《西風(fēng)頌》是雪萊“三大頌”詩歌中的一首,寫于1819年。這首詩是詩人“驕傲、輕捷而不馴的靈魂”的自白,是時代精神的寫照。詩共分5節(jié),每節(jié)的韻腳安排是:aba,bcb,cdc,ded,ee。這里,西風(fēng)已經(jīng)成了一種象征,它是一種無處不在的宇宙精神,一種打破舊世界,追求新世界的西風(fēng)精神。詩人以西風(fēng)自喻,表達(dá)了自己對生活的信念和向舊世界宣戰(zhàn)的決心。
Ode to the West Wind
I 第一節(jié)
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow
Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
With living hues and odours plain and hill:
Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh hear!
不露臉便將落葉一掃而空,
猶如法師趕走了群鬼,
趕走那黃綠紅黑紫的一群,
那些染上了瘟疫的魔怪——
呵,你讓種子長翅騰空,
又落在冰冷的土壤里深埋,
象尸體躺在墳?zāi)梗怀?/p>
你那青色的東風(fēng)妹妹回來,
為沉睡的大地吹響銀號,
驅(qū)使羊群般蓓蕾把大氣猛喝,
就吹出遍野嫩色,處處香飄。
狂野的精靈!你吹遍了大地山河,
破壞者,保護(hù)者,聽吧——聽我的歌!
II 第二節(jié)
Thou on whose stream, mid the steep sky's commotion,
Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed,
Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean,
Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread
On the blue surface of thine aery surge,
Like the bright hair uplifted from the head
Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge
Of the horizon to the zenith's height,
The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge
Of the dying year, to which this closing night
Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre,
Vaulted with all thy congregated might
Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere
Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: oh hear!
如落葉;你搖撼天和海,
不許它們象老樹纏在一堆;
你把雨和電趕了下來,
只見藍(lán)空上你馳騁之
忽有萬丈金發(fā)披開,
象是酒神的女祭司勃然大怒
愣把她的長發(fā)遮住了半個天,
將暴風(fēng)雨的來臨宣布。
你唱著挽歌送別殘年
今夜這天空宛如圓形的大墓
罩住了混濁的云霧一片,
卻擋不住電火和冰雹的突破,
更有黑雨傾盆而下!呵,聽我的歌!
III 第三節(jié)
Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams
The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,
Lull'd by the coil of his crystalline streams,
Beside a pumice isle in Baiae's bay,
And saw in sleep old palaces and tower
Quivering within the wave's intenser day,
All overgrown with azure moss and flowers
So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou
For whose path the Atlantic's level powers
Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below
The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear
The sapless foliage of the ocean, know
Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear,
And tremble and despoil themselves: oh hear!
你驚擾了地中海的夏日夢,
它在清澈的碧水里靜躺,
聽著波浪的催眠曲,睡意正濃
朦朧里它看見南國港外石島旁
烈日下古老的宮殿和樓臺
把影子投在海水里晃蕩,
它們的墻上長滿花朵和蘚苔,
那香氣光想想也叫人醉倒!
你的來臨叫大西洋也驚駭
它忙把海水劈成兩半,為你開道,
海地下有瓊枝玉樹安臥,
盡管深潛萬丈,一聽你的怒號
就聞聲而變色,只見一個個
戰(zhàn)栗,畏縮——呵,聽我的歌!
IV 第四節(jié)
If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;
If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;
A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share
The impulse of thy strength, only less free
Than thou, O uncontrollable! If even
I were as in my boyhood, and could be
The comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven,
As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed
Scarce seem'd a vision; I would ne'er have striven
As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!
A heavy weight of hours has chain'd and bow'd
One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.
如果我能是一片落葉隨你飄騰,
如果我能是一朵流云伴你飛行,
或是一個浪頭在你的威力下翻滾,
如果我能有你的銳勢和沖勁,
即使比不上你那不羈的奔放,
但只要能拾回我當(dāng)年的童心,
我就能陪著你遨游天上,
那時候追上你未必是夢囈,
又何至淪落到這等頹喪,
祈求你來救我之急!
呵,卷走我吧,象卷落葉,波浪,流云!
我跌在人生的刺樹上,我血流遍體!
歲月沉重如鐵鏈,壓著的靈魂
原本同你一樣,高傲,飄逸,不馴。
V 第五節(jié)
Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
What if my leaves are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies
Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,
Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,
My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!
Drive my dead thoughts over the universe
Like wither'd leaves to quicken a new birth!
And, by the incantation of this verse,
Scatter, as from an unextinguish'd hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawaken'd earth
The trumpet of a prophecy! Oh Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
縱然我們都落葉紛紛,又有何妨!
我們身上的秋色斑爛,
好給你那狂飚曲添上深沉的回響,
甜美而帶蒼涼。給我你迅猛的勁頭!
豪邁的精靈,化成我吧,借你的鋒芒,
把我的腐朽思想掃出宇宙,
掃走了枯葉好把新生來激發(fā);
憑著我這詩韻做符咒,
猶如從未滅的爐頭吹出火花,
把我的話散布在人群之中!
對那沉睡的大地,拿我的嘴當(dāng)喇叭,
吹響一個預(yù)言!呵,西風(fēng),
如果冬天已到,難道春天還用久等?
寫作背景
《西風(fēng)頌》雪萊“三大頌”詩歌中的一首,寫于1819年。[1]當(dāng)時,歐洲各國的工人運動和革命運動風(fēng)起云涌。英國工人階級為了爭取自身的生存權(quán)利,正同資產(chǎn)階級展開英勇的斗爭,搗毀機(jī)器和罷工事件接連不斷。1819年8月,曼徹斯特八萬工人舉行了聲勢浩大的游行示威,反動當(dāng)局竟出動軍隊野蠻鎮(zhèn)壓,制造了歷史上著名的彼得盧大屠殺事件。雪萊滿懷悲憤,寫下了長詩《暴政的假面游行》,對資產(chǎn)階級政府的血腥暴行提出嚴(yán)正抗議。法國自拿破侖帝制崩潰、波旁王朝復(fù)辟以后,階級矛盾異常尖銳,廣大人民正醞釀著反對封建復(fù)辟勢力的革命斗爭。拿破侖帝國的解體也大大促進(jìn)了西班牙人民反對異族壓迫和封建專制的革命運動,1819年1月,終于響起了武裝起義的槍聲。就在武裝起義的前夕,海涅給西班牙人民獻(xiàn)上了《頌歌》一首,為西班牙革命吹響了進(jìn)軍的號角。在意大利和希臘,民族解放運動方興未艾,雪萊的《西風(fēng)頌》發(fā)表不久,這兩個國家也先后爆發(fā)了轟轟烈烈的武裝起義。面對著歐洲山雨欲來風(fēng)滿樓的革命形勢,雪萊為之鼓舞,為之振奮,詩人胸中沸騰著熾熱的革命激情。這時,在一場暴風(fēng)驟雨的自然景象的觸發(fā)下,這種難以抑制的革命激情立刻沖出胸膛,一瀉千里,化作激昂慷慨的歌唱。這時詩人正旅居意大利,處于創(chuàng)作的高峰期。這首詩可以說是詩人“驕傲、輕捷而不馴的靈魂”的自白,是時代精神的寫照。詩人憑借自己的詩才,借助自然的精靈讓自己的生命與鼓蕩的西風(fēng)相呼相應(yīng),用氣勢恢宏的篇章唱出了生命的旋律和心靈的狂舞。