Emily-Dickinson诗歌赏析

①

I

’

m Nobody!

我是无名之辈

－

Emily Dickinson

I

’

m nobody! Who are you?

我是无名之辈！你是谁？

Are you nobody, too?

你也是无名之辈吗？

Then there

’

s a pair of us---- don

’

t tell!

那么我们就是一对儿了！千万不要透露出去

They

’

d banish us, you know!

不然我们都会被他们驱逐，你知道。

How dreary to be somebody!

做一个某某，是多么沉闷无聊

How public, like a frog

众人像是青蛙

To tell your name the livelong day

整日地把你谈论啊

To an admiring bog!

对着他们倾慕的泥沼

我是无名之辈

艾米莉

·

狄金森

我是无名之辈，你是谁？

你，也是，无名之辈？

这就凑成一双，别声张！

你知道，他们会大肆张扬！

做个，显要人物，好不无聊！

像个青蛙，向仰慕的泥沼

——

在整个六月，把个人的姓名

聒噪

——

何等招摇！

This poem is Dickinson

’

s most famous and most defense of the kind of spiritual

privacy she favored, implying that to be a Nobody is a luxury incomprehensible

to a dreary somebody

—

for they are too busy keeping their names in circulation.

But to be somebody is not as fancy as it seems to be.

Emily Dickinson

As you probably noticed when you read this poem, none of the themes that I

discussed in the Overview of Dickinson applies to this poem. My list was not

meant

to

cover

every

topic

Dickinson

wrote

on,

nor

does

every

poem

she

wrote fit neatly into a category.

Dickinson

adopts

the

persona

of

a

child

who

is

open,

naive,

and

innocent.

However, are the questions asked and the final statement made by this poem

naive?

If

they

are

not,

then

the

poem

is

ironic

because

of

the

discrepancy

between the persona's understanding and view and those of Dickinson and the

reader. Under the guise of the child's accepting society's values, is Dickinson

really rejecting those values?

Is

Dickinson

suggesting

that

the

true

somebody

is

really

the

The

child-speaker

welcomes

the

person

who

honestly

identifies

herself

and

who

has

a

true

identity.

These

qualities

make

that

person

in

society's

eyes.

To

be

is

to

have

status

in

society;

society,

the

majority,

excludes

or

rejects

those

who

lack

status

or

are

is,

banish us

In stanza 2, the child-speaker rejects the role of

The

frog

comparison

depicts

as

self-important

and

constantly

self-promoting.

She

also

shows

the

false

values

of

a

society

(the

bog

spongy

ground)

have

positive

or

negative

connotations?

What

qualities

are

associated with the sounds a frog makes (croaking)?

Is there satire in this poem?

Some readers, who are modest and self-effacing or who lack confidence, feel

validated by this poem. Why?

②

To Make

a Prairie…

To make a prairie

It takes a clover and one bee,

One clover and a bee,

And revery.

Revery alone will do,

If bees are few.

去造一个草原

张祈试译

去造一个草原

需要一株三叶草和一只蜜蜂，

一株三叶草和一只蜜蜂，

还有梦。

如果蜜蜂不多，

单靠梦也行。

Dickinson's

tiny

poem

makes a

huge

statement

about

the

nature

of musing,

day-dreaming, or as she puts it,

Analysis

This little poem expresses Dickinson’s continuing love affair with the spiritual

level of being. She begins by claiming that to ma

ke a physically large item, “a

prairie,” all one needs is two small physical items, “a clover and one bee.”

Then she qualifies that by saying, “One clover, and a bee / And revery”; then

she

qualifies

that

claim

further,

by

saying

if

you

don’t

have

one

of

those

physical components, “bees,” (and by implication, the clover as well), then you

can still make the prairie by revery alone.

“Revery”

means

dream,

thought,

extended

concentration

on

any

subject,

or

even

day- dreaming

wherein

the

mind

is

allowed

to

roam

free

over

the

landscape of unlimited expansion, but to the speaker in this poem, “revery” is

more like meditation which results in a true vision.

The

speaker’s

power

of

revery

demonstrates

an

advanced

achievement,

far

beyond

ordinary

day-dreaming

or

cogitation.

Ultimately,

this

speaker

is

claiming that without any physical objects at all, the mind of one advanced in

the art of revery can produce any object that mind desires.

③

Success Is Counted Sweetest

成功的含义

Success is counted sweetest

从未成功的人们

By those who ne'er succeed.

最懂得成功的甜美

.

To comprehend a nectar

惟有极度的渴求

Requires sorest need.

方能体会甘露的滋味

.

Not one of all the purple host

身穿紫服的王者之师

Who took the flag today

今日虽高扬凯旗

,

Can tell the definition,

却无一人能把胜利的含义