【解读】麦克白3 语言特色：“明天、明天、明天”

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Macbeth Part III - Speeches and analysis

《麦克白》第三部分—台词和分析

Many of the powerful questions raised by Macbeth arise from the way that Shakespeare uses language. In this episode we’ll hear Shakespearean actors performing some key speeches from the play. And then Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Oxford, will discuss the language and themes of the speeches.

《麦克白》这部戏剧提出的许多问题之所以如此震撼人心，主要源自莎士比亚对语言的巧妙运用。本集节目中，我们将会听到莎士比亚戏剧演员们表演的一些重要台词。牛津大学莎士比亚研究所的艾玛·史密斯教授将和我们一同探讨这些台词的语言和主题。

The first speech we’ll hear is from Act 1, when Macbeth is first contemplating the idea of killing Duncan.

我们即将听到的第一段台词选自第一幕，此时麦克白第一次开始认真思考谋杀国王邓肯这个主意。

1. Macbeth

1.《麦克白》

a. Macbeth, 1.7.1-28, “If it were done … And falls on th’ other”

a. 麦克白，第一幕，第七场，第1-28行，“要是干了以后就完了……却不顾一切地驱使我去冒颠簸的危险。”

MACBETH If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well

麦克白：要是干了以后就完了，

It were done quickly. If th’ assassination

那么还是快一点儿干；要是凭着暗杀的手段，

Could up the consequence and catch

可以攫取

With his surcease success, that but this blow

美满的结果；要是这一刀砍下去，

Might be the be-all and the end-all here,

就可以完成一切，终结一切；

But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,

解决一块——在这人世上，仅仅在这人世上，在时间的激流浅滩上，

We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases

那么来生我也就顾不到了。可是在这种事情上，

We still have judgment here, that we but teach

我们往往可以看见冥冥中的裁判；教唆杀人的人

Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return

结果反而自己被人所杀；

To plague th’ inventor. This even-handed justice

把毒药投入酒杯里的人，

Commends th’ ingredience of our poisoned chalice

结果也会自己

To our own lips. He’s here in double trust:

饮鸩而死。他到这儿来是有两重的信任：

First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,

第一，我是他的同族，又是他的臣子，

Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,

按照名分绝对不能干这样的事；第二，他是我的主人，

Who should against his murderer shut the door,

我应当保障他的身体安全，

Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan

怎么可以自己持刀行刺？而且，这个邓肯

Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been

秉性仁慈，处理国政从来没有过失，

So clear in his great office, that his virtues

要是把他杀死了，他生前的美德，

Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against

将要像天使一般发出喇叭一样清澈的声音，

The deep damnation of his taking-off;

向世人昭告我的弑君重罪；

And pity, like a naked newborn babe

“怜悯”像一个赤裸身体的婴儿，

Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin horsed

在狂风中飘荡，又像一个天婴，

Upon the sightless couriers of the air,

御气而行，

Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,

将要把这可憎的行为揭露在每一个人的眼中，

That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur

使眼泪淹没了叹息。没有一种力量

To prick the sides of my intent, but only

可以鞭策我前进，可是

Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself

我跃跃欲试的野心，却不顾一切地

And falls on th’ other—

驱使我去冒颠簸的危险。

Emma Smith: Everything in Macbeth is about time and speed. I think that's the kind of macro level. This is a relatively short play. It's a play which moves along pretty quickly. It's a play which doesn't dilly dally with any side plots or kind of parallel plots. It's where there we get going with the murder of Duncan. Straight, straight up. As soon as we kind of hit the blocks, we don't have that opening scene where someone says, you know, well, what do you think about this? We're right in there with that. With the which is this, there's something very kind of dynamic and streamlined and breathless about this play. And speed is one of its main characteristics.

艾玛·史密斯：《麦克白》这部戏剧的一切都与时间和速度有关。我觉得这是一种宏观的层面。《麦克白》是一部相对较短的戏剧，故事发展相当快，没有磨蹭的支线情节或平行情节。在这一段台词中，我们第一次了解到麦克白想要谋杀国王邓肯的这个想法，非常直接。戏剧才开始没多久，我们就来到了最核心的点上，没有开场白，没有人预先说“你对此有什么看法？”之类的废话。我们直接面对的就是问题本身。这段台词中包含着某种动态的内容，简单明了，但同时又令人紧张到无法呼吸。节奏发展快是这部戏剧的一个主要特点。

Emma Smith: And all these ideas about time are kind of whirling, whirling, whirling around this play. And perhaps one of the most amazing things about Shakespeare's writing is how these large themes seem to be distilled into the other level of the line or the level of the word.

艾玛·史密斯：这部戏剧中所有与时间相关的概念都在快速、快速、快速地运转着。莎士比亚写作最令人惊叹的一点也许就在于他能把这些宏大的主题凝练地写成句子，用一个个字词把这些主题表达出来。

This characteristic short wait or condensation or contraction of particular words that losing out of syllables, the replacement of nouns with it, or that these short kind of monosyllables, there's a sense that the language doesn't always have time to explain itself, doesn't always have time to set out the parameters. Very clearly we feel as if we're in the middle of a thought already and we're trying desperately to catch up.

这些特定的单词短小、紧凑而且凝练，甚至还会省略音节，它们有时还能替换名词。这些短小的单音节词，这让人感觉剧中的语言总是没有足够的解释时间，没有足够的时间来确定界限。我们可以非常清晰地感觉到自己已置身于思想的最核心位置，需要竭尽所能去追上故事的发展节奏。

Macbeth first soliloquy is a really good example of that. “If it were done, when it is done, then for well, it were done quickly.” So firstly, what is this it. I mean, we've got a sense of it, but he doesn't tell us what it is. All these monosyllables, if it were done when it is done, then well, it were done by a sequence of monosyllables. They move really quickly, move through those and that move off your lips really fast. The line speeds up and then “’tis” and “’twere” are they should be two syllables. Shouldn't that. They should be "it is" and "it were". But the such a kind of pressure on this language that it can't doesn't have time for that. So we're all kind of haste rush rushing and rushing and rushing. So even at a moment of sort of contemplation and reflection, which is how we think of soliloquy, nothing's actually happening here except for speech.

麦克白的这第一段台词就很好地体现了这一点。“要是干了以后就完了，那么还是快一点儿干”。首先，这里究竟是要“干”什么？我的意思是，我们可以感觉到他要“干”一些事情，但是麦克白却没有明说要“干”什么。这句话中全是单音节词“要是干了以后就完了，那么……”,这在英语里都是单音节词。读起来非常快，一个接着一个，你的嘴唇可以飞快地读出这些词。速度越来越快，接着就是“是”和“就”，它们其实应该是两个音节，对吧？它们应该是“这是”和“就会”。但是由于语言上的紧迫性，以致于没有时间完整说出这些词。我们赶呀赶呀赶呀，一直在向前冲。即便是在思考的时候，在这些独白中，角色仅仅只说了这段台词，并没有真的做什么事情。

That speech is under it issues out it under pressure, as if it's come out from a kind of valve or something. It's kind of spurt spurting out in this very sort of powerful and energetic way.

那段台词是在，是在压力下说出来的，一个个单词好像是从阀门中冲出，喷涌而来，强大又有活力。

Another significant aspect of this speech, as we discussed in the last episode, is the way Macbeth avoids acknowledging the murder by refusing to name it.

关于这段台词还有一个很重要的方面，就是我们在上集节目中谈到的，麦克白一直拒绝直接说出“谋杀”这个词，企图以此逃避，否认自己的谋杀罪行。

Emma Smith: There's a moment when the witches ask each other, what is it you do a deed without a name and that deed without a name feels as if it's the governs. A lot of the language of the play. It can't be spoken. Words can't be spoken to describe at the murder of Duncan.

艾玛·史密斯：剧中曾出现过这么一个场景，女巫们相互询问，“如果你做了一件没有名字的事，而这件没有名字的事似乎又在支配着你，这是什么一种感觉？”这部戏剧中，有很多这一类的语言，这些话无法用言语表达。言语都无法形容谋杀国王邓肯这件事。

Language is sort of inadequate to approach what's happening. Macbeth can't say to himself what he's doing. And when he does, he uses this extraordinarily unfamiliar word, assassination. Now we associate assassination with the murder, the murder of an important figure, the murder of a king. It doesn't seem to really mean that then it just means a sort of commission of an action. But it's a word that you would not use at the beginning of the 17th century if you wanted to be clear about what you were saying. It's a word that's often the case with Shakespeare's multisyllabic words, difficult words, Latin at words, long words. They're often being used actually when characters are trying to stand on a kind of dignity or trying to make actually rather mean and dirty things that they're doing somehow more elevated or more distanced. And I think that's what assassination is doing here. Macbeth saying if he is, what he's going to do is just stab a defenseless man in his bed. That's really that's what he's planning to do. And he's either trying to avoid that by the language he uses or he's trying to disguise it by making it into this extraordinary word, "assassination".

从某种程度上说，语言不足以形容正在发生的事情。麦克白没有勇气说出自己正在做什么，他在谈论这件事时，用了一个相当陌生的词“暗杀”（assassination）。我们现在会将“暗杀”（assassination）和“谋杀”（murder）联系在一起。但在17世纪初，在莎士比亚那个年代，你如果想清楚地表达“谋杀”这个动作的话，你是不会用这个词的。它算是莎士比亚所使用的一个多音节难词了，毕竟它是个很长的拉丁语单词。句中角色一般会使用这种类型的单词来凸显自身的尊贵，或是拔高、拉远自己和自己正在做的那些特别卑鄙无耻的事情之间的距离。我觉得这正是“暗杀”（assassination）一词在这里所发挥的作用。麦克白要去刺杀一个在睡梦中毫无防备的人。这是他的真正计划，但是他要么通过语言表达来逃避，要么用“暗杀”这类很不寻常的词来进行掩饰自己的行为。

Like her husband, Lady Macbeth uses language in a way that avoids naming exactly what they are about to do. Here’s her speech from Act I, just after she has read Macbeth’s letter saying that the witches have prophesied that he will be king.

麦克白夫人和她的丈夫一样不敢明确说出他们计划要去做的事情。下面这段麦克白夫人的台词也选自第一幕，此时麦克白夫人刚刚读完麦克白的来信，得知女巫们预言自己的丈夫将会当上国王。

b. * Lady Macbeth, 1.5.15-34, “Glamis thou art … To have thee crowned withal.”

b. *麦克白夫人，第一幕，第五场，第15-34行, “你现在已经……把黄金的宝冠罩在你的头上。”

LADY MACBETH Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be

麦克白夫人：你现在已经一身兼葛莱密斯和考特两个显爵，

What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature;

将来也会达到预言所告诉你的那样高位。可是我却为你的天性忧虑：

It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness

它充满了太多的人情的乳臭，

To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great,

使你不敢采取最近的捷径；你希望做一个伟大的人物，

Art not without ambition, but without

你不是没有野心，可是你却缺少

The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly,

和那种野心相联署的奸恶；你欲望很大，

That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false

但又希望用正直的手段，一方面不愿玩弄奸诈，

And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou ’dst have, great Glamis,

一方面却要作非分的攫夺；伟大的爵士，

That which cries “Thus thou must do,” if thou have it,

你想要的那东西正在喊：“你要到手，就得这样干！

And that which rather thou dost fear to do,

你也不是不肯这样干，而是怕干。”

Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither,

赶快回来吧，让我

That I may pour my spirits in thine ear

把我的精神倾注在你的耳中；

And chastise with the valor of my tongue

让我用舌尖的勇气，

All that impedes thee from the golden round,

把那阻止你得到那顶王冠的一切障碍驱扫一空吧，

Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem

命运和玄奇的力量分明已经准备，

To have thee crowned withal.

把黄金的宝冠罩在你的头上。

Emma Smith: So this speech from Lady Macbeth is just immediately after she's read Macbeth's letter. This is the first time actually we really meet her in the play. So it's a time we'd be listening really closely, actually, to what she says about herself, really what she reveals about herself and what she reveals about the plot. It's great to see how she immediately gets to grips with what's at stake in what the witches have prophesied. “Glamis Thou Art and Cawdor and shout Be What Thou Art promised”. But one of the things I really noticed here is, this is a feature of the play more generally there are nouns that are unsayable and they are avoided or evaded by using pronouns. So what "thou art" promised is really you know, the third leg in that those prophecies is king. And even as Lady Macbeth is sort of thinking her way round, how that's going to be, she can't say that. She can't. She can't quite say the word. And we see that as we go through this speech, that there's a lot of pronouns that are not completely clear. It's not completely clear what the governing noun is that can't be spoken. If we just skip a couple of lines or come back, but “what would how highly that wouldst thou wholely would not play false and yet wouldst wrongly win a couple of things”.

艾玛·史密斯：麦克白夫人一读完麦克白的来信后，就说了这段台词。这里是麦克白夫人在剧中的首次正式登场，因此我们会很仔细地去听她是如何表达自己、展现自己，看看她如何揭示戏剧情节的发展。我们很惊喜地看到，她读完信后立刻就领会到了女巫预言的关键。“你现在已经一身兼葛莱密斯和考特两个显爵，将来也会达到预言所告诉你的那样高位。”我真正关注的一点，也是这部戏剧的一个特点，就是在这部戏剧中，有很多剧中人物说不出口的名词，它们常常被代词所替代。“预言所告诉你的那样高位”其实就是那一系列预言中的第三条，当上国王。但是即便麦克白夫人已经开始思考谋划如何实现这一预言了，她也不敢直接把件事说出来，她不敢说出那个词。纵观这整段台词，我们可以发现里面有很多指代不清的代词。我们不能完全确定这个不能说出的名词究竟是什么。或者我们先跳过几行等会再看回来，我们先去看那一句“你欲望很大，但又希望用正直的手段，一方面不愿玩弄奸诈，一方面却要作非分的攫夺”。

That one is it. It's again, unable to speak. What are the stakes here? It's doing it in this circumlocutory way. And related to that, I think is this an extraordinary quality in the language of Macbeth, of condensation and compression. So there are lots of you can see this in the printed text of the play where there's an apostrophe and elision mark it in a word, and that suggests that it's being contracted down, say, to one syllable or something that is being crushed together. It relates to a wider theme of speed and haste and the kind of energy of the play that does not even really time to spell out all the syllables we've got to keep going. It's a kind of headlong pace, structural pace, plotted pace, but also metrical pace in the very lines themselves. So that quality of evasion, the quality of compression. And I guess the last point I'd want to make about, about this speech is that the parallel. No. So the last point I'd want to make about this speech is the contrast between very everyday domestic kinds of language and this very high, abstract, poetic kind of speech.

这句也一样，我们又一次看到了主角们无法说出口的内容。这句话的重点是什么？它迂回曲折地表达了核心思想。我觉得这与《麦克白》这部戏剧中话语所包含的信息量有关，这部剧的语言质量很高，语言的信息量很大，紧凑凝练。所以，在这部戏剧的印刷剧本中，你可以看到很多省略号，很多单词元音的省略，可以看出几个单词被压缩成了一个音节，被挤压在了一起。这些都体现出了快节奏这个宏大主题，也表现出了这部戏剧的力量，我们没有足够的时间说出所有的，所有的音节，必须继续赶快往下读，要飞快往前冲，才能跟上情节的速度，才能跟上每句台词格律的节奏。这造成了一种逃避的感觉，一种凝练的感觉。关于这段台词我想说的最后一点是我们日常语言和这种高质量抽象诗意语言之间的对比。

So we can see that here, “the milk of human kindness” is a very ordinary kind of phrase. It takes its coordinates from the kitchen or from the nursery or something. It's kind of different from what she says at the end of the speech. "Fate and metaphysical aid". "Metaphysical aid", I think is the witches, does seem to have the crowned with all she'd moved from this kind of domestic world to this language of kingship, the golden round of the crown. And that's a feature, too, of the language of the play. This is a play which has got posits. And “Dearest Chuck”, that's still a phrase in the north of England. It reminds me of my childhood. "Dearest Chuck", that's very colloquial kinds of cut kinds of words. And then it's also got “multitudinous” and "incarnadine" these big kind of Latin at words.

在这里我们可以看到“它充满了太多的人情的乳臭”这个十分日常的表达，里面的意象来自厨房或托儿所等场景。这与麦克白夫人在这段台词结尾处说的话不大一样。“命运和玄奇的力量”。我觉得“玄奇的力量”这种表达，为日常生活中人们习以为常的东西罩上了黄金的宝冠。那正是这部戏剧语言的一大特色。这部戏剧很多这样的表达。后面出现的“最亲爱的宝贝”，如今英格兰北部的人们也都还会使用这样的表达。这个短语让我想起了我小时候。“最亲爱的宝贝”这种词语其实十分口语化。而后面的台词中还出现了“一碧无垠的”“一片殷红”这样的拉丁语大词。

Next we move to Act II, moments before the murder of Duncan. Just as Macbeth sets out to stab the king in his bed-chamber, he sees a knife hovering in the air before him.

接下来让我们来到第二幕，即将谋杀国王邓肯的时刻。在麦克白出发去刺杀卧室中的国王时，他看见有一把刀子漂浮在他的眼前。

c. * Macbeth, 2.1.44-77, “Is this a dagger which I see … To heaven or to hell.”

c.   *麦克白，第二幕，第一场，第44-77行，“在我面前摇晃着……上天堂或者下地狱的丧钟。”

MACBETH Is this a dagger which I see before me,

麦克白：在我面前摇晃着，不是一把刀子吗？

The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.

它的柄对着我手的。来，让我抓住你，

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

我抓不到你，可是仍旧看见你。

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible

不祥的幻象。

To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but

你只是一件可视不可触的东西吗？或者你不过是

A dagger of the mind, a false creation

一把想象中的刀子，是虚妄的意象，

Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?

从狂热的脑筋里发出来？

I see thee yet, in form as palpable

我仍旧看见你，你的形状明显，

As this which now I draw. He draws his dagger.

正像我现在拔出的这一把刀子一样。

Thou marshal’st me the way that I was going,

你指示着我所要去的方向，

And such an instrument I was to use.

告诉我应当用什么利器。

Mine eyes are made the fools o’ th’ other senses

我的眼睛倘不是受了其它知觉的愚弄，

Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still,

就是兼领了一切感官的机能。我仍旧看见你；

And, on thy blade and dudgeon, gouts of blood,

你的刃上和柄上还流着一滴一滴刚才所没有的血。

Which was not so before. There’s no such thing.

没有这样的事！

It is the bloody business which informs

杀人的恶念

Thus to mine eyes. Now o’er the one-half world

是我看见这种异象。现在在半个世界上，

Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse

大自然似乎已经死去，罪恶的梦境扰乱着

The curtained sleep. Witchcraft celebrates

平和的睡眠；作法的女巫

Pale Hecate’s off’rings, and withered murder,

在向惨白的赫卡忒献祭；形容枯瘦的杀人犯，

Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf,

听到了

Whose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,

替他把风的豺狼的嗥声，蹑足跨步

With Tarquin’s ravishing strides, towards his design

向他的目的地前进，

Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,

像一个鬼似的。坚固结实的大地啊，

Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear

不要听见我的脚步声音，我怕

Thy very stones prate of my whereabouts

路上的砖石会泄露了我的行踪，知道它们走向何方，

And take the present horror from the time,

打破这一片森然的死寂。

Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives.

我正在这儿威胁他的生命，他却在那儿活得好好的；

Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.

在紧张的行动中间，言语不过是一口冷气。

A bell rings.

（钟声）

I go, and it is done. The bell invites me.

我去，就这么干；钟声在招引我，

Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell

不要听它，邓肯，这是召唤你

That summons thee to heaven or to hell.

上天堂或者下地狱的丧钟。

This speech of Macbeth's “Is this a dagger which I see before me” comes at the beginning of Act two. It's a sign of how he is deteriorating. I guess he is falling into himself, is falling into his own world. He is becoming cut off from reality. And this is a very disturbed speech.

麦克白的这段台词“在我面前摇晃着，不是一把刀子吗？”出现在第二幕的开头，标志着他正走向邪恶。我认为他正逐步滑向自己最真实的想法，滑向自己的内心世界。他与现实逐渐割离，这是一段严重精神失常者的独白。

Emma Smith: If you look at it on the page, I know you've just heard it, but if you look at it on the page, you can see lots and lots of mid pauses in the lines, lots and lots of question marks or full stops, which break up the lines. And there's an exercise that the Royal Shakespeare Company sometimes teaches its actors to do. And it's actually really worth doing. You read you get up on your feet. You can do this at home. You read the speech out. And whenever there's a piece of punctuation, you change direction. And it really gives you a sense. Yeah. This is a very leisurely speech. I take, you know, ten paces across my living room before I change direction. Or this is a really jagged, kind of frenetic speech, this is a really jagged frenetic speech about every couple of words. You will be changing direction. This is a mind that's absolutely kind of flat flitting around. It's manic in its energy and in what it's seeing. And I remember I once to the Falcon recalls where he learned about how hawks. I did it actually for Shakespeare. It's such a metaphor for Shakespeare wants to understand how he uses it in Taming of the Shrew. One of things I learned about hawks is that they've got such good eyesight.

艾玛·史密斯：虽然你刚刚已经听过一遍这段台词了，但如果再看一看书页上印出来的内容，你会注意到台词中有许多许多停顿，许多许多问号和句号，它们把句子打碎了。下面这个操作皇家莎士比亚剧团有时会教他们的演员们这么做，你也可以试一试。就是边走边读台词，你可以在家这么试试，你大声读台词，遇到标点符号，就换一个方向走。这样你就能体会这种感觉了。如果是一段很轻松的台词，我一般走十步换一个方向；如果是比较激昂的台词，我来回转弯的频率就比较高了。遇到激昂的台词，没读几个单词就要转一个弯。就在一直不停地转弯换方向，感觉房子在周围飞转。这些台词充满了能量，近乎发狂，于是你看到的也是狂乱的景象。我有一次了解到养鹰人回忆自己学习驯鹰时就是这样的感觉。知道这一点能更好体会莎士比亚。在《驯悍记》中，莎士比亚运用了这个比喻。而且鹰的视力真的很好。

It kind of drives them mad. They can see so many things all at the same time in this prismatic way. And I mean, that's why they have those little hoods on, which is to give them some peace and some respite from seeing all that. I think that about Macbeth here, he's seeing everything, tiny things like that dagger, the gout's of blood on it. And then he's seeing these huge things witchcraft these things which don't exist. The Wolf Tarquin, a kind of a figure from literature. “The Stones praise of my whereabouts and take the horror from the prep from the time he's batting between different images and different things.” And the reason I picked this speech was, as with many of Macbeth’s speeches, I think it's really difficult to understand if you're to try and go through each line and say, what does this mean? And how could we translate this into modern English? We'd really struggle. And I think it's that struggle that's the point. This is someone whose words can't quite keep up with what's happened and whose mind is kind of spinning. Absolutely spinning. And I think that the succession of different images, the syntax that's to say the way they are broken up on the line, this broken verse really to me really conveys that.

这个特点都要把鹰们逼疯了，在同一个时刻它们可以看到许多东西，五光十色的。所以它们会戴上小小的头罩，只有这样它们才可以享受片刻的平静，暂时休息一会儿。这让我想到了此时的麦克白，他可以看到各种各样的东西，他可以看到一些小小的东西，就像那把滴血的刀子。他还会看到一些巨大的东西，那些巫术变出来的，不存在的东西。豺狼，是文学作品中的一个意象。“我怕路上的砖石会泄露了我的行踪，打破这一片森然的死寂”，麦克白在不同的意象、不同的事物之间来回扑腾。我之所以会选出这一段台词是因为我觉得在麦克白这么多段台词中，这一段很不好理解，如果你尝试着去读懂每一行，到最后还是会问“这到底是什么意思？”我们又该如何把它转换成为现代英语呢？这十分不容易。我觉得是主人公的挣扎导致了这一切，他说出来的话跟不上正在发生的事情，他的思维却也不停地飞速运转，速度极快。我觉得，这些接连出现的不同意象、破碎的句法结构、破碎的韵文都向我传递了这样一种感觉。

In this speech from Act 5, Macbeth responds to the death of his wife, and senses that his own time may be nearly up, by evoking an image of the theater.

接下来这一段来自第五幕，麦克白运用戏剧舞台这个意象回应妻子的死讯，并表明感知到自己生命也将走向终点时的那种心境。

d. Macbeth, 5.5.20-31, “She should have died … Signifying nothing.”

d. 麦克白，第五幕，第五场，第20-31行，“迟早总是要死的……却找不到一点儿意义。”

MACBETH She should have died hereafter.

麦克白：迟早总是要死的，

There would have been a time for such a word.

总要有听到这个噩耗的一天。

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

明天，明天，再一个明天，

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

一天接着一天地蹑步前进，

To the last syllable of recorded time,

直到最后一秒钟的时间离我们所有的昨天，

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

不过替傻子们照亮了

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

到死亡的土壤中去的路，熄灭了吧，熄灭了吧，短促的烛光！

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

人生不过是一个行走的影子，

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

一个在舞台上指手画脚的伶人，登场片刻，

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

就在无声无息中悄然退下；它是一个

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

愚人所讲的故事，充满着喧哗和骚动，

Signifying nothing.

却找不到一点儿意义。

Emma Smith: This is an amazing speech, isn't it? At the end of Act five, then we've just got this short sequence of kind of fighting scenes that are going to bring everything to a close. But in certain ways, this is the end of the play. I think this extraordinary sort of elegy for Lady Macbeth, but a kind of elegy for everything. “She should have died hereafter. There would have been a time for such a word.” But then this extraordinary sequence of repetitions with saying how difficult it is for Macbeth to think about a future and how it's the future that everything they do is probably trying to secure. But nevertheless, it's the future that proves completely elusive and that that is denied them. And here in that moment of kind of accepting that, I think Macbeth talks about the future being really just more of today, not being some golden time, not being something extraordinary to aspire to, but something more like the Stoics thinks that you know, life is a drudge of steps towards death. It's a very bleak view that Shakespeare expresses actually quite, quite a number of times. This is similar in a way to what Hamlet says in “to be or not to be”. It's similar to what Claudio says about when he's facing death in prison in Measure for Measure. I guess one of the things that's really, really resonates here in this speech is the equation of that sort of pointlessness in a way with theater, because, of course, it is a theatre is not pointless and theatre is not pointless.

艾玛·史密斯：这段台词很让人惊叹，是不是？这一幕已经快到第五幕的结尾了，虽然到这里我们才刚体会到这一连串恐怖的场景，但从某种程度上说，这也快到戏剧结尾了。我觉得这不但是献给麦克白夫人的挽歌，更是献给世界万物的挽歌。“迟早总是要死的，总要有听到这个噩耗的一天”，接着就来了一连串的重复，重复说着对于麦克白而言将来是多么困难，对于将来他们要做的一切也许就是守护住已有的一切。但将来却是难以捉摸的，甚至已经抛弃了他们。此时麦克白已经开始选择接受，我觉得他所说的未来其实就是当下，不是那种黄金岁月，不是什么值得期待的日子，反而更像是斯多葛学派对待生活的态度，他们这一派认为生命只是一步一步走向死亡的过程。实际上莎士比亚好多次都表现出了这种阴郁沮丧的态度。这和哈姆莱特所说的“生存还是毁灭”很相似，也和《一报还一报》中克劳狄奥谈到在狱中面对死亡时的情形很像。我认为这段台词中真正在不断突出强调的一点在于它从某种程度上将这种无意义与戏剧相结合。当然，这在戏剧中绝对不是无意义的，戏剧也不会是无意义的。

In the sort of one hundred and fiftieth minute of a Shakespeare tragedy, theatre is not the image you think you would reach for to say it's all empty, it's all kind of meaningless. But a really interesting idea that life is as empty and inauthentic and importantly as brief as a theatrical performance.

在一部差不多150分钟的莎士比亚悲剧中，戏剧不是那种你可以伸手触摸的意象，不过它也不绝不是虚无、无意义的。相反，试想一下，如果人生就像一出戏剧表演，虚幻、没有意义且转瞬即逝，这种想法十分有趣。

One of the ways I think the Elizabethans and Jacobians embraced theatre as their dominant art form and their dominant recreation was in this relationship between the theatre and real life.

伊丽莎白时代和雅各布时代的人们十分热衷于戏剧，戏剧是他们主要的艺术形式和娱乐方式。我认为，其中一个原因就在于戏剧和他们现实生活之间的联系。

That relationship that the theatre，there was obviously a metaphorical relationship between the two. But which way did the metaphor go? You know, was it was the theatre a kind of metaphor for life, or was life in some ways a metaphor for the theatre when you call it theatre the globe? Are you saying the globe is quite small or the theatre is quite huge? You know, and obviously you're kind of saying both.

很明显，现实生活和戏剧的关系存在着一种隐喻。只是我们不知道，究竟是戏剧是对现实的一种隐喻，还是现实是对戏剧的隐喻？你看，将剧院命名为“环球剧院”是为因为戏如人生，还是人生如戏？是这个世界小得如舞台？还是这个舞台大得如世界？显然，两者皆有。

So this recognition of the theatricality of life and that theatricality is not about endless possibility, but it's about the drudgery of your lines running out and your story being over is really, really resonant here.

因此这种对于人生的戏剧性，这种戏剧性的认知，并不是在说人生有戏剧般的无限可能，而是说随着一句一句念完你的台词，你的故事也要接近尾声了，这才是人生与戏剧这两者之间真正呼应的地方。

And I think it's Macbeth is much more important than what comes next for Macbeth and for Macduff in their encounter and much more of a kind of farewell, a valediction for the play than Malcolm's last speech with which the play actually ends.

我认为对于麦克白，他与麦克达夫在战场上相遇的那一刻比之后的任何时刻都更为重要，在这一刻戏剧其实就结束了，相比马尔科姆在最后说的那段宣言，这里才是戏剧落幕告别的时刻。

And I think the comparison between the two brings out the difference in investment between Macbeth and Malcolm that the play's language bestows.

我觉得这人生和戏剧之间的比拟突显出了麦克白和马尔科姆的不同，这种不同也正是这部戏剧的语言想要表达的。

Our final speech comes from Malcolm in Act V. He has just been proclaimed the new King of Scotland, and he speaks the very last lines of the play.

我们所选的最后一段台词是马尔科姆在第五幕中说的一段话。那时他刚刚宣布自己加冕为苏格兰国王，这是全剧的最后几句台词。

e. * Malcolm, 5.8.72-88, “We shall not spend a large expense of time … to see us crowned at Scone.”

e. *马尔科姆，第五幕，第八场，第72-88行，“多承各位拥戴……参与加冕大典。”

MALCOLM We shall not spend a large expense of time

马尔科姆：多承各位拥戴，

Before we reckon with your several loves

论功行赏，

And make us even with you. My thanes and

在此一朝。各位爵士

kinsmen,

国戚，

Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland

从现在起，你们都得到了伯爵的封号，在苏格兰

In such an honor named. What’s more to do,

你们是最初享有这样封号的人。我们还有许多事情要做，

Which would be planted newly with the time,

在这去旧布新的时候；

As calling home our exiled friends abroad

我们必须召唤回来，

That fled the snares of watchful tyranny,

那些因为逃避暴君的罗网

Producing forth the cruel ministers

而出亡国外的朋友们；

Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen

这个屠夫虽然已经死了，他的魔鬼一样的王后，

(Who, as ’tis thought, by self and violent hands,

据说也已经亲手

Took off her life)—this, and what needful else

杀害了自己的生命，可是帮助他们杀人行凶的党羽，

That calls upon us, by the grace of grace,

我们必须一一搜捕，处以极刑；我们还要按照着上帝的旨意，

We will perform in measure, time, and place.

分别先后将此外一切必要的工作，逐步处理。

So thanks to all at once and to each one,

现在我要感谢各位的相助打点，

Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone.

还要请你们陪我到斯贡去，参与加冕的盛典。

Emma Smith: So I've picked this speech from the really very end of the play, Malcolm's final words, to think about a kind of language which we haven't really heard in the play before, this language of settled government or an attempt at settled government. It uses rhyme, which is an interesting aspect of Shakespeare's language at this point. So we tend to call Shakespeare's pentameter line blank verse and the blank signals that it doesn't rhyme. It's as opposed to two couplets. And like many generalizations we make about Shakespeare. It's true up to a point. Shakespeare does use rhyme all the way through his career. He uses it more, if I can say, straight early on in his career, where some characters speak in rhyming couplets. And that doesn't suggest that what they're saying isn't true. But by the time of Macbeth, there is a sense in which the rhyming couplet, it seems to be intended to fall a little bit too pat. It's a little bit suspicious because we know we don't really rhyme in real life and therefore it's suggestive perhaps of a prepared speech or a speech which falls into easy truisms or easy resonances rather than dealing with difficulties.

艾玛·史密斯：这里我选了戏剧最后的这段台词，马尔科姆的最后一段话。我想让大家感受一下我们在这部戏剧中未曾感受过的一种语言，这是一种属于稳定政权的语言，或者说是一个稳定政权的一次努力尝试。这一段中的韵脚体现了莎士比亚在这个时期创作语言的一个有趣特色。我们一般会把莎士比亚的五步格诗称为“素体诗”“无韵诗”，它们不押韵，它和押韵的双行诗刚好相反。就像之前我们概述莎士比亚时说的那样，在某种程度上莎士比亚在他一生的创作生涯中，一直都会使用押韵。我可以这么说，在他创作早期，他对押韵的使用会多一些，那时候他笔下创作的角色说话经常用到押韵的双行诗形式。使用押韵的双行诗并不是说这些角色讲的都是虚伪的假话。但是到了莎士比亚创作《麦克白》的那个时期，人们普遍会觉得押韵的双行诗有点太虚伪造作了，这样说话往往不是那么能让人信服，毕竟在现实生活中，我们说话也并不讲究押韵这回事儿。所以，这种押韵的台词听起来就像是一个精心准备的演讲，目的是为了跟人们讲道理或是为了煽动听众，引发共鸣，好像说话人并不是真心在努力解决难题一样。

So it's the opposite of the jagged kind of rhetoric that we've heard from Macbeth and Lady Macbeth during the rest of the play. So I'd point out those two couplets at the end, “grace” and “place”, “one” and “scorn” at the end. And it is a question for me whether those are the gracious, harmonious couplets of political order reinstated or the slightly insincere or glib or inadequate summary that we might expect from Malcolm, who hasn't really been allowed in the play to try to emerge as a leader and as a moral beacon. He uses, though, the word we, the royal we. We shall not spend a large, expensive time before we reckon with your several loves.

这一段和麦克白以及麦克白夫人台词中那种不是特别考究的修辞很不一样。我希望大家关注一下最后那两对押韵双行诗，“旨意”和“处理”押韵，“打点”和“盛典”押韵。我常常在想，这两个优美和谐的押韵双行诗究竟是在声明重建政治秩序呢，还是我们所期待的马尔科姆作出的不那么真诚，有点儿虚伪，甚至都不充分的总结。马尔科姆在这部剧中，一直不被允许作为领袖和道德标杆突显自己。虽然他用了“各位拥戴”这个词。他说“多承各位拥戴，论功行赏，在此一朝”。

He's really has stepped into the syntactical position of the royal figure who isn't a singular anymore, but it is a kind of entity. More than that. And he gives a summary, doesn't he, of the play, which is very quotable in a modern setting of this play, would have him. This would be the sound bite for the news bulletin, you know, end of “dead butcher and his fiend like queen”. It's chosen for quotation, isn't it? And that, too, gives this the feeling of a political speech. I think it's a wonderfully powerful denunciation of the Macbeth, but I think we're supposed to see it as inadequate. Was supposed to we're supposed to wonder, are these the people we have seen? And then we just learn that one bit. "Who asked is thought by self and violent hands took off her life?" It's the first time we have heard the suggestion that Lady Macbeth took her own life. I think probably for shick of Shakespeare's audiences, that was meant to confirm her depravity, that she had fallen into despair and committed this crime, although, of course, suicide also had the positive kind of Roman virtues of stoicism.

马尔科姆的这段话运用的是典型的王室人物的句法结构，说话人不再从单一的个体出发，而是站在一个群体的视角来演说。不仅如此，马尔科姆还对全剧做了一个总结陈词，这段概述也是经常在当今的表演中被引用的一段。这要是放在新闻报道中也是很吸引人的：“这个屠夫和他魔鬼一样的王后已经死了”。真的太适合引用了。而且这一段让人感觉像是一个政治演说，在对麦克白进行猛烈抨击。但我觉得，我们应该明白这一段话其实并不能充分展示麦克白。我们应当思考，他口中所说的真的是我们曾经看到过的那些人物吗？其实我们只了解到一点点情况，马尔科姆说“据说也已经亲手杀害了自己的生命”。这是我们第一次听到麦克白夫人是自杀而亡的。我想，也许对于莎士比亚的观众们而言，这是为了表现麦克白夫人的堕落腐败。她深感绝望，终于了结了自己的生命。不过当然了，对于罗马的斯多葛学派推崇的道德来看，自杀也有一定的积极意义。

But I think for us now reading this play, I think about this play, it's more likely to create sympathy for Lady Macbeth than anything else. So it's pulling perhaps in the opposite direction from "fiend like Queen". So I've chosen Malcolm's speech for its blandness. It's a bland speech, which is partly about character, partly who Malcolm is. It's partly about politics, what he wants to convey at the end of the play. But it's also partly about genre. And basically, I suppose to point out what to make here is if you're alive at the end of the tragedy, I mean, sort of well-done and sort of you are a non-entity, aren't you?

但是我觉得对于如今我们这些阅读这部戏剧的读者来说，我觉得就这部剧而言，这一段可能会让我们同情麦克白夫人，而不会觉得她是“魔鬼一样的王后”。我之所以选马尔科姆的这段演讲是因为它代表了这一类枯燥乏味的台词。它的单调无聊一部分是因为角色，因为马尔科姆这个角色所具备的特点，还有一部分是因为这段台词是有关政治的，政治是他在戏剧结尾想要传递的内容。除此之外，还有一部分原因也与戏剧流派有关。在这里你要明白的一个基本问题就是此刻你活到了一部悲剧的结尾，即使你并非真实存在，对吧？

You know, you do not want to be alive at the end of a tragedy. It's just the side that you don't matter at all. You're kind of irrelevant. You're in the wrong genre. And that's that seems to me. That's what I get from this speech of Malcolm.

但实际上，你并不想活到悲剧的结尾。一方面是因为你根本不关心这一点，你觉得这和你没什么关系，你处于一个完全不同的世界里，至少我是这么觉得的，这就是马尔科姆这段台词给我的感受。