【解读】李尔王3 语言特色：“永不，永不，永不，永不，永不！”

King Lear -- Part 3 -- “Never, never, never, never, never” (The Language)

《李尔王》——第三部分——“永不，永不，永不，永不，永不！”（语言）

In our first two episodes, we discussed the ways thatKing Learboth offers and withdraws stability and consolation. In this episode, we speak with Simon Palfrey, Professor of English at the University of Oxford, about three particular moments in the play when familiar perspectives are stripped away and characters must find a way to face a new reality.

前两集节目中，我们探讨了《李尔王》是如何既让读者感到平和与慰藉，以及它又是如何收回这种平和与慰藉的。本集节目，我们将继续对话牛津大学英语文学教授西蒙·帕尔弗里，和他一同欣赏剧中三段重要情节。在这三场戏中，主角们被迫脱离出了他们曾经熟悉的环境，而不得不寻找一种应对全新境况的途径。

Our first speech comes from the scene when Lear has been locked out in the storm. The storm moves him to consider how other people exposed to the elements may be suffering -- and then, almost as if conjured up by his words, the naked beggar Poor Tom appears.

我们今天要欣赏的第一段台词出自李尔之口。当时他被女儿们关在门外，独自面对狂风暴雨的击打。暴风雨让他开始思考那些遭受着不幸的人们的感受。接着，赤身裸体的可怜的汤姆突然出现，他就像是被李尔的语言召唤出来似的。

King Lear and Edgar, 3.4.32-43, “Poor naked wretches … Fathom and a half, fathom and a half! Poor Tom!”

李尔王和爱德伽，第三幕，第四场，第32至43行，“衣不蔽体的不幸的人们......九尺深，九尺深！可怜的汤姆！”

KING LEAR Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er you are,

李尔王：衣不蔽体的不幸的人们，无论你们在什么地方，

That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,

都得忍受着这样无情的暴风雨的袭击，

How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,

你们的头上没有片瓦遮身，你们的腹中饥肠雷动，

Your looped and windowed raggedness defend

你们的衣服千疮百孔，

you

怎么抵挡得了

From seasons such as these? O, I have ta’en

这样的气候呢？啊！我一向

Too little care of this. Take physic, pomp.

太没有想到这种事情了。安享荣华的人们啊，

Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,

睁开你们的眼睛来，到外面来体味一下穷人所忍受的苦，

That thou may’st shake the superflux to them

分一些你们享用不了的福泽给他们

And show the heavens more just.

让上天知道你们不是全无心肝的人吧！

EDGAR Fathom and half, fathom and half!

爱德伽：九尺深，九尺深！

Poor Tom!

可怜的汤姆！

These are the final words before the entrance of Poor Tom and when Lear becomes mad. And as such, they intimate the wisdom that his madness similarly, distractedly, articulates. And they work as a kind of pledge to be taken out when his full mind returns. Just before he goes mad, he's got this moment of compassion, and therefore we can return to that, we have a bit of faith, we can put it in our pocket.

这段台词是李尔刚发疯时说的，他这段话一说完可怜的汤姆就出现了。李尔的言语透露出了他的癫狂，以及同样癫狂混乱的智慧。毫无疑问李尔恢复理智后，他一定会收回这些话语。就在发疯前，李尔内心产生了对他人的怜悯。所以，我们可以回归到这一点，可以保留有一点儿信念。

But as much as Lear is the first focus of attention, the pathos of the speech only partially arises from this kind of confessionary aspect, “Oh, I've taken too little care of this.” And so the effects of the speech come from the way the speech goes outside Lear for its substance and its appeal.

尽管李尔是我们首要关注的对象，但是这段台词所包含的苦楚与苦难仅仅只有一部分来自于他的忏悔，李尔忏悔说“我一向太没有想到这种事情了”。这段台词的效果不在李尔这个角色本身，而在于台词自身的内容与魅力。

So the appeal to the audience is exemplified in the phrase “wheresoe’er you are.” So the “you” he's addressing is supposedly the poor naked wretches, kind of cowering in their holes or freezing under hedges. But at the same time, it's the audience, themselves out in the open air, who are directly appealed to by the speech’s invitation to “expose thyself.”

这段话令观众着迷的地方体现在“无论你们在什么地方”这句话上。这里的“你们”既指代那些“衣不蔽体的不幸的人们”，他们在洞穴中蜷缩着，他们在树篱下被冻得瑟瑟发抖。但同时，“你们”也指代观众，指代那些站在露天剧院里的观众们，李尔邀请他们“到外面来体味一下穷人所忍受的苦”，他们被这句邀请深深吸引着。

Now, this appeal is centered in the feminine openness of the phrase “wheresoe’er you are” -- notice how it's all vowels, almost all air -- “ere,” “ere,” “are.” And it makes it multiply addressed. So it's spoken directly to the audience and to each member within it, and sort of beyond their heads into some space where they might conceivably find themselves or find a suffering compatriot.

这段台词的魅力主要体现在“无论你们在什么地方”这句话的开放性上。注意感受这里单词的发音，里面的英文单词全都以发音相同的元音结尾，于是就产生了一种多重指代的感觉。乍一看这句话是对现场观众，以及剧中的每个角色说的，但细细品味，我们会发现，它所指的对象其实并不仅仅局限于他们，它越过观众和演员们的头顶，指向更遥远的地方，在那里他们也许会找到本真的自我，会发现某个受苦受难的同胞。

And so Lear is positing more than a brief episode of slumming it. He's praying for an exposure to feeling. It's a crucial word in the play, this idea of feeling, “I see feelingly,” feeling both one's own and other's feelings. And so there's sort of a social or political message, that we've all taken too little care of the suffering that we can safely. It's an instruction to look more sensitively, to listen more sensitively, to attend to whispers and murmurs, to attend to the stuff that’s not staring us in the face.

李尔脑中所想的不仅仅是苦难的生活，他还在祈祷能够体味真实的情绪。“情绪”是戏剧的一个关键词，“我满怀深情地看着”，我既可以感受到自己的情绪，也可以感受到别人的情绪。这里传递了我们对于那些遭受苦难的人们关注得太少了。它呼吁我们带着更细腻的眼睛去观察，竖起更敏锐的耳朵去倾听，去留心那些轻声细语，去关注那些不在我们眼前的事物。

So I think there's an idea in which the kind of attention that theater demands is the kind of attention that the world demands. It's a vindication of the urgency of theater, of the relevance of theater, “expose thyself.” I think it's imagining the feeling, it's imagining the presence in the audience, and the kind of recognition in oneself, that Lear here, there's a kind of moment of shared exposure and shared recognition.

根据这个观点，剧院所需要的专注力正是世界所需要的。它证实了剧院的急切主张和意义价值，它呼吁人们“来体味一下”，它在想象情绪和感觉，想象着观众的到场，想象着某种自我认知。此时的李尔，与他人产生了共情，与他人有了共识。

There's also in this speech, typical subdued puns of Shakespeare. So for example, “bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,” it contains at least two jokes. Not really funny jokes, but they're sort of puns -- “bide” means both “endure” and “live within.” And pelting means both the hammering of the rain, but also clothing, so clothing is a pelt. So the wordplay, the idea of the wordplay, is that the stinging rain is all the clothes these poor people have, all these sort of phantoms have. The pelting is the suffering and the nakedness. They have to wear the storm. It becomes part of them. So this in turn evokes the challenges of the storm, the invitation to at onceundress andredress.

而且，在这段台词中，蕴涵着典型的莎士比亚式的隐晦双关。例如，“都得忍受着这样无情的暴风雨的袭击”这里，莎士比亚就跟我们开了至少两个玩笑。这并不是那种为了逗乐子的滑稽玩笑，它们更像双关语。表示“忍受”（bide）的这个英文单词既有“容忍”的意思，也有“在某地居住”的意思。而表示“袭击”（pelt）的这个英文单词，既可以指雨点的猛烈敲打，也可以指一种毛皮衣物。这里的双关意思就是说打在身上的刺骨雨水就是幽灵般的苦难人们仅有的衣物。“袭击”既指他们的痛苦遭遇，也指他们赤身裸体的状态。他们不得不身披疾风骤雨，成为暴风雨的一部分。反过来，这也让人们想起了暴风雨的残酷，呼唤人们快点把衣物脱去，快点再重新穿上衣物。

So the pun on pelting allows the speech to escape from material immediacy. He's now getting drenched, feeling miserable, thinking about all the other poor sods suffering the same, and allows us to dimly promise some kind of safety and regeneration, the idea of, as I said, undressing and redressing, making it better.

关于“袭击”的双关，让这段台词摆脱了直观的物质属性。此刻，李尔浑身湿透，内心无比痛苦，心里念着其他遭受着同样苦难的穷人们。这隐隐预示着某种安全与重生，脱下衣物再重新穿上衣物的这个想法，令一切似乎都在往更好的方向发展。

But there's still more going on here, because unknown to the king, and perhaps unknown to the actor, he's also talking to somebody else present on the stage, and this is Edgar, disguised as Poor Tom -- or it’s simply Poor Tom, the houseless beggar, who's hiding somewhere, maybe in the discovery space, or maybe beneath the trap door. You've got the character hiding from capture and the actor waiting for his cue.

但实际上，仍还有很多事情在酝酿。因为国王并不知道，也许连扮演国王的演员也不知道，此时在台上还有另外一个人，他听到了国王所说的一切。这个人就是伪装成了可怜的汤姆的爱德伽，或者简单点儿，就直接叫他可怜的汤姆吧。这个无家可归的乞丐躲在某个地方，也许是在某个不起眼的角落，也许是在活板门下面。这个角色躲在一旁，等待着他的尾白。

Now, it's obvious that Lear is ignorant of this figure’s presence. But do we see him? We in the audience? Maybe, maybe not. Either way, he's going to manifest himself as the necessary subject and addressee and answer to Lear’s prayer.

很明显，此时李尔并没有觉察到汤姆的存在。我们看得见他吗？我们观众看得到汤姆吗？也许看得见，但也不一定。但不论如何，他会跳出来，作为一个重要角色，作为一个重要的听话人去回应李尔的祈祷。

So the thing we need to think about here is the sort of beautifully mixed temporality to the relationship here between words and bodies. In one sense, Lear’s prayer answers to the already existing wretches in the world of the poor sods. And it's a moment of belated recognition.

所以，我们需要思考在这段台词中，文字和身体之间那种短暂但美好的结合。一方面，李尔为世界上那些穷苦的人们祈祷，这是一个迟来的认知。

In another sense, the body hidden and then erupting into view is a perfect answer to Lear’s prayer. So remember that the speech ends and up comes poor Tom -- “fathom and a half, fathom and a half, Poor Tom.” Now there's more than strategic irony or magical serendipity going on here, because Lear’s words literally demand the figure that issues from them. Now, the crucial word here is “superflux.” Now this is usually understood to mean superfluousness. So Lear is recommending a fair distribution of resources between rich and poor, and that's part of the meaning, but not, I think, the primary meeting. So “superflex” -- he says, “shake the superflex” -- “superflux” is Shakespeare's unique construction, he makes up the word. Now it doesn't primarily mean “extra-ness,” it means a superflow,flux is flow. So all the derivatives of flux around this time refer to flows of water, or flows of blood, especially linked to women's bodies. So fluxion, for example, meant menstruation or indeed, abortion.

另一方面，躲在一旁的那个人，突然闯入我们的视线，回应着李尔的祈祷。我们要留意，李尔刚说完台词，可怜的汤姆就跳了出来，嘴里说着“九尺深，九尺深！可怜的汤姆！”。这已经不仅仅是有意为之的讽刺或者魔法般的机缘巧合了，因为是李尔的话语把汤姆召唤了出来。接下来，这里的关键词是“享用不了的福泽”（superflex），这个词一般意味着“富余、过剩”。李尔的话也确实是在呼吁把资源在富人和穷人之间公平地进行分配。但我认为，这只是一部分，但绝对不是最主要的。“分一些你们享用不了的福泽给他们”，“享用不了的福泽”（superflex）这个词是莎士比亚独创的，是他造出来的词。这个表达的重点并不在于“富余”，而在于“分享”，在于“流动”。在莎士比亚时期，“流动”（flux）这个单词的所有衍生词全都与水的流动有关，与血液的流动有关，尤其是与女性的身体相关。例如，它的一个衍生词“溢出”（fluxion）往往指的就是月经来潮，或者堕胎流产。

So Lear’s speech is a kind of mother, giving birth to the figure, or maybe giving birth to the kind of abortion, almost, who erupts from the uterine “fathom and a half” gulf below the stage. Hence the pun on “wretch.” So the wretch is retched up, vomited, or vented into presence. So it's typical of Shakespeare to be layering these kinds of puns, these kinds of jokes at these deeply serious moments. So this is a true cathartic moment. We think of catharsis and tragedy as a kind of purging. This is the moment of violent cleansing. And the figure that emerges is both the homeless wretch and the suffering figure of pomp. Poor Tom is the wretch, Edgar is the suffering figure of pomp or wealth. He has to go in to bear the burden and to experience the extremity that the king’s prayer recommends. So it's the answer to the prayer who goes on to, as it were, make the prayer pay its own promises.

李尔的这段台词就像一位即将生产的母亲，或者说像一位准备堕胎的母亲，她的孩子猛地从舞台下方“九尺深”的裂缝中蹦了出来，就像从母亲的子宫中脱离出来一样。这也就呼应了“不幸的人们”（wretch）这个词所蕴含的双关。表示“不幸的人们”（wretch）的英文单词，发音和表示“干呕”（retch）的那个单词一样，于是“不幸的人们”会让观众联想到“呕吐”和“排泄”，就如汤姆突然出现在我们面前那样。莎士比亚特别喜欢在这样严肃的时刻为我们铺垫这类滑稽的双关和诙谐的玩笑。主人公在宣泄情绪，我们会将宣泄和悲剧看作是一种清洗，一种肃清，是粗暴激烈的净化。这个突然出现的角色既是一个无家可归的不幸之人，也是在浮华繁盛景象中仍在遭受着苦难的人。可怜的汤姆是个不幸的人，爱德伽在一派欣欣向荣中经历着苦难与折磨。他不得不承受重担，不得不经历李尔祷告词中的那种疾苦。所以说，汤姆的突然出现是对李尔的祈祷的回应，就好像他就是为了让祈祷者履行自己许下的承诺。

So it’s the classic Shakespeare moment where bodies are issuing words, word issuing bodies, and all of them are overlaid and overdetermined and sort of active in every cell, both the cells of the words and the cells of the bodies.

这是莎士比亚的典型特色。肢体表现着语言，语言展现了肢体。肢体与语言互相交叠，互相影响，它们的每一个细胞都积极活跃，不论是语言的细胞，还是肢体的细胞，都是如此。

Our next speech takes place after Gloucester has asked “Poor Tom” to lead him to the edge of a cliff, where he is intending to jump to his death. The disguised Edgar tries to convince Gloucester that theyareon a cliff’s edge. It’s a strange, liminal moment between life and death. It’s also strange because Edgar’s fabulously descriptive words are just words--the cliff he’s describing doesn’t exist. But, of course, in a play,nothingexists except as it’s described in words.

下面这段台词选自第四幕，第六场。葛罗斯特伯爵要求“可怜的汤姆”领他到悬崖边，他打算在那里跳崖自杀。这段对话就发生在这场戏之后。伪装成汤姆的爱德伽欺骗葛罗斯特伯爵说，他们当时正站在悬崖边。悬崖的边缘，是一个奇妙诡异的地带，后退一步是生，往前一步是死。在这里，爱德伽那段华丽的描述则是更显诡谲，那是纯粹语言，因为他所形容的是一座根本不存在的悬崖。但是，我们都知道在戏剧表演中，除了语言，所有的一切其实都是不存在的。

Edgar and Gloucester, 4.6.15-30, “Come on, sir. Here’s the place … Set me where you stand.”

爱德伽和葛罗斯特，第四幕，第六场，第15-30行，“来，先生，我们已经到了，......带我到你所立的地方。”

EDGAR Come on, sir. Here’s the place. Stand still. How

爱德伽：来，先生，我们已经到了，您站好。把眼睛

fearful

一直望到这么低的地方，

And dizzy ’tis to cast one’s eyes so low!

正是惊心炫目！

The crows and choughs that wing the midway air

在半空盘旋的乌鸦，

Show scarce so gross as beetles. Halfway down

瞧上去还没有甲虫那么大；山腰中间

Hangs one that gathers samphire—dreadful trade;

悬着一个采金花草的人，可怕的工作！

Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.

我看他的全身简直抵不上一个人头的大小。

The fishermen that walk upon the beach

在海滩上走路的渔夫

Appear like mice, and yond tall anchoring bark

就像小鼠一般，那艘停泊在岸旁的

Diminished to her cock, her cock a buoy

高大的帆船小得像它的划艇，它的划艇小得像一个浮标，

Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge

几乎看不出来。澎湃的波涛

That on th’ unnumbered idle pebble chafes

在海滨无数的石子上冲击的声音，

Cannot be heard so high. I’ll look no more

也不能传到这样高的所在。我不愿再看下去了，

Lest my brain turn and the deficient sight

恐怕我的头脑要昏眩起来，眼睛一花

Topple down headlong.

就要一个筋斗直跌下去。

GLOUCESTER Set me where you stand.

葛罗斯特：带我到你所立的地方。

So this is a moment that is kind of an amazing moment. The speech gets its meaning and its importance, not simply from the words that are spoken, but from the situation.

很惊心动魄呀。台词的意义和重要性，不仅仅源于我们所听到的词句，更源于当时的情景。

In Shakespeare, ambiguity -- in other words, the idea that you don't quite know what's happening, or more than one thing might be happening at the same time -- ambiguity isn't just there in words, in language, words having two or three different meetings, but it's there in situations in Shakespeare, and that the very situation has more than one construction. That's totally unique. No other writer writes in ways in which the very thing that's happening is ambiguated. But that's absolutely the case everywhere inKing Learand perhaps most strikingly in this scene.

莎剧里面总有那种说不清道不明的感觉，那种同一时刻多件事情同时发生的情况。莎剧中的“语焉不详”不仅仅体现在文字和语言上，或者说一个单词有着两三种不同含义，而是体现在台词的背景中，对于这些背景我们可以有多种解读。这很独特，除了莎士比亚，几乎没有作者在创作的时候会赋予故事背景多重解读，但这在《李尔王》中却比比皆是，在这场戏中更是达到了顶峰。

Because we've got this in the scene where Edgar is leading Gloucester to the cliff so that Gloucester can jump to his death. But it's still, again, it's not Edgar. It's Poor Tom, it’s mad Tom, as he's called. So what is it? We've got a naked man or a mad man leading a blind man to the edge of a cliff. Put it in that terms, we've got the edge of morality play, and this idea very simply of a soul on its way to judgment, the sense of where you've got this very spare, Spartan, allegorical kind of world, wherein both the characters and the situation, the place, is allegorical -- blind man, naked man, cliff edge -- you can just see the allegorical notion of that.

剧中，我们知道爱德伽正领着葛罗斯特往悬崖上走，葛罗斯特想要跳崖自杀。但是我们需要注意，这里爱德伽并不是以“爱德伽”的身份出现的，而是作为可怜的汤姆，作为疯子汤姆领着葛罗斯特走向悬崖。于是，这会是怎样一番景象呢？我们看到一个衣衫褴褛的人，一个疯子领着一个双目失明的人走到了悬崖边上。这样说吧，在这里我们可以感受到道德剧的特色，一个人走在接受审判的路上，你会有一种斯巴达式的朴素清苦感。不论是剧中的角色，还是当时的背景，当时的地点，都极具讽喻意味。双目失明的人，全身赤裸的人，悬崖的边缘，这些意象都会让我们感受到一种讽喻意味。

But it's not only that, is it. It's also a son with his father -- but it's a son where the father doesn't know it's his son, but the son knows it’s his father. And so it's a situation, on the one hand, you've got these characters who are absolutely everyman, could be anybody. On the other hand, it's a situation of absolute intimacy, on the one part, where you've got the son, as it were, hiding from his own father, seeking to save his father's life, not known by the father. And so it's a kind of exquisite, but also kind of excruciating moment of family drama. Okay. So that begins to give you some sense of the strangeness of the moment and the kind of both metaphysical and experiential stakes in this moment.

而且还不止，这场戏中的两个角色是一对父子，然而父亲没有认出儿子，只有儿子知道领着的这个人是自己的父亲。一方面，这个场景中的角色可以是任何世人，可以是任何人。另一方面，这又是一个很亲密的场景，儿子向父亲隐瞒了自己的真实身份，他在努力挽救父亲的生命，但又不希望父亲知道真相。这个家庭戏剧情节设置细腻又极具冲击力，同时也令人无比心碎。于是，它会让你产生一种怪异的感觉，既有形而上的情绪，又有经验上的体会。

So where are we? We’re at Dover? You know, the white cliffs of Dover, the edge of the country. But we're also not, We're not at Dover. We're in some unknown, unnameable terrain beyond or before anywhere. So again, the play says, very specific, Gloucester told the mad man to take him to Dover. But then we're not there. We are there, and we're not there. Okay. So we're in a place where souls enter or leave one world for another, wherever we are. We're in a liminal place -- liminal between what? It’s between land and sea, between high and low, between here and not, between life and death. It's a border land. It's a frontier. It's also a kind of magnet.

戏剧明确表示，葛罗斯特让疯汤姆带他去多佛。多佛的白色悬崖是国家的边境所在。但他们又不在多佛。他们处于某个未知的、叫不出名字的地方。可以说，我们既在多佛，又不在多佛。我们所处的位置，不论究竟在哪儿，都是一个世界与另一个世界的交界处。那是一个极限世界，但是，是什么和什么之间的极限世界呢？这是陆地与海洋之间的极限世界，是高与低之间的极限世界，是存在与虚无之间的极限世界，是生与死之间的极限世界。这是一个边界之地，是边缘地带，有着强大的吸引力。

But it's also a place that is beyond verification. We cannot prove where we are. We cannot really know where we are. We're at the threshold of possibility. So at one and the same time, it’s a kind of public horizon, right? The idea of a horizon is important, right, at the edge of the known world. It's a metaphysical puzzle, and it's a deep, inward journey. It's a journey into the mind, into the soul, into the kind of most extreme possibilities that a human can ever do -- think of the son with his father, or the father with his son. But at the same time, it's also just an empty stage -- nothing's there.

但我们却又无法具体说清楚这是哪里。我们无法证明所处的位置，甚至说，我们自己都不知道自己究竟在哪儿。我们站在各种可能性的边缘。在这一刻，这是一片开放的地平线，你有没有这种感觉？在这里，地平线这个概念很重要，它是已知世界的边缘，是一个形而上的谜题，是一场深刻的内省之旅，深入到人们的思维中，深入到人们的灵魂中，深入探索着人类可以做到的最极致的各种可能性。想象一下那个父亲陪伴着的儿子，那个儿子陪伴着的父亲。但同时，我们也不要忘记了，这其实仅仅只是一个空旷的舞台，上面什么都没有。

So what can we see if we go to the actual words? One answer to this, what can be seen, is absolutely nothing, because there's nothing there. Another answer is, we can see everything that's being spoken. The crows, the choughs, the beetles, the samphire, the fishermen, the mice, the cock, the pebbles and stuff. We can see all these things. There is nothing there -- at the same time, everything is there, because in a play world, we canonlyever see what we are told is there, because we are never there. And so it's a moment which both is an absolute moment of theatrical mimesis, and a moment which is justimitatingmimesis. You couldn't get a more exquisitely sort of meta-theatrical moment than this.

如果我们把注意力放在实际听到的词句上，可以看到怎样的场景呢？有的人会说，我们什么都看不见，因为舞台上什么都没有。但也有的人会回答，我们可以看到演员所描绘的一切，可以看见乌鸦，可以看见山鸦，可以看见甲虫、金花草，可以看见渔夫、小鼠、划艇，还有石子等等。我们可以看到爱德伽口中所说的一切。舞台上确实什么都没有，但同时，舞台上却又什么都有。因为在戏剧的世界里，我们可以看到所耳朵里听到的一切，因为我们永远不可能真的来到剧中的世界。这是戏剧模仿真实的绝对时刻，但也仅仅只是模仿而已。没有比这个更加精巧的元戏剧时刻了。

But one thing this does is, because nothing is there, it sort of magnifies the presence of the things that are spoken. So the reality of the scene is entirely produced and kind of magnetic in the things spoken. Each detail gathers crystal dimensions.

但由于舞台上什么都没有，这段台词在一定程度上也放大了语言中所描绘的所有事物的存在感。因此，场景的真实感油然而生，同时言语也传递出了那些事物的强大魅力。每一处细节都像钻石一样，有着很多的切面。

So, one thing to think about here is the way you look at the line endings. So we're at the edge of a cliff, or the edge of an imaginary cliff -- imagine that each line is a cliff, and then look at the last couple of words of each line -- “how fearful,” “so low,” “midway air, “Halfway down,” “dreadful trade,” “anchoring bark,” “murmuring surge,” and so forth. “Look no more.” Each one suggests this kind of precipitous world.

我们还需要关注一下每一行的结尾。我们站在悬崖边，或者说幻想中的悬崖边，我们可以把每一行诗都想象成一座悬崖，注意观察每行诗的结尾。“这么低的地方”“惊心炫目”“盘旋的乌鸦”“山腰中间”“可怕的工作”“停泊在岸旁的”“澎湃的波涛”等等，以及“不愿再看下去了”。每一处都给人一种险峻陡峭的感觉。

We have to remember that we've got here a speech which is seeking to persuade the listener, Gloucester, that he is in a certain place, it's seeking to dissuade him from jumping cause it's so high. At the same time, it's a speech that expresses the inwardness, if you like, the terror, the fear of Edgar. “Methinks he seems no bigger than his head. / The fishermen that walk upon the beach / Appear like mice, and yond tall anchoring bark / Diminished to her cock, her cock a buoy / Almost too small for sight.”

我们一定不要忘记，爱德伽的这段话是为了说服葛罗斯特的。葛罗斯特想要自杀，爱德伽在竭力劝阻他，希望他不要从这么高的地方往下跳。同时，这段台词也表达了爱德伽的内心，从中我们可以感受到他的害怕和恐慌。“我看他的全身简直抵不上一个人头的大小。在海滩上走路的渔夫就像小鼠一般，那艘停泊在岸旁的高大的帆船小得像它的划艇，它的划艇小得向一个浮标，几乎看不出来。”

You feel that fishermen, mice, cock, buoy, disappearing. The figure of the buoy is becoming smaller and smaller and smaller, kind of just moving into annihilation. It's a speech which is crucially about perspective, and about the process of our perspective. We see one thing and then another, that one thing is magnified and then shrunk, we zoom in, we zoom out. There's a recognition all the time that everything that is seen is not just one size, nothing is just one size. It depends from what perspective it’s looked at.

你可以感觉到渔夫、小老鼠、划艇、浮标在慢慢从你的视野中消失。浮标越来越小，越来越小，慢慢地就这样消失不见了。这段描写着重运用了透视法，展现出了我们视野所看到的事物的变化过程。我们看见一样东西，接着又看到了另一样，这个东西一开始被放大，然后又逐渐变小，镜头拉近又推远。它一直提醒着我们，任何事物都不会永远只保持一种大小，没有东西是会永远保持不变的尺寸。事物的大小与我们看它们的角度密切相关。

The final thing I want to say here is … Shakespeare's got, “I’ll look no more / Lest my brain turn and the deficient sight / Topple down headlong.” We can see that what Shakespeare is doing is making sight itself, and deficient sight at that, the subject -- the subject is the very notion of vision, of seeing, of apprehension. And we get this vertiginous derangement in Shakespeare, the strangeness and so forth, in which the thing that he's talking about is the very possibility of seeing and the relativity of seeing, and the fact that lives, possibilities, sounds, exist beyond seeing, which can only be seen through the imagination, just out of reach.

最后，我想讨论一下这句话，爱德伽说“我不愿再看下去了，恐怕我的头脑要昏眩起来，眼睛一花就要一个筋斗直跌下去。”从这里我们可以发现，莎士比亚在有意让视觉本身，让存在缺陷的视觉成为主题。这个主题是视觉的概念，是看的概念，是理解的概念。在莎剧中，我们感受到了这种令人头晕目眩的错乱，产生了某种怪异的感觉。他谈论的是视觉的可能性和视觉的相对性，他探讨了我们视线所不能及的范围以外的生命、可能性和声音，这一切都只能通过想象力才能看到，是遥不可及的。

And so this is a perfect example of how Shakespeare’s plays work. It's an allegory of Shakespearean creativity. But of course, it's also about death, about the temptation of death, about the possibility of extinguishment, or indeed, theimpossibilityof extinguishment. So what happens if you make that leap?

这也完美地向我们展现了莎剧演出的特色，是典型的莎士比亚式创造力的体现。当然，这段台词也探讨了死亡，探讨了与死亡的诱惑，探讨了灭绝的可能性，或者说，灭绝的不可能性。如果我们真的往前迈了一步，最后的结果会是怎样的呢？

Our final speech comes from the very end of the play, in the 1623 Folio version, after Lear has entered with Cordelia’s dead body. This is another strange moment suspended between life and death, and a moment that brings together the play’s key images and concepts--especially the concept of “nothing.”

今天最后一段台词选自1623年第一对开本中所收入版本的结局。李尔抱着考狄利娅的尸体走上舞台。这又是一个游离在生死之间的时刻，汇聚了戏剧的种种关键意象和概念，尤其是“没有”这个概念。

Lear, Edgar, Kent, 5.3.369-382, “And my poor fool is hanged … Stretch him out longer” (Folio)

李尔、爱德伽、肯特，第五幕，第三场，第369-382行，“我的可怜的傻瓜给他们缢死了......”（第一对开本）

LEAR And my poor fool is hanged. No, no, no life?

李尔：我的可怜的傻瓜给他们缢死了！不，不，没有命了！

Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life,

为什么一条狗、一匹马、一只耗子，都有它们的生命，

And thou no breath at all? Thou ’lt come no more,

你却没有一丝呼吸？你是永不回来了，

Never, never, never, never, never.—

永不，永不，永不，永不，永不！

Pray you undo this button. Thank you, sir.

请你替我解开这个纽扣；谢谢你，先生。

Do you see this? Look on her, look, her lips,

你看见吗？瞧着她，瞧，她的嘴唇，

Look there, look there!

瞧那边，瞧那边！

EDGAR He faints.To Lear.My lord,

爱德伽：他晕过去了！（朝向李尔）陛下，

my lord!

陛下！

KENT Break, heart, I prithee, break!

肯特：碎吧，心啊！碎吧！

EDGAR Look up, my lord.

爱德伽：抬起头来，陛下。

KENT Vex not his ghost. O, let him pass! He hates him

肯特：不要烦扰他的灵魂。啊！让他安然死去吧，他将要痛恨

That would upon the rack of this tough world

那想要使他在这无情的人世

Stretch him out longer.

多受一刻酷刑的人。

Now I think that one thing that's crucial in this scene is, as much as the focus of attention is upon Lear and Cordelia, the bodies of Lear and Cordelia are surrounded by all these other attending bodies, sort of supplicating bodies, and in particular, those of Edgar and Kent. And that's important, I think. Shakespeare, in this scene, is bringing together the entire play. This moment of Cordelia's death, or indeed, Lear’s death, is one which, like a piece of music, we've had all of these kinds of motifs and themes which have been foreshadowed and coming to a kind of a climax here -- and so it's no accident that the first thing he says in his speech is, “And my poor fool is hanged.”

这场戏的关键点在于，虽然我们的注意力主要集中在李尔和考狄利娅身上，但我们也会注意到围在李尔和考狄利娅身边的那些人，那些哀号着的人们，尤其是爱德伽和肯特。这一点很重要。莎士比亚将整部剧都汇聚在了这一场戏中。考狄利娅的死亡，以及随后李尔的死亡，就像一首曲子，这支曲子包含了之前就预示了的所有主题，所有主旨，并在此达到了高潮。所以，李尔在这段话开头就说“我的可怜的傻瓜给他们缢死了”就一点儿也不令人意外了。

Now this is a famous moment where we don't know who he means by the “poor fool.” He may refer to his Fool, who has disappeared since the storm scene. He may refer to Cordelia, calling her “my poor fool” as a term of endearment, which also links to the idea that often the roles of the Fool and Cordelia are doubled in performance. So the idea of other lives and other deaths are present in this life, this death -- this kind of spectral presence is really quite important.

其实，我们并不能确定他口中的“可怜的傻瓜”究竟指的是谁。他指的也许是那个“傻瓜”小丑，那个小丑在暴风雨那场戏之后就再也没有出现过了。他指的也有可能是考狄利娅，“我的可怜的傻瓜”是他对女儿的亲昵称呼，而且也让我们联想到，在表演中，小丑和考狄利娅经常是由同一位演员扮演的。在这样的生和这样的死亡中，我们可以看到其他的生者和其他的亡者。营造出了一种非常重要的扑朔迷离的存在感。

“No, no, no life.” And then again, this, “why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life, And thou no breath at all,” which returns us to this question of the animal world, of beasts, of the non-human, of the question, Is there any priority, any hierarchy between the human and the animal, the non-human or not? It's a question. The play ends on a question. There are no answers here. They're just questions.

接着李尔哭嚎道：“不，不，没有命了！”“为什么一条狗、一匹马、一只耗子，都有它们的生命，你却没有一丝呼吸？”这又把我们拉入了动物的世界中，让我们进入了野兽的世界，进入了非人类的世界里，促使我们思考：在人类和非人类的生物之间，是否真的有高低贵贱，有等级之分呢？这是一个值得思考的问题。戏剧以疑问收尾，但它并没有给我们任何的答案，只是提出了问题。

The main thing that Shakespeare does, assuming he revises the play in the Folio edition, the main thing that he adds is the extra “never, never, never’s” And he adds the “Look there, look there,” to focus on Cordelia. He says “Thou’lt come no more” and then “Never, never, never, never, never.” One of the things I think is important here is the way in which Shakespeare stretches out this pentameter with five repetitions of the word “never” -- it's the culmination of all the questioning about nothing. This is the kind of nothing to end all nothings. But in the simple fact of repeating “never,” as it were, each nothing, each never, is also supplemented, it’s added to. So in one sense, “never,” the repetition of “never,” kind of drums home the fact of oblivion, of death. But on the other hand, what it does is sustain the question about never-ness, about nothingness.

假设第一对开本中收入的版本是莎士比亚改写后的版本，他做的最主要的一件事就是加上了“永不，永不，永不”，以及提示我们注意看考狄利娅的那句话“瞧那边，瞧那边”。李尔说“你是永远不回来的了”，接着便喊出了“永不，永不，永不，永不，永不！”。这里值得我们要关注一下莎士比亚的写作手法，他五次重复“永不”这个单词，延伸了这一句五音步诗行，对于“没有”的质疑在这里也到达了最高峰。这个“没有”将要终结所有的“没有”。但是对于“永不”的重复，每一个“没有”，每一个“永不”都是在做进一步的填补和补充。在这一幕中，“永不”，对“永不”的每一次重复像鼓点一样不停地敲打着我们，让我们时刻记得毁灭和死亡。但另一方面，这样的重复又延续了对于“永不”和“没有”质疑。

And the question is life or no life. And he says, “Pray you, undo this button now” -- in saying that, and he says it almost certainly to Edgar, it's the moment which recapitulates, which returns to the kind of pivotal moment in the storm scene when he saw poor Tom and he said, “unaccommodated man is no more than such a poor bare forked animal as thou art,” and then says, “pray you, undo this button, sir.” He says exactly the same thing here. And so what we're getting at again, this idea of spectral presences, a kind of sense in which, whatever the figure of poor Tom was -- that figure is kind of repeated in this figure. It's repeated both in the figure who’s undoing his button, caring for him at this moment of near death, but also in the figure, of course, of Cordelia herself, who, like Tom did, is kind of encapsulating in her own mute body all possibility.

对于究竟是活着还是死亡，李尔说“请你替我解开这个纽扣”，这句话他是对爱德伽说的。这里便又回应了之前的剧情，在暴风雨的那场戏中，有一个很重要的情节，就是李尔遇到可怜的汤姆的那一幕，他对汤姆说“只有你才保全着天赋的原形；人类在草昧的时代，不过是像你这样的一个寒碜的赤裸的两脚动物”，那时他也对汤姆说了这么一句“来，松开你的纽扣”。在这两处李尔说了几乎完全一样的话。于是我们再次体会到了那种扑朔迷离的存在感，不论可怜的汤姆究竟是谁，他都被重复提及。戏剧的重复不仅仅体现在爱德伽身上，不只是在于又一次让他解开纽扣，又一次让他照顾濒死的李尔，这样的重复还体现在了考狄利娅本人身上，和汤姆一样，考狄利娅那无法言语的身体中囊括了所有的可能性。

“Thank you, sir.” And then he ends with, “Do you see this? Look on her, look, her lips, / Look there, look there!” Now, this is a famous moment, because Shakespeare revises the Quarto version, which just had, “Thank you, sir,” and he died with “Oh!”instead of “Look on her, look, her lips. Look there, look there.” Now -- one question is, What is in Lear’s mind? Does he think that Cornelia is alive? Is he saying, “Look, she's breathing, look, I can see it.” Or is he saying, “Look at this, she's dead.” She's, as he said a bit earlier, she's as dead as earth. That's a question which is completely open. It's impossible to legislate or to decide upon one or the other. It can be both or either. It can mean he dies thinking that she's alive, he dies knowing that she is dead. Both of those things are true, and there’s a kind of counterfactual necessity to either of them, as it were.

李尔接着说了句“谢谢你，先生”，但很快他紧跟了一句“你看见吗？瞧着她，瞧，她的嘴唇，看那里，看那里！”。这个情节十分广为人知，莎士比亚对四开本中收入的《李尔王》初版进行了一定的修改。原来的版本中只有“谢谢你，先生”这么一句，接着李尔喊了一句“噢”就死去了,初版中并没有“瞧着她，瞧，她的嘴唇，看那里，看那里！”这句话。那么问题就来了，当时李尔脑中究竟在想什么？他真的认为考狄利娅还活着吗？他说的究竟是“看，她在呼吸，看，我看到了她的呼吸”，还是“看，她已经死了”？他抱着考狄利娅尸体上场时，其实就已经说过考狄利娅像泥土一样死去了。这是一个完全开放的问题，不可能明确知道她究竟是活着还是已经死去了。这两种情况其实都有可能，任何一种都有可能。我们可以认为李尔死去时坚信考狄利娅还活着，也可以相信他去世时已经知道女儿也早已离开了人世。这两种看法都说得通，而且不论是哪一种解读，都是有可能发生的。

But one thing that's certain here is I think we need to think about how this scene works by thinking about the fact of performance. And one thing this does is, it forces everybody on the stage, but also everybody off stage, to look at the body of Cordelia. What happens, therefore, assuming that it's actually the body of the actor, what happens if we see the body breathing? What happens if we see, a little moment earlier, the feather blowing, he puts a feather to her lips, or he put a glass to her lips -- what if we see the glass frosting over? The play is pushing at the idea of life or death, and it's the body of Cordelia that’s taking this enormous burden of expectation and fear and hope, and the question of the actor’s body taking this enormous burden.

不过有一点可以肯定的是，我们必须承认戏剧表演这个事实情况，从而再去认真思考这一幕的运作方式。这场戏让所有角色都来到了舞台上，但同时又让他们离开舞台去看考狄利娅的尸体。因此，我们可以假想一下，他们看到的其实是扮演死去的考狄利娅的演员，我们如果真的看到了她的呼吸会怎样呢？如果我们真的在那之前，看到羽毛在动，因为有人在考狄利娅的唇上放了一片羽毛，或者说把一块玻璃放到她的唇上，结果玻璃上起了雾气，那又会是怎样的一种效果呢？戏剧不断地向着生死概念推进，考狄利娅的尸体承载了巨大的期盼、恐惧和希望，而扮演尸体的演员也承担着重大的负担。

And there's something here where Shakespeare's playing with the impossibility of death, or the question about whether death is possible or not. He does it in the cliff scene, and when Gloucester jumps and says “Am I dead or not,” you know, he's doing the same thing here. So what if theater has a kind of reality here that the script doesn't have? The script says she's dead, but what if the actor is self-evidently alive? Shakespeare seems to be touching upon that cusp between living and dying.

在这里，莎士比亚把玩的是死亡的不可能性，换句话说就是对死亡究竟可不可能发生的质疑。在悬崖边的那一场戏中，他就这么做了，葛罗斯特从站着的地方往下跳之后，问“我有没有死”，在这里莎士比亚把玩的是同样的内容。所以说，如果戏剧演出展现出了剧本所不具备的真实性会怎样呢？剧本上写着考狄利娅已经死了，但舞台上扮演她的演员其实又是活着的。莎士比亚似乎是在探讨生与死的交点。

So we've talked about the idea that “look there, look there” may suggest a kind of redemptive reading, as though she's come back from the dead. Similarly, notice the way in which the responses of Edgar and Kent are also touching upon potentially spiritual, religious, kind of eschatological readings. So eschatological, in other words, the idea of final judgment. So, “my lord, my lord.” Now “my lord” may be referring, may be speaking to Lear, it may be speaking to Kent, it may be speaking to God. “Look up, my lord,” and then Kent says very explicitly, “Vex not his ghost. Let him pass,” as though Lear has actually passed beyond this world into an afterworld, and Kent is kind of speaking to that world. And I think it's typical of the play’s range and audacity that Shakespeare is kind of entering that gap between living and non-living, and everything in this scene is perilously in that space, that space of doubt, that space you can't quite enter, but he enters it anyway.

我们刚刚说过“瞧那边，瞧那边”也许暗示这考狄利娅的复活，她似乎从死亡中又活了过来。同样地，爱德伽和肯特的回答也涉及到了潜在的宗教信仰和某种末世论的解读。所谓末世论，指的就是最终审判。爱德伽喊着“陛下，陛下！”，这里的“陛下”也许是指李尔，但也可能是指肯特，又或者他喊的是上帝。“抬起头来，陛下”，但肯特接着就很肯定地说“不要烦扰他的灵魂。让他安然死去吧。”似乎在说李尔已经告别人世进入了死亡之地，而肯特的这句话是对那个世界说话。我认为这一点是这部剧独特的范围和大胆之处在于莎士比亚在一定程度上深入到了生死之间的那道沟壑中。这场戏中所有的一切在这道沟壑中都岌岌可危，这道沟壑是一个充满了怀疑的空间，是一个你无法进入的空间，但莎士比亚却成功地走入了其中。