【解读】仲夏夜之梦1 故事内容：进入一个魔法世界

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 A Midsummer Night's Dream - Part I - Into a Magical World

《仲夏夜之梦》--第一部分--进入一个魔法世界

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a weird, weird, weird play.

《仲夏夜之梦》是一部非常非常非常古怪的戏剧。

It's a play that's filled with magic. And it's got literal magic. And it's quite a magic play, I think, in the sense that it's fabulous.

剧中到处都是魔法，那种真正意义上的魔法。这部充满了魔法的戏剧十分精彩。

What I find compelling about this play is it's a mixture of its very great beauty, lyrically and visually, with also its unsentimental side.

我觉得这部剧吸引人的地方就在于它将诗意之美、视觉之美与理智相融合。

It is a mixture of beautiful, lyrical, absolutely gorgeous, astonishing bits of verse with really low-down comic jokes about, for instance, Bottom. It's also a weird mixture of discussion of what love is with the fact of what lust is. So it's about love and lust and the war between the sexes.

剧中不仅有优美诗意、华丽动人的韵文，也有粗鲁低俗的玩笑，例如那些有关波顿的那些粗俗玩笑。同时，戏剧在对爱情的探讨中，还结合了对淫欲的思考，这是一种十分古怪的结合。所以说，这是一部有关爱情、淫欲，以及两性之间的冲突对抗的戏剧。

My name is Tiffany Stern, and I'm a professor of Shakespeare and early modern drama at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon, which is Shakespeare's own hometown.

我叫蒂法尼·斯特恩，是莎士比亚研究院的教授，研究莎士比亚与早期现代戏剧，我所在的研究院位于莎士比亚的故乡斯特拉特福。

In this course, we’re speaking with Professor Stern about A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Written in the mid-1590s, this romantic comedy crosses between contrary worlds: human and non-human, city and forest, waking and sleeping, reality and dream. In the court of Athens, a young noblewoman named Hermia is in love with Lysander, but she is ordered to marry Demetrius instead -- the one-time lover of her friend Helena. Hermia and Lysander flee to the woods, pursued by Demetrius and Helena, and encounter a dreamlike world of fairies, magic, and danger. The play ends like a conventional comedy with a series of marriages. But the comic marriages are celebrated with a performance of a tragic play -- another one of the play’s odd oppositions.

在本集节目中，我们将对话斯特恩教授，与她一同探讨《仲夏夜之梦》。这部浪漫喜剧写于16世纪90年代中期，故事情节在一个个对立的世界中来回跳跃：人类与非人类、城市与森林、似睡与非睡、现实与梦境。在雅典的宫廷中，一位名叫赫米娅的贵族女性与拉山德相恋，但她却被迫要与狄米特律斯成婚，而狄米特律斯是赫米娅的朋友海丽娜曾经的恋人。于是，赫米娅与拉山德决定逃往森林中，狄米特律斯与海丽娜则在后面追赶着他们。很快，他们就来到了一个梦幻般的世界。那里有精灵、魔法和危险。戏剧的结尾是传统的喜剧结尾，举办了一系列婚礼。但在喜庆的婚礼上，却表演了一出悲剧，这是剧中又一个怪异的矛盾点。

For a really funny comedy, and it very much is, it's got tragedy very much to the fore. It ends on a play-in-a-play which has a tragic ending, and then it, itself has a comic ending. But you're kind of, “Oh, it's ended simultaneously happy and sad”. So I like the fact that it's contradictory. That gives me a lot to think about, and it'll give you a lot to think about.

作为一部滑稽的喜剧，一部真正意义上的滑稽喜剧，《仲夏夜之梦》却突出了悲剧的重要地位。戏剧结尾的这部“剧中剧”是以悲剧结尾，但《仲夏夜之梦》本身，却有一个实实在在的喜剧结局。所以，你会觉得“哦，这部戏剧的结尾真是又喜又悲呀”。我对于这部戏剧的矛盾对立非常感兴趣，它激发了我很多思考，同时，也一定会激发各位听众的许多思考。

The play opens with Theseus, Duke of Athens. He has just defeated Hippolyta, warrior-queen of the Amazons, and brought her back to Athens as a captive -- but also as his prospective bride.

戏剧在雅典公爵忒修斯的一段台词中，拉开了帷幕。当时，他刚刚打败了亚马逊女王希波吕忒，并将她虏回雅典，要她做自己的未婚妻。

That is Theseus about to get married. But he says, “I wooed thee with my sword and won thy love doing thee injuries,” which is horrific.

戏剧开始时，忒修斯正在筹备婚礼。但他却说了这么一句话：“我用我的剑向你求婚，用威力的侵凌赢得了你的芳心”，这句话很可怕。

If Hippolyta is distressed at having to marry her captor, Theseus, she finds a counterpart in Hermia, who enters with Demetrius, Lysander, and her father Egeus. Hermia loves Lysander. But Egeus wants Hermia to marry Demetrius, and by Athenian law, she must marry the man her father chooses -- or risk the penalty of death. Lysander protests that he should be allowed to marry Hermia, for he is just as eligible and “well derived” as Demetrius. And indeed, the play emphasizes the men’s similarity more than their differences.

如果说希波吕忒对于不得不嫁给俘虏了自己的忒修斯而感到悲伤痛苦，那么她可以在赫米娅身上找到同样的感觉。当时，赫米娅与狄米特律斯、拉山德以及她的父亲伊吉斯一道走上了舞台。赫米娅爱着拉山德，但伊吉斯却要求赫米娅嫁给狄米特律斯。依照雅典当时的法律，赫米娅必须嫁给她父亲选择的男子，否则就可能会被处死。拉山德抗议说，自己也有资格与赫米娅结婚，因为他与狄米特律斯的出身一样好，同样是合适的人选。实际上，戏剧在刻画狄米特律斯与拉山德这两个人物时，特别突出了他们之间的相似之处，而没有强调他们之间的差异。

So the way he presents it -- Demetrius and Lysander, you can barely tell the difference. They're not fleshed out enough as characters to be remarkably unique. So you indeed can't tell why love one rather than the other. And the point is very powerfully made in the play. “I am, my lord, as well derived as he, as well possessed” -- so the guys even say, “Look, I am completely interchangeable”.

莎士比亚所呈现狄米特律斯与拉山德这两个人物的方式，让你很难区分出他们的不同。作者并没有把他们刻画得特别丰满，没有赋予他们特别引人注意的独到特色。所以，你其实也说不清楚为什么会喜欢他们中的一个，而不喜欢另一个。剧中也非常鲜明地体现了这一点，拉山德对忒修斯说：“殿下，我和他的出身一样好；我和他一样有钱”，他甚至还说“看吧，我和他是完全可以互换的”。

The play is very interested in this question of whether partners can be interchangeable, or why you might love one person and not love someone similar. We learn that Demetrius has already “changed” one woman for another: he used to love Hermia’s friend Helena, but he has since switched his love to Hermia. For Hermia, however, there is no switching. However similar the two men look, Demetrius is the man she scorns and Lysander is the man she loves.

这部戏非常关注爱人是否是可以互换的这个问题。这个问题问的其实就是：你为什么会爱上一个人，却不会爱上一个与他相似的人呢？从剧中我们了解到，狄米特律斯的爱其实已经从一位女性身上转移到了另一位女性身上。之前，他爱的是赫米娅的朋友海丽娜，但此时他又爱上了赫米娅。不过，赫米娅的爱却没有发生变化，不论拉山德和狄米特律斯有多少相似之处，她就是瞧不起狄米特律斯，就是深爱着拉山德。

Unfortunately, Theseus decrees that Hermia must marry Demetrius. Lysander and Hermia plot to escape and be married outside Athens. Then Helena enters. She still loves Demetrius, and his new love for Hermia causes her agony. Hermia reveals that she and Lysander are running away. Helena, hoping to win Demetrius’ favor, resolves to tell him Hermia’s plan.

然而不幸的是，忒修斯也宣布说赫米娅必须与狄米特律斯成婚。于是，拉山德与赫米娅计划先逃出雅典，再结婚。就在他们筹划逃跑的时候，海丽娜登场了。此时的海丽娜依旧爱着狄米特律斯，狄米特律斯对于赫米娅的爱令她无比痛苦。赫米娅向海丽娜透露说，自己和拉山德准备逃离雅典。而海丽娜为了赢得狄米特律斯的喜爱，决定告诉他赫米娅的出逃计划。

After the Athenian nobles, we meet another set of characters: a group of laborers referred to as the “rude mechanicals”. They are rehearsing a play to perform at Theseus’s wedding.

在以上剧情中，我们见到的都是雅典的贵族，而在接下来的这场戏中，我们会遇见另外一群人，一群体力劳动者，他们被称作是“粗鲁的手艺人”。在这场戏中，他们正在排演一出戏剧，准备在忒修斯的婚礼上演出。

The rude mechanicals, who are the Athenian tradesmen, put on a funny play, or they think it's a tragic play, but is actually very, very funny. And they are nice. And in fact, they are the nicest people in the play, the most lovable. They're silly. They’re also good friends.

这些粗鲁的手艺人都是雅典的工匠，他们在排演一出滑稽的戏剧，虽然他们自己认为那是一出悲剧，但实际上，那部剧相当相当滑稽搞笑。这些工匠们十分善良，甚至可以说，他们是这部戏剧中最善良、最可爱的人，不过他们也真的很愚蠢。他们这群人是很要好的朋友。

The play’s somewhat mixed-up title is “The most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe.” The Pyramus and Thisbe play reflects the eclectic way that Shakespeare blended different kinds of sources to create the larger play.

他们所排演的那部戏剧有一个令人迷惑的题目，叫做《最可悲的喜剧，以及皮拉摩斯和提斯柏的最残酷的死》。皮拉摩斯和提斯柏的这部剧体现出了莎士比亚在创作中的兼收包容。莎士比亚将不同类型的元素相融合，构建出一部更为宏大的戏剧。

A Midsummer Night's Dream fuses so many stories from completely different bits. Plutarch's Parallel Lives – and he writes about Theseus. Pyramus and Thisbe comes from inside Ovid’s Metamorphoses -- Oberon, the name of the King of Fairies, comes from the Book of Duke Huon of Bordeaux. That’s partly that he's playing around with sources. But partly that's the perversity of Shakespeare that he's interested in “What if” and then twisting things up.

《仲夏夜之梦》融合了许多完全不同的故事。希腊作家普鲁塔克在他的《希腊罗马名人传》中写到了忒修斯的故事；而皮拉摩斯和提斯柏的故事取材于古罗马诗人奥维德的《变形记》；仙王奥布朗这的名字则是来源于《波尔多的于翁公爵之书》。莎士比亚除了善于吸收融合不同素材，他在创作的时候，也不喜欢循规蹈矩，他很喜欢设想“要是发生了某件事情会怎么样呢”，然后他就会把各种情节杂糅在一块儿。

Ovid’s Latin epic the Metamorphoses, a work of high cultural status, is given a comic twist by the rude mechanicals, especially by Nick Bottom, who is cast as the hero Pyramus but who enthusiastically offers to play every other role as well. The amateur actors plan to meet in the woods where, Bottom says, “we may rehearse most obscenely and courageously.”

奥维德的拉丁语叙事诗《变形记》具有很高的文学地位，而那些粗鲁的手艺人却为这个叙事诗加入了喜剧的元素，尤其是尼克·波顿这个角色。波顿要在剧中扮演男主角皮拉摩斯，但他却积极表示自己也可以扮演其他所有的角色。这些业余的演员们计划在森林中碰面，波顿表示在森林中“咱们练习起来可以像样点儿，胆大点儿”。

We then meet a third group of characters. Two figures enter and one says to the other, “[Y]ou are that shrewd and knavish sprite / Called Robin Goodfellow.” These are the fairies.

接着，我们又遇到了第三类角色。两个人物走上舞台，其中一个对另一个说“你大概便是名叫罗宾好人儿的狡猾淘气的精灵了”。这第三类角色就是精灵。

When we think about fairies these days, we're often thinking in a post-Peter Pan type of way. We're thinking of Tinkerbell -- lovely, cute, little winged fairies. And our idea is part Peter Pan, and it's partly Victorians, and kind of drapey, gossamer dresses and lovely angel-like wings. Now,for the Elizabethans, it was different. Robin Goodfellow, also called Puck, was very, very, very mischievous -- did naughty things around the house. But there's a level of sexuality to fairies, which is also very clear in the play. Because we've rather Victorianized and aggrandized our sense of the play, sometimes we miss out quite how deeply, perversely, not just sexual, but oddly sexual the play is. It's a little dark, you know, and that's there, the darkness of fairies is there.

如今，我们一提到精灵，首先想到的就是彼得·潘中精灵的样子。我们会觉得他们就像《彼得·潘》中的小叮当一样，可爱漂亮，长着一对小翅膀。我们脑中对于精灵的印象，一部分源自《彼得·潘》，一部分源自维多利亚时期的作品，我们认为精灵们都身穿丝绸做的垂褶裙子，长着可爱的天使小翅膀。然而，对于伊丽莎白时期的人们而言，精灵则是另外一番模样。这个“好罗宾”，又叫迫克，他是一个非常非常非常淘气的精灵，他会在屋子里干各种各样的坏事儿。同时，在精灵身上还体现出了一种性诱惑力，这一点在这部剧中也是十分明显的。不过，由于我们在理解这部戏的时候，往往是采用维多利亚式的夸张的方式，所以有时候我们会忽略这出戏在性这个问题上的深刻与诡异。剧中的性，已经不仅仅是那种简单意义上的性了，而是一种奇异古怪的性，带有一点儿暗黑元素的，而精灵的身上阴暗面就表现在这一点上。

That darkness is particularly reflected in the strife and sexual jealousy between the fairy-queen Titania and the fairy-king Oberon. They are competing over a young Indian boy, whose deceased mother was Titania’s dear friend. Titania also accuses Oberon of wanting Hippolyta’s love, while Oberon declares, “I know thy love to Theseus.” These romantic entanglements bring out the parallels between Oberon, ruler of the fairy world, and Theseus, ruler of the human world.

这种阴暗面，在仙后提泰妮娅和仙王奥布朗之间的冲突和因爱生妒上显得尤为突出。当时，他们在争夺一个印度男孩，男孩死去的母亲是提泰妮娅的亲密好友。不过这个印度男孩只是他们之间矛盾的一个原因，因为提泰妮娅还指责奥布朗，说他想得到希波吕忒的爱，而奥布朗又反过来指责提泰妮娅说“我知道你爱着忒修斯”。这些爱情纠葛又引出了奥布朗和忒修斯之间的相似对比，他们一个是仙国的统治者，一个是人类世界的统治者。

And there’s some suggestion that Theseus and Oberon, who are never on stage at the same time and who hold the same important, powerful position, there's some suggestion that they doubled one another.

有人指出，忒修斯和奥布朗他们从未同时出现在舞台上，而他们又都处于同样重要、有权势的地位，因此，有人认为他们俩其实就是对方的复刻。

That is, Theseus and Oberon may have been played by the same actor. If the roles were “doubled” this way, the parallels between them would have been even more noticeable -- like the fact that both are abusive towards their female partners, Hippolyta and Titania.

忒修斯和奥布朗很有可能都是同一个演员扮演的。如果说通过一人分饰两角来体现他们之间的“复刻”的话，那么他们之间的相似之处就更加明显了。而且他们对于各自的女性配偶希波吕忒和提泰妮娅都表现得十分的粗鲁。

One can also parallel Hippolyta with Titania, Queen of the Fairies. Again, if you're doubling the guys, you're probably doubling the girls. So we have these strange parallels, we've got these different worlds reflecting on one another.

我们在希波吕忒和仙后提泰妮娅身上也可以看到相似性。所以说，如果你复刻了男性角色，那么你也可以复刻这些女性角色。这些古怪的平行类似，让我们看到了仙国和人类世界这两个不同的领域中的共同点。

The fairy rulers’ strife ripples out into the natural world. The crops rot, “contagious fogs” descend, and “rheumatic diseases” spread. But Oberon will not reconcile with Titania while she withholds the Indian boy. Vowing to “torment her,” he tells Robin Goodfellow, also called Puck, to fetch him a magical flower called “love-in-idleness.” This flower’s juice, if applied to someone’s eyes, will make them fall in love with the next creature they see -- even if it’s a monster.

仙国统治者之间的纷争也波及到了自然界。庄稼腐烂了，“毒雾化成瘴雨下降地上”，“风湿症”到处传播。但奥布朗却表示，如果提泰妮娅不把那个印度男孩给他，他是绝对不会同意和解的。为了“惩罚她”，奥布朗还让“好罗宾”迫克去为他采来一种名叫“爱懒花”的神奇花朵。如果将这种花的花汁滴在某个人的眼皮上，那么他便会爱上醒来第一眼看见的东西，即便那是一个怪兽。

Demetrius and Helena enter the forest. He’s pursuing Hermia; Helena is pursuing him. Oberon tells Puck to apply the flower’s juice to Demetrius so he will fall in love with Helena instead. Oberon, meanwhile, sneaks up on the sleeping Titania, applies the juice to her, and chants a spell with the particular rhyme and rhythm that is used in the play to indicate magic:

接着，狄米特律斯与海丽娜也进入了这片森林。狄米特律斯追赶着赫米娅，而海丽娜又在追赶着狄米特律斯。奥布朗让迫克将花汁滴到狄米特律斯的眼皮上，这样他就会爱上海丽娜。同时，奥布朗又偷偷溜到熟睡的提泰妮娅那儿，往她的眼皮上也滴了一些花汁，并用一种表示魔法的特殊韵律和节奏念了一段咒语：

“What thou seest when thou dost wake,

等你眼睛一睁开，

Do it for thy true-love take,

你就看见你的爱，

Love and languish for his sake:

为他担起相思债：

Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,

山猫、豹子、大狗熊，

Pard, or boar with bristled hair,

野猪身上毛蓬蓬；

In thy eye that shall appear

等你醒来一看见，

When thou wakest, it is thy dear:

芳心可可

Wake when some vile thing is near.”

为他恋。”

Now Lysander and Hermia enter, lost and tired, and decide to sleep that night in the woods. Puck comes upon them and, mistaking Lysander for Demetrius, applies the flower’s juice to his eyes. And so, when Helena stumbles in and wakes him, Lysander falls instantly in love with her. Helena, alarmed, runs away and Lysander pursues her. Hermia wakes up to find herself alone.

之后，拉山德与赫米娅再次上场，他们迷路了，而且非常疲倦，于是决定那天夜晚就睡在森林中。等他们熟睡后，迫克走到两人跟前，他将拉山德错认成了狄米特律斯，于是将花汁滴在了拉山德的眼皮上。所以，当海丽娜跌跌撞撞地走来叫醒拉山德时，拉山德立马就爱上了海丽娜。不过这却令海丽娜十分震惊，立马惊慌失措地跑走了，拉山德便跑去追着海丽娜。等到赫米娅醒来时，她发现只剩下自己躺在那里。

Meanwhile, the rude mechanicals rehearse their play in the forest. Puck comes across them and uses magic to turn Bottom’s head into that of a donkey or an ass. Seeing the transformation, the mechanicals flee in terror. Titania wakes up, sees Bottom, and declares, “I love thee.” She summons the half-man, half-donkey to her bower. Puck and Oberon are delighted with their plot. But then Demetrius enters with Hermia now following him, pleading to know where Lysander is. Oberon realizes that Puck has made a mistake and applied the flower’s juice to the wrong man. Puck is excited to watch the romantic mix-ups play out: “Shall we their fond pageant see? / Lord, what fools these mortals be!” he says. But Oberon tells Puck to fix his mistake and put the flower’s juice on Demetrius’s eyes. So when Demetrius sees Helena enter with Lysander, he also falls in love with her. Now, instead of both competing for Hermia, Lysander and Demetrius are both competing for Helena. Hermia, meanwhile, is stunned when Lysander says he now hates her and loves Helena instead.

此时此刻，那些粗鲁的手艺人也在森林中排演着他们的戏剧。迫克遇到了他们，他用魔法将波顿的头变成了驴子的模样。这把其他的工匠们都吓跑了。在提泰妮娅醒来时，她第一眼看到就是波顿，于是提泰妮娅便对波顿说“我爱你”。她召唤这个半人半驴的人去到她的闺房。迫克与奥布朗对于自己的计谋感到无比开心。后来，狄米特律斯登场，身后跟着赫米娅，赫米娅不断哀求他告诉自己拉山德去哪里了。此时，奥布朗意识到迫克弄错了，原来迫克把花汁滴在了另一个人的眼皮上。然而，迫克对于这一出混乱的爱情情节却是无比兴奋，他说：“瞧瞧那痴愚的形状，人们真蠢得没想法！”接着，奥布朗要求迫克改正这个错误，让他把花汁滴到狄米特律斯的眼皮上。所以，当狄米特律斯看到海丽娜与拉山德走上场时，狄米特律斯也爱上了海丽娜。现在拉山德与狄米特律斯争夺的不再是赫米娅，而变成了海丽娜。同时，赫米娅听到拉山德说厌恨自己，并爱上了海丽娜时，她感到无比震惊。

The men -- the second they don't, for flower-juice magic reasons, love the woman they hitherto loved, they hate her. For them, not being in love is being in hate, which says something very bleak about their love. And I think that's one of the things that makes the male power so sinister, is that men seem to have, in this play, the two emotions of love and hate.

这些男性，由于花汁的魔力，在不爱一位女性的那一刻，竟然会厌恨她。对于男性而言，不爱就意味着厌恨，这表明他们的爱带着点儿荒唐可笑的意味。我认为，这部剧中男性权力之所以会如此阴险邪恶的一个原因就是，在男性身上同时存在着爱与恨两种情绪。

Helena is stunned too. She thinks both men are just pretending to love her to make fun of her, and that her friend Hermia is in on the joke. She chastises Hermia for forgetting their “ancient love.” Hermia, however, thinks that Helena is the one who has betrayed their friendship by seducing Lysander. The two women almost come to blows, as do the two men.

面对这一切海丽娜也是震惊不已。她认为这两位男性都在假装爱上了自己，她认为他们这么做，不过是想捉弄自己，并且她坚信她的朋友赫米娅也参与了这场恶作剧。她指责赫米娅，说她忘记了她们“从前的情谊”。而赫米娅则认为海丽娜背叛了她们友谊，她认为是海丽娜引诱了拉山德。这两位女性差点儿也像那两位男性一样打起架来。

It gets flavored with male viciousness -- female anger and male murderousness.

这里有着男性的残暴，女性的愤怒和男性的残暴。

Demetrius and Lysander go to fight each other for Helena, and Helena flees from the furious Hermia. Oberon orders Puck to go after the bewildered lovers, take off the flower’s magic from Lysander’s eyes, and match all four of them in their proper pairs again so that when they wake, everything that happened “Shall seem a dream.” He, meanwhile, sets off to find Titania.

狄米特律斯与拉山德为了争夺海丽娜而打了起来，海丽娜从愤怒的赫米娅那儿逃走了。奥布朗命令迫克去追上那群混乱的恋人，消除拉山德眼睛上的花汁魔法，把这四个人正确地两两配对，这样等他们再醒来时，这一切都会“像是梦景的幻象”。交代完这一切，奥布朗也出发去找提泰妮娅了。

We next see Titania in her bower, amorously stroking the ass-headed Bottom, crying, “O, how I love thee! How I dote on thee!” The sight of Titania in this foolish, semi-bestial infatuation moves Oberon to pity her -- especially since she relented and gave him the Indian boy after he taunted her for loving Bottom. Now, he says, “I will undo / This hateful imperfection of her eyes.” Titania awakes, exclaiming, “My Oberon, what visions have I seen! / Methought I was enamored of an ass” -- and then she sees the ass beside her. Oberon tells Puck to return the sleeping Bottom to his normal shape, and invites Titania to join him at Theseus’s wedding feast.

接着我们看到提泰妮娅在闺房里面，含情脉脉地抚摸着波顿的驴头，嘴里还说这：“啊，我是多么爱你！我是多么热恋着你！”看到提泰妮娅这么愚蠢地爱上了一个长着驴头的人，奥布朗开始同情提泰妮娅了。而在奥布朗嘲笑提泰妮娅爱上了波顿，提泰妮娅终于答应把那个印度男孩给他时，这种同情更加强烈了。他说：“我要解去你眼前的幻境”。紧接着，提泰妮娅便从幻想中醒了过来，她说：“我的奥布朗！我看见了怎样的幻景！我好像爱上了一头驴子啦。”话音刚落，她转头就看到了她身边的那长着驴头的波顿。奥布朗让迫克把熟睡中的波顿也变回原来的样子，并邀请提泰妮娅与他一道出席忒修斯的婚礼。

Nearby, Theseus, Hippolyta, and Egeus come across the sleeping Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius, and Helena. Theseus asks how these bitter rivals came to be sleeping so peacefully side by side. Demetrius explains that he had been pursuing Hermia but that he now loves Helena again. Theseus gives Hermia permission to marry Lysander and Demetrius to marry Helena that very day, when he marries Hippolyta. The four lovers wonder what has happened. “Are you sure / That we are awake?” asks Demetrius. “It seems to me / That yet we sleep, we dream.”

在不远处，忒修斯、希波吕忒还有伊吉斯遇到了熟睡的拉山德、赫米娅、狄米特律斯和海丽娜。忒修斯问这些冤家怎么会这么和气地睡在一块儿。狄米特律斯解释说，他之前追求的是赫米娅，但现在他又一次爱上了海丽娜。于是，忒修斯允许赫米娅与拉山德成婚，婚礼就在他与希波吕忒举办婚礼的同一天。这四位恋人也不明白知道究竟发生了什么。狄米特律斯说：“你们真能断定我们现在是醒着吗？我觉得我们还是在睡着做梦。”

They can't work out if they’ve been asleep or not. They can't work out what has really happened and what hasn't.

他们自己都分不清楚是醒还是梦。他们不清楚哪些是真实发生的事情，哪些是没有发生的事情。

Nearby, another character also ponders what has happened in his “dream.” 

而就在不远处，另一个人也在思考在他的“梦中”发生了什么。

The hilarious Bottom, who has been an ass, now wakes up from what he thinks was a dream. But we realize it's happened, which is, that he made love to Titania, Queen of the Fairies, while half a man and half an ass. And he says, What an extraordinary dream I had.

这个人就是欢乐的波顿，他刚刚还长着一个驴头，现在他醒了过来，也恢复了原来的样子，他认为之前的一切都是一场梦。但是我们观众读者们都知道，那都是真实发生了的事情，他在半人半驴的状态下与仙后发生了关系。他说：“咱做了一个奇怪的了不得的梦。”

Bottom then hurries to find the other mechanicals so they can present their play at Theseus’ wedding. At the wedding, Theseus and Hippolyta muse over the lovers’ strange story. Theseus doesn’t believe the kind of fantastic tales that come from what he calls “The lunatic, the lover, and the poet.” He speaks eloquently of how “imagination bodies forth / The forms of things unknown” and how “the poet’s pen / Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing / A local habitation and a name.” But for Theseus, these imaginings are nothing more than a kind of frenzied madness.

接着，波顿匆匆赶去找其他的手艺人，准备在忒修斯的婚礼上表演他们的那出戏剧。在婚礼上，希波吕忒与忒修斯也在思考那几位恋人们的奇怪故事。忒修斯不相信那种奇幻故事，他认为那不过是“疯子、情人和诗人”空想出来的东西。他煞有见识地说：“想象会把不知名的事物用一种方式呈现出来，诗人的笔再使它们具有如实的形象，空虚的无物也会有了居处和名字”。在忒修斯看来，这些想象不过是疯狂的产物。

We are asked to compare madmen, lovers, and poets. We're told that they kind of see and mulch things into a frenzy -- the comparison is wonderful and terrible.

我们听到把疯子、情人和诗人放在一起作比较。忒修斯的话告诉我们这些人在看待事物、描绘事物时，都是疯狂的。这种对比很精妙，也很可怕。

The rude mechanicals now present what they call “A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus And his love Thisbe, very tragical mirth.” The plot goes like this: Pyramus and Thisbe are lovers who plan to meet secretly (just as Hermia and Lysander did). Their plan goes awry, and Pyramus, thinking Thisbe is dead, kills himself. When Thisbe finds his body, she kills herself too. The story inserts a tragic note into the play’s celebratory comic ending. The actual performance, however, mainly inspires laughter -- and perhaps some generous applause. When the play ends, the couples dance and depart to enjoy their wedding nights. Puck, Oberon, and Titania arrive to bless the marriage beds. Puck delivers the epilogue to the audience, inviting them to applaud the play -- and we’re invited to consider just what about Shakespeare’s work makes us applaud so much.

那群粗鲁的手艺人开始表演他们的戏剧《关于年轻的皮拉摩斯及其爱人提斯柏的冗长的短戏，非常悲哀的趣剧》。这部剧讲的是皮拉摩斯和他的爱人提斯柏计划秘密相会，这个情节就像赫米娅与拉山德的那样。但他们的计划出了差错，皮拉摩斯误以为提斯柏死了，所以他便自杀了。而当提斯柏看到皮拉摩斯的尸体时，她也结束了自己的生命。这部剧中剧，为《仲夏夜之梦》的喜剧结局添上了一丝悲剧的调子。但这部剧中剧的演出却惹得观众们哈哈大笑，也许还激起了热烈的掌声。在戏剧结束时，一对对夫妻跳起了舞，之后便走下舞台去享受美好的新婚之夜了。随后，迫克、奥布朗和提泰妮娅走上舞台祝福了这些新婚的夫妇。迫克向观众们念了一段收场白，邀请观众们为戏剧鼓掌。我们也开始思考，莎剧中究竟是什么让我们愿意如此频繁地鼓掌。

One reason to go to see it is that you will enjoy it. You'll have fun. But also, I think he's richly philosophical in a weird and interesting way. He doesn't tell you what the rules are. He questions what the rules are.

我们愿意去看莎剧的一个原因是我们可以收获享受和欢乐。同时，莎士比亚也用一种怪诞有趣的方式向我们传递了许多哲学思考。他不会告诉我们规则是什么，他甚至还会质疑那些已有的规则。

A Midsummer Night’s Dream may be a comedy, but its zany plot raises serious philosophical questions about why we fall in love and what a good foundation for love should be. We’ll dive deeper into those questions in episode two.

《仲夏夜之梦》也许是一部喜剧，但是它那滑稽的情节也提出了很多严肃的哲学思考，例如我们为什么会陷入爱河，以及美好爱情的基础是什么。在第二集讲解中，我们将深入探讨这些问题。