ode to the west wind

赏析 西风颂

Ode to the West Wind --Percy Bysshe Shelley

赏析 西风颂

作者简介 波西· 比希· 雪莱(1792-1822)出身于贵族家庭，1810年10月进入牛 津大学，半年后，因印发《无神论的必然性》(The Necessity of Atheism)小册子而被开除。离开学校后，雪莱来到伦敦，结识了哈 丽特(Harriat Westbrook)并与之结婚。1812年，雪莱到爱尔兰，为 激励爱尔兰人民争取自由而活动和写作。1814 年 7月雪莱与妻子哈 丽雅特分手，不久与玛丽· 戈德温(Marry Goldwin , 即著名女作家 Marry Shelley)结合。1818年，雪莱被迫离开英国，到意大利定居。 1822年，雪莱在海上遇难，时年30岁。雪莱一生创作勤奋，在去意 大利前创作的重要诗作有长诗《麦布女王》(Queen Mab, 1813)和 《伊斯兰的反叛》(The Revolt of Islam, 1817)。在意大利生活的 最后几年是他创作最旺盛的时期，他先后完成了诗剧《解放了的普罗 米修斯》(Prometheus Unbound, 1819)和《钦契》(The Cenci, 1819),以及悼念济慈的《阿多尼》(Adonais, 1821)等。 此外雪莱还创作了大量充满激情的政治诗歌和脍炙人口的抒情诗，如 《1819年的英国》(“England in 1819”, 1819)和《西风颂》 (“Ode to the West Wind”, 1819)等。雪莱的文论著作有《诗辩》 (A Defence of Poetry, 1821)。

赏析 西风颂

Ode to the West Wind 1 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 5 Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed The wingèd1 seeds, where they lie cold and low, Each like a corpse within its grave, until Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow Her clarion2 o'er the dreaming earth, and fill 10 (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, O hear!

赏析 西风颂

Summary, Stanza 1 Addressing the west wind as a human, the poet describes its activities: It drives dead leaves away as if they were ghosts fleeing a wizard. The leaves are yellow and black, pale and red, as if they had died of an infectious disease. The west wind carries seeds in its chariot and deposits them in the earth, where they lie until the spring wind awakens them by blowing on a trumpet (clarion). When they form buds, the spring wind spreads them over plains and on hills. In a paradox, the poet addresses the west wind as a destroyer and a preserver, then asks it to listen to what he says.

Notes, Stanza 1 1. The accent over the e in wingèd (line 7) causes the word to be pronounced in two syllables—the first stressed ....and the second unstressed—enabling the poet to maintain the metric scheme (iambic pentameter). 2. clarion: Trumpet.

赏析 西风颂

2 Thou on whose stream, 'mid the steep sk

y's commotion, 15 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 airy surge, Like the bright hair uplifted from the head 20

Of some fierce Mæ nad3, even from the dim verge Of the horizon to the zenith's height, The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge4Of the dying year, to which this closing night Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre, 25 Vaulted with all thy congregated5 might Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere Black rain, and fire, and hail, will burst: O hear!

赏析 西风颂

Summary, Stanza 2 The poet says the west wind drives clouds along just as it does dead leaves after it shakes the clouds free of the sky and the oceans. These clouds erupt with rain and lightning. Against the sky, the lightning appears as a bright shaft of hair from the head of a Mæ nad. The poet compares the west wind to a funeral song sung at the death of a year and says the night will become a dome erected over the year's tomb with all of the wind's gathered might. From that dome will come black rain, fire, and hail. Again the poet asks the west wind to continue to listen to what he has to say.

Notes, Stanza 2

3. Mæ nad: Wildly emotional woman who took part in the orgies of ....Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and revelry. 4. dirge: Funeral song. 5. congregated: Gathered, mustered.

赏析 西风颂

3 Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams The blue Mediterranean, where he lay, 30 Lull'd by the coil of his crystàlline6 streams, Beside a pumice isle in Baiæ 's bay, And saw in sleep old palaces and towers Quivering within the wave's intenser day,All overgrown with azure moss, and flowers 35 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 40

Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear, And tremble and despoil themselves:7 O hear!

赏析 西风颂

Summary, Stanza 3At the beginning of autumn, the poet says, the the west wind awakened the Mediterranean Sea—lulled by the sound of the clear streams flowing into it—from summer slumber near an island formed from pumice (hardened lava). The island is in a bay at Baiae, a city in western Italy about ten miles west of Naples. While sleeping at this locale, the Mediterranean saw old palaces and towers that had collapsed into the sea during an earthquake and became overgrown with moss and flowers. To create a path for the west wind, the powers of the mighty Atlantic Ocean divide (cleave) themselves and flow through chasms. Deep beneath the ocean surface, flowers and foliage, upon hearing the west wind, quake in fear and despoil themselves. (In autumn, ocean plants decay like land plants. See Shelley's note on this subject.) Once more, the poet asks the west wind to continue to listen to what he has to say.

赏析 西风颂

Notes, Stanza 36. The a

ccent over the a in crystàlline shifts the stress to the second syllable, making crystàl an iamb. 7. In his notes, Shelley commented on lines 38-42: The phenomenon alluded to at the end of the third stanza is well known to naturalists. The vegetation at the bottom of the sea, of rivers, and of lakes, sympathizes with that of the land in the change of seasons, and is consequently influenced by the winds announce it.(Shelley 239)

赏析 西风颂

4 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 45 The impulse of thy strength, only less free Than thou, O uncontrollable! if even I were as in my boyhood, and could beThe comrade of thy wanderings over heaven, As then, when to outstrip thy skiey8 speed 50 Scarce seem'd a vision—I would ne'er have striven As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need. O! 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 55 One too like thee—tameless, and swift, and proud.

赏析 西风颂

Summary, Stanza 4

The poet says that if he were a dead leaf (like the ones in the first stanza) or a cloud (like the ones in the second stanza) or an ocean wave that rides the power of the Atlantic but is less free than the uncontrollable west wind—or if even he were as strong and vigorous as he was when he was a boy and could accompany the wandering wind in the heavens and could only dream of traveling faster—well, then, he would never have prayed to the west wind as he is doing now in his hour of need. .......Referring again to imagery in the first three stanzas, the poet asks the wind to lift him as it would a wave, a leaf, or a cloud; for here on earth he is experiencing troubles that prick him like thorns and cause him to bleed. He is now carrying a heavy burden that—though he is proud and tameless and swift like the west wind—has immobilized him in chains and bowed him down.

赏析 西风颂

Notes, Stanza 48. Skiey is a neologism (coined word) whose two syllables maintain iambic pentameter. The s in skiey alliterates with the s in speed, ....scarce, seem'd, and striven.

赏析 西风颂

5 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, 60 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, 65 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! O Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? 70

赏析 西风颂

Summary, Stanza 5

The poet asks the west wind to turn him into a lyre (a stringed instrument) in the same way that the west wind's mighty currents turn the forest into a lyre. And if the poet's leaves blow in the wind like those from the fore

st trees, there will be heard a deep autumnal tone that is both sweet and sad. Be "my spirit," the poet implores the wind. "Be thou me" and drive my dead thoughts (like the dead leaves) across the universe in order to prepare the way for new birth in the spring. The poet asks the wind to scatter his words around the world, as if they were ashes from a burning fire. To the unawakened earth, they will become blasts from a trumpet of prophecy. In other words, the poet wants the wind to help him disseminate his views on politics, philosophy, literature, and so on. The poet is encouraged that, although winter will soon arrive, spring and rebirth will follow it.

赏析 西风颂

第一节 啊，狂野的西风，你把秋气猛吹， 不露脸便将落叶一扫而空， 犹如法师赶走了群鬼， 赶走那黄绿红黑紫的一群， 那些染上了瘟疫的魔怪—— 呵，你让种子长翅腾空， 又落在冰冷的土壤里深埋， 象尸体躺在坟墓，但一朝 你那青色的东风妹妹回来， 为沉睡的大地吹响银号， 驱使羊群般蓓蕾把大气猛喝， 就吹出遍野嫩色，处处香飘。 狂野的精灵！你吹遍了大地山河， 破坏者，保护者，听吧——听我的歌！

赏析 西风颂

第二节 你激荡长空，乱云飞坠 如落叶；你摇撼天和海， 不许它们象老树缠在一堆； 你把雨和电赶了下来， 只见蓝空上你驰骋之处 忽有万丈金发披开， 象是酒神的女祭司勃然大怒， 愣把她的长发遮住了半个天， 将暴风雨的来临宣布。 你唱着挽歌送别残年， 今夜这天空宛如圆形的大墓， 罩住了混浊的云雾一片， 却挡不住电火和冰雹的突破， 更有黑雨倾盆而下！呵，听我的歌！

赏析 西风颂

第三节 你惊扰了地中海的夏日梦， 它在清澈的碧水里静躺， 听着波浪的催眠曲，睡意正浓， 朦胧里它看见南国港外石岛旁， 烈日下古老的宫殿和楼台 把影子投在海水里晃荡， 它们的墙上长满花朵和藓苔， 那香气光想想也叫人醉倒！ 你的来临叫大西洋也惊骇， 它忙把海水劈成两半，为你开道， 海地下有琼枝玉树安卧， 尽管深潜万丈，一听你的怒号 就闻声而变色，只见一个个 战栗，畏缩——呵，听我的歌！

赏析 西风颂

第四节 如果我能是一片落叶随你飘腾， 如果我能是一朵流云伴你飞行， 或是一个浪头在你的威力下翻滚， 如果我能有你的锐势和冲劲， 即使比不上你那不羁的奔放， 但只要能拾回我当年的童心， 我就能陪着你遨游天上， 那时候追上你未必是梦呓， 又何至沦落到这等颓丧， 祈求你来救我之急！ 呵，卷走我吧，象卷落叶，波浪，流云！ 我跌在人生的刺树上，我血流遍体！ 岁月沉重如铁链，压着的灵魂 原本同你一样，高傲，飘逸，不驯。

赏析 西风颂

第五节 让我做你的竖琴吧，就同森林一般， 纵然我们都落叶纷纷，又有何妨！ 我

们身上的秋色斑烂， 好给你那狂飚曲添上深沉的回响， 甜美而带苍凉。给我你迅猛的劲头！ 豪迈的精灵，化成我吧，借你的锋芒， 把我的腐朽思想扫出宇宙， 扫走了枯叶好把新生来激发； 凭着我这诗韵做符咒， 犹如从未灭的炉头吹出火花， 把我的话散布在人群之中！ 对那沉睡的大地，拿我的嘴当喇叭， 吹响一个预言！呵，西风， 如果冬天已到，难道春天还用久等？

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