有两段我觉得张子清译得特别好的,中文很直白地体现出了艾略特的语言风格,摘录一下:
“不运动的升华,无淘汰的提纯,
新世界和旧世界
在获得其部分的喜悦里,
在克服其部分的恐惧里,得到明确的和解。”
“Erhebung without motion, concentration
Without elimination, both a new world
And the old made explicit, understood
In the completion of its partial ecstasy,
The resolution of its partial horror.”
”欲望的本身是运动
欲望的本身不值得向往;
爱本身不是运动,
仅仅是运动的起因和目的,
无限与无欲
除了在时间范畴里
以有限的形式
限制在非存在与存在之间。”
“Desire itself is movement
Not in itself desirable;
Love is itself unmoving,
Only the cause and end of movement,
Timeless, and undesiring
Except in the aspect of time
Caught in the form of limitation
Between in-being and being.”
还有很多我很喜欢艾略特的选段,是我觉得英文已经足够凝练易懂了,无需翻译阻碍理解,如下:
“At the still point of the turning world. Nether flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.”
还有两句特别喜欢的:
“The way upward and the way downward
Is one and the same”
“向上的路和向下的路是完全一样的”
“This is the one way, and the other
Is the same, not in movement
But abstention from movement; while the world moves
In appetency, on its metaled ways
Of time past and time future”
会让我想起薇依在《重负与神恩》里,谈到善有两种:绝对的善是只有上帝才能达到的;与恶相反的善才是普通人能够达到的,后者是低下的。
艾略特在四个四重奏里说,天堂与地狱都不是人类的血肉可以承受得了的。我们既达不到绝对的善、也达不到绝对的恶,我们只是相对地活着。