numbered him a victim,
殘虐的病魔，數(shù)次糾纏，
As if some unmarked car had appeared one day
仿若哪一日不知什么車便會(huì)出現(xiàn)，
And snatched him off to torture and confinem
抓他去囚禁、折磨，
Then dumped him by the kerbside and sped away
繼而揚(yáng)長而去，棄他于路邊。
Such moments are startling and help Mr Fenton's simple lyricism achieve a certain vivid gracefulness. The 17 recent poems that make up the last section of “Yellow Tulips” show the development of a compelling poetic voice. Most important, they suggest that there is more to come.
詩中的情境令人揪心，因之芬頓簡單的抒情詩卻取得了某種生動(dòng)雅致。《黃色郁金香》最后一章節(jié)由十七首他近期創(chuàng)作的詩構(gòu)成，從這些詩我們可見詩人愈見迷人的詩歌語言。更為重要的是，這些美妙的詩句間隱隱暗示著更深層的內(nèi)涵。
