Sonnets 3: Secrets to Reading a Sonnet & “The marriage of true minds”

Sonnets -- Part 3 -- Secrets to Reading a Sonnet & “The marriage of true minds”

十四行诗--第3部分--阅读十四行诗的秘诀，以及“真心的结合”

In our first two episodes, we took a bird’s-eye view of Shakespeare’s sonnets, discussing their general form, their addressees, and some of the imagery and ideas that recur throughout the sequence. In this episode, we’ll take a closer look at four sonnets. First, we’ll use Sonnet 29 as a model to discuss reading strategies you can use to approach any of the poems. Then you can practice applying those techniques as you listen to three more sonnets with commentary from Michael Schoenfeldt, John Knott Professor of English Literature at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor.

前两集节目中，我们从整体上概览了莎士比亚十四行诗，探讨了它们的主要形式、歌颂对象，以及部分贯穿整个组诗的意象和概念。本集节目，我们将聚焦4首十四行诗。首先，我们将通过十四行诗第29首，为大家介绍一些阅读技巧。之后，密歇根大学-安娜堡分校的约翰·诺特英语文学教授迈克尔·舍恩菲尔德将带领我们一同赏析另外的3首诗篇。听众朋友们可以结合舍恩菲尔德教授的赏析，实践一下我们所介绍的那些诗歌阅读技巧。

What I would recommend for a first time reader -- always read the poems out loud. Shakespeare was known for his “fine-filed” phrase. And these are some of the smoothest and most gorgeous -- in fact, it even can be hard to understand how complicated they are, because they're so smooth. His smoothness belies the complexity. So I would let the music play, let the thrill, I mean, I don't know, but my ears, I honestly think even if I didn't speak English, I would love the sound of these poems.

对于初次阅读十四行诗的读者，我的建议是：大声朗读这些诗歌。莎士比亚就是因那些“排列精巧”短语而闻名，它们是最流畅、最恢宏、最华丽的诗句。这些诗行流畅连贯，所以人们很容易就忽略了它们的复杂性。诗句的流畅巧妙掩盖了它们所表达的复杂内涵。在欣赏这些诗篇时，我会一边放着音乐，一边为之兴奋激动。虽然我自己也不知道这是为什么，但我很清楚我的耳朵很享受。即便我不懂英语，我想我也会爱上这些诗歌的音韵和节奏的。

As you’re reading aloud, listen for the poem’s rhythm. You may recall that the standard rhythm for a sonnet -- just as for Shakepeare’s dramatic works -- is “iambic pentameter”. Listening for this rhythm means that you can also hear when the speaker varies that rhythm, for emphasis or surprise.

大声朗读，倾听诗歌的韵律。大家应该还记得，十四行诗的标准韵律与莎剧一样，都是“五步抑扬格”。感受诗歌的韵律，我们便可以体会到讲述者是如何通过音韵变化来进行强调和表达惊讶的。

The iambic pentameter “ta TA ta TA, ta TA, taTA, ta TA” -- we feel good when we hear something falling into that. And we enjoy also hearing variations on that once that norm has been set up.

五步抑扬格的节奏是第一个单词轻读，第二个单词重读，类似：“哒哒，哒哒，哒哒，哒哒”，这种节奏会让我们的耳朵很享受。但在设定了音韵标准后，我们又会想听到音韵中的一些变化。

Then I would think about what might be the implied situation of this little piece by itself. Who is the speaker you're talking to? And if so, why does the speaker say this at this moment and articulate it this way at this moment?

接下来我会思考，这首小诗本身暗含了怎样的语境？与读者对话的诗歌讲述者是谁？讲述者为什么要在这样的时刻说这些话？为什么会在这样的时刻用这样的方式说这样的话？

As we listen to sonnet 29, think about what that implied situation or “occasion” for the speech might be. What sort of situation is the speaker in? What prompts him to say these words?

当我们听十四行诗的第29首的时候，我们可以思考诗歌所暗含的语境。诗人当时处于什么样的场景里？又是什么触动了他说出这些话？

When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,

当我受尽命运以及人们的白眼

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

暗暗地哀悼自己的身世飘零，

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

以及徒用呼吁去干扰聋瞆的昊天，

And look upon myself and curse my fate,

以及顾盼着身影，诅咒自己的生辰，

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

愿我和另一个一样富于希望，

Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,

面貌相似，又和他一样广交游，

Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,

希求这人的渊博，那人的内行，

With what I most enjoy contented least;

最赏心的乐事觉得最不对头；

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,

可是，当我正要这样看轻自己，

Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

忽然想起了你，于是我的精神，

Like to the lark at break of day arising

便像云雀破晓从阴霾的大地

From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;

振翮上升，高唱着圣歌在天门：

For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings

一想起你的爱使我那么富有，

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

和帝王换位我也不屑于屈就。

We’ll use this sonnet to look at some of Shakespeare’s key poetic techniques. Keeping these techniques in mind as you read the sonnets can help you perceive the intricacies and novelties of each poem’s construction, and see how it adds new meaning to familiar themes.

我们将通过这首诗，分析莎士比亚创作诗歌时所运用的一些关键技巧。牢记这些技巧可以帮助我们领会每一首诗那复杂精妙的结构，同时我们还可以感受这样的结构是如何为相似的主题增添新的内涵。

The Shakespearean sonnet is divided into three quatrains, or groups of four lines, followed by a couplet, or a rhyming pair of lines. This structure reflects the movement of the speaker’s thought. Sometimes the quatrains offer contrasting points of view; sometimes all three quatrains develop a single idea. Sometimes the couplet will wittily summarize the argument that came before; or sometimes the couplet will reverse it. Here, we find a reversal after the first two quatrains. Lines 1 to 8 build on the idea of the speaker’s dejection; the word “Yet” at the start of the third quatrain indicates a shift in direction, and the following lines show the speaker gaining new hope. Consider how this sense of hope would seem more or less powerful if it had been given eight lines, for example, or only two.

莎士比亚十四行诗每首都可以分为3组“四行诗”，加上最后两行以一组押韵“对句”结尾的诗。这种结构体现了诗歌讲述者的思考轨迹。有时，这3组四行诗所表达的观点相互矛盾对立；有时，它们又在表达完全一致的观念和态度；有时，最后的对句会巧妙总结前面的内容；但有时，它又会完全推翻前面的想法。而在这首诗中，前两组四行诗结束后，出现了一个反转。讲述者在第1至8行中，表达了内心的阴郁和沮丧，而第三组四行诗开头的“可是”（yet），预示着语气的转变，后续的诗句表现出讲述者获得了新的希望。我们可以试想一下，如果作者用长长的8行诗句，或者只用短短的2行诗句来表达这样的希望，所传递的情绪是会增强还是会减弱呢？

I think some of the couplets in some of those poems are almost bearing so much weight -- “When to the sessions of sweet, silent thought, / I summon up remembrance of things past,” we hear about all the losses over the course of the first twelve lines, and then we hear, “But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, / All losses are restored and sorrows end.” A wonderful notion of the recuperative power of memory, but I think one that probably asks memory to carry too much weight for -- I mean, think about twelve lines of loss and two lines of recuperation, already, you feel it's like buckling under the weight.

诗篇中的部分对句也有着相似的作用。十四行诗第30首“当我传唤对已往事物的记忆，出庭于那馨香的默想的公堂”中，前12句都是对失落和遗憾的慨叹，但到了最后的对句，诗人却话锋一转，写到“但是只要那刻我想起你，挚友，损失全收回，悲哀也化为乌有。”这两句说的是记忆的修复能力，但我觉得在这里记忆似乎承受了过重的压力。想想看，前面12行句诗都在说失落和遗憾，最后两行才说弥补和修复，大家应该已经可以感觉到它们所承受的重量了吧。

Also consider smaller elements of structure, like repetition and contrast. In the first quatrain we find the word “and” repeated several times: “And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, /Andlook upon myself and curse my fate,” This builds up our sense of the speaker’s relentless discontent; meanwhile, the repetition of “like him” in the second quatrain -- “featured like him, like him with friends possessed,” emphasizes how many people the speaker envies. And when he says, “With what I most enjoy contented least,” the contrast or antithesis of “most” and “least” emphasizes how absolute his dejection is.

同时，我们也要关注更细节的结构元素，例如重复和对比。在第一组四行诗中，诗人用了好几次“以及”（and）这个词。“以及徒用呼吁去干扰聋瞆的昊天，/以及顾盼着身影，诅咒自己的生辰”，从中我们可以感受到诗人那没完没了的不满情绪。在第二组四行诗中，“相似”、“一样”（like him）这类表达也反复出现，“面貌相似，又和他一样广交游”，这强调讲述者羡慕着很多人。而在“最赏心的乐事觉得最不对头”这一句中“最赏心”与“最不对头”又形成对比，表达了他内心绝对的阴郁和忧愁。

Another thing to consider is what critic Helen Vendler calls the “key word” of the sonnet. Often the sonnets will repeat a certain word or variations of that word. Watching how that word emphasizes or changes its original meaning can help you follow the poem’s thought process. Here, for instance, the speaker repeats the word “state” three times, in lines 2, 10, and 14.

除此之外，阅读十四行诗我们还需要考虑著名诗歌评论家海伦·文德勒所说的“关键词”。十四行诗通常会反复重复某个特定单词，或者它的变体。留意这个单词所强调的意义以及它所延伸的意思，有助于我们理解诗歌的思考过程。例如，在这首诗中，讲述者在第2行、第10行和第14行用同一个英文单词（state）表达了“身世”“精神”和“地位”这些类似的意思。

In addition to key words, the sonnets also have key figures of speech: metaphors, images, and symbols that give a material sense to the speaker’s thoughts and feelings. That sense is both evocative and elusive. There’s no simple way to translate or paraphrase the meaning of the poems’ images, but they channel our thoughts in richly suggestive directions. In this poem, for instance, the poet uses the image of “heaven” twice -- with a different meaning each time.

除了关键词，我们也需要关注十四行诗还有修辞格，如：隐喻、意象、象征等。修辞格让读者对于思想和情感有了直观的感受。这种感觉既是可以被唤起的，但同时也是难以捉摸的。诗歌意象无法简单地被翻译、被解释，但却可以为我们的思维注入丰富的联想。就以这首诗为例，诗人两次运用了“天”（heaven）这个意象，但是意思各不相同。

Finally, think about the way that a poem uses its imagery to recall a question or an idea from another poem. One advantage of writing a series of poems is the chance to explore a single idea from many different points of view.

最后，我们还需要思考诗歌运用意象来发问或者引用其他诗篇中观点的方式。创作系列组诗的一个优点就在于，诗人可以从不同的角度探索相同的观点。

I think that was part of the attraction, even at the sonnet sequence. You don't just nail it down with one poem and then leave it aside. But you'll open it up again in the next poem, and you open it up again in the next poem, and you turn it on its head in the next poem, and you look at it from the side in the next poem -- that it becomes a way for him of almost, thinking of a jewel that you would keep rotating and seeing different fractures and different lights and all of that -- that it becomes a way for him to, to begin to explore. And so there are only, I would say, provisional answers. There's no final answer in that regard.

十四行组诗的部分魅力就在这里。我们并不会在读懂了一首诗所表达的观点后，就把它扔到一边。我们还会在下一首诗中再次遇到这种观点，接着再继续遇到它，然后又在下一首诗中遇见与之完全相反的观点，再接着还会在又一首诗中，从另一个角度去看这个问题。这就像是拿着一枚珠宝，不断地转动，就可以看到不同的缝隙，看到不同的光芒。这是探究诗歌的一种方式。我们眼下所看到的都只是暂时的答案，而且也不存在某个最终确定的答案。

Love and desire are, of course, some of the recurring ideas in the sonnets. So too is the idea of time: the poems explore how time will inevitably bring an end to both love and the beloved, and they also ask what might withstand time’s destruction.

当然，爱和情欲是十四行诗中反复出现的主题。此外，时间也是十四行诗经常探讨的内容。诗歌探寻时间是如何不可避免地让爱情和爱人消逝，同时诗歌也在努力找到抵御时间侵蚀的方法。

I would say for the first-time reader, one of the most important things to think about, in regard to this sequence is, how the poems themselves are so contained and yet try to take on this, the immense challenge of time. They do not posit, except for one example, “Poor soul, the center of my sinful earth,” they do not posit an afterlife. The only salvation they can imagine against a time that truly destroys everything, is their utterance, their compelling utterance of the designer that we still want to read. So part, I think, of the thrill of these poems is the way that we begin to fulfill some of that hope, that expectation.

对于初次阅读十四行诗的读者，我认为他们需要思考的最重要的问题是，从整个组诗的角度上关注，这些诗篇是如何在将自己融于组诗中的同时，又试图承担起时间这个巨大挑战的。整个组诗中，仅除了“可怜的灵魂，万恶身躯的中心”这首诗歌之外，所有的诗歌都没有假想来世。面对可以摧毁一切的时间，诗篇所能想象到的唯一救赎就是语言文字，那些设计精巧的、引人入胜的文字，那些我们现今依旧愿意阅读的文字。这些诗歌带给我们的快感部分来源于我们实现这种希望和期待的方式。

You'll find yourself, you'll find the poem, I would argue, just opening up. A word will jump out at you that you missed on your first two readings or your first 20 readings or your first 30 readings. I mean, these are poems that I've been working with for 40 years and I'm starting to understand maybe a few of them, the easier ones. But they just keep kind of, they're like a flower that you think it's open, and then it has another opening, and then it has another opening, and then -- so just kind of keep reading, keep thinking about, keep letting the pleasure of the music react with the brilliance of the thought, and think about how those things, almost like a song, a wash over you, and make you feel something that you probably couldn't have felt fully and entirely on your own.

只要翻开书页，你就会找到你自己，找到诗歌。一个单词跳到你的面前，在最初2次的阅读中，你错过了它，甚至在前20次、前30次阅读中，你都没有注意过它。我研究这些诗歌也已经有40年了，但我也只是才刚刚理解其中少数的几首而已，而且还是比较简单的那几首。这些诗歌就像是花朵，你认为它是盛开的，但之后它却会一次又一次地再次盛放，不断循环往复。所以，我们要坚持阅读，坚持思考，坚持让音乐之美与思考之乐交相融合，相互作用。想想那些内容，那些像歌曲、像水流般涤荡着你的内容，感受一下那些我们无法靠自己完全获得的感受。

Let’s go back to Sonnet 29. As you hear it again, listen for those repeated structures and key words. How does the meaning of the word “state” change each time it's used? Or the image of “heaven”? What contrasting views of the speaker do we find at the start and the end of the poem?

让我们再次回顾一下十四行诗第29首。听的时候，我们可以留意那些不断反复的结构和关键词。思考表示“身世”“精神”和“地位”的那个单词（state）在不同的地方的不同内涵；思考“天”（heaven）这个意象在两句诗行中又有什么不同意义；思考诗歌讲述者在诗歌开篇和结尾的那两种截然不同的观点是什么。

When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,

当我受尽命运以及人们的白眼，

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

暗暗地哀悼自己的身世飘零，

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

以及徒用呼吁去干扰聋瞆的昊天，

And look upon myself and curse my fate,

以及顾盼着身影，诅咒自己的生辰，

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

愿我和另一个一样富于希望，

Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,

面貌相似，又和他一样广交游，

Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,

希求这人的渊博，那人的内行，

With what I most enjoy contented least;

最赏心的乐事觉得最不对头；

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,

可是，当我正要这样看轻自己，

Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

忽然想起了你，于是我的精神，

Like to the lark at break of day arising

便像云雀破晓从阴霾的大地

From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;

振翮上升，高唱着圣歌在天门：

For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings

一想起你的爱使我那么富有，

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

和帝王换位我也不屑于屈就。

Now let’s apply some of these reading techniques to our next 3 sonnets. First is Sonnet 18 -- a poem deeply concerned with the relationship of beauty and poetry to time. Listen for how many different units of time are named in this poem. Also listen for repeated words like “summer,” and consider how their meaning expands and changes through the poem.

下面，我们就运用刚才所学的阅读技巧来分析一下之后的3首诗歌。首先，我们要欣赏的是十四行诗第18首，它深刻探讨了美、诗歌和时间之间的关系。听的时候，大家可以关注诗人运用了多少种不同的时间单位，以及被多次重复的“夏天”这个词。同时，我们还要思考这些单词的内涵在整首诗歌中，是如何延伸转变的。

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

我怎么能够把你来比作夏天？

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

你不独比它可爱也比它温婉：

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

狂风把五月宠爱的嫩蕊作践，

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.

夏天出赁的期限又未免太短：

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

天上的眼睛有时照得太酷烈，

And often is his gold complexion dimmed;

它那炳耀的金颜又常遭掩蔽：

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

被机缘或无常的天道所摧折，

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed.

没有芳艳不终于雕残或销毁。

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

但是你的长夏永远不会凋落，

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,

也不会损失你这皎洁的红芳，

Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,

或死神夸口你在他影里漂泊，

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.

当你在不朽的诗里与时同长。

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

只要一天有人类，或人有眼睛，

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

这诗将长存，并且赐给你生命。

I would say this is one of the most beautiful sonnets here, yet at the same time, I would, even the opening comparison invites a meditation on the temporality of the beloved -- this gorgeous exploration, “thou art more lovely and more temperate” -- this incredible almost climatological reading, which I think probably carried even more weight in England, where there are set for summer days are long, but summer is short. And then we begin to get in line 5, I find, slight critiques of the summer's day that -- this a trick that Shakespeare does repeatedly, he'll compare somebody to something as a mode of praise, and then say that he actually exceeds the thing. I'm comparing him to because summer’s too hot, “Sometimes too hot, the eye of heaven shines and often is his gold complexion dim.”

我认为这是莎士比亚最优美的十四行诗之一。开篇的对比让我们感受到了爱人的短暂与易逝。“你不独比它可爱也比它温婉”，这一句多华丽呀。这句与气候有关的表达对于生活在英国的人来说，应该会更加深刻形象。在英国，虽然夏日的白昼长，但夏季却是很短暂的。接下来，我们来到第5行，这一句对于夏天略带一些批判的意味。这是莎士比亚常玩的一个小把戏，他会把某个人比作某样事物，以此来夸耀这个人。但接着，他又会说这个人其实远胜于这件东西。我把他比作夏天，因为夏天太过炙热，“夏天有时太酷烈，天上的眼睛那炳耀的金颜又常遭掩蔽”。

“But,” we hear at line nine, a kind of powerful turn -- “But thy eternal summer shall not fade.” Now we're not quite sure how this alchemy is going to happen. How is this young man going to be preserved -- “Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st, / Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade, / When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st”. I would argue with that line 12, “When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st” -- it works actually on two levels brilliantly at once. Shakespeare has, on the one hand, opened up the idea of lineage, of having children, and that that will replicate and thus continue to eternity, the beauty of the young man. The other way in which those eternal lines work are the lines in front of us, Shakespeare's own lines of verse, which carry the power to sustain, not the identity of the young man, since we have no idea whether he exists, who he is, whatever, but the idea of the young man -- “So long as men can breathe,” the couplet says, “or eyes can see / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” Again, verse is granted an almost divine power to give life and to sustain life well beyond the ravages of time. And so we start out with a comparison to something that is temporal, and we end up with a claim for the full powerful eternity of the speaker's desire and the speaker's idealization of this, this gorgeous young man.

可到了第9行，诗人却来了一个大转折，他说“但是你的长夏永远不会凋落”。读到此处，我们其实也不是很清楚这个转折是如何发生的。这位年轻男子为什么可以永葆青春呢？“也不会损失你这皎洁的红芳，或死神夸口你在他影里漂泊，”我对于第12行诗句“当你在不朽的诗里与时同长”会持有一定的异议。诗歌似乎同时在两个层面做着不懈的努力。莎士比亚一方面提出了世系血统问题，呼吁这位青年男子繁衍后代，复刻自己，从而获得永恒，延续自己的美貌。但同时他又提出了延续永恒的另一种方式，那就是通过我们眼前的这一行行诗句，通过莎士比亚笔下的这些诗篇，这些诗篇也有着强大的传承力量。当然，诗行延续的并不是这位年轻男子的实体，毕竟我们都不确定他是否存在过，也不知道他是谁。但诗篇可以延续“年轻男子”这个概念。正如诗歌最后对句所说的：“只要一天有人类，或人有眼睛，这诗将长存，并且赐给你生命。”再一次，诗歌被赋予了一种几乎神圣的力量，它可以跨越时光的掠夺，赐给生命，延续生命。诗人在开篇用短暂易逝的夏天进行对比，但在诗歌结束时，他又呼唤恒久保持讲述者的欲望，保持讲述者对这个美好青年的理想。

Our next sonnet, 116, also asks what can be saved from the ravages of time. It agrees that the beauty of the beloved may not endure, but argues -- or hopes -- that something else can. Listen again for repeated variations of key words: “alter,” “remove,” “bend.” Listen, too, for contrasting images: images of change or fragility, versus images of stability or endurance.

我们接下来要欣赏的是十四行诗第116首，它同样在探寻如何躲过时间的摧残。虽然这首诗也承认爱人的美无法永远持续，但它主张，或者说希望，其他的某样东西是可以恒久保留的。在聆听时，我们需要关注表示“变化”的一系列词汇，以及表达类似含义的词汇，这些都是诗歌的关键词。同时，我们也需要留意一些相互对立的意象，如：表示变化和脆弱的意象与表示稳定和持久的意象。

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

我绝不承认两颗真心的结合

Admit impediments. Love is not love

会有任何障碍；爱算不得真爱，

Which alters when it alteration finds

若是一看见人家改变便转舵，

Or bends with the remover to remove.

或者一看见人家转弯便离开。

O, no, it is an ever-fixèd mark

哦，决不！爱是亘古长明的塔灯，

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

它定睛望着风暴却兀不为动；

It is the star to every wand’ring bark,

爱又是指引迷舟的一颗恒星，

Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.

你可量它多高，它所值却无穷。

Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

爱不受时光的播弄，尽管红颜

Within his bending sickle’s compass come;

和皓齿难免遭受时光的毒手；

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

爱并不因瞬息的改变而改变，

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

它巍然矗立直到末日的尽头。

If this be error, and upon me proved,

我这话若说错，并被证明不确，

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

就算我没写诗，也没人真爱过。

One of the things that I think stands out about this poem -- it's a statement about what love might be rather than an articulation of a desire, and I find this statement both highly idealized and almost as precarious as the summer's day. The opening, “Let me not to the marriage of true minds, admit impediments.” I find that aspiring to a kind of gorgeous intimacy, “marriage of true minds.” It's interesting that the genitalia do not matter there, it's the mind, it's the being, it's the internal being that is being celebrated. “Love is not love, which alters when it alteration finds.” And what's lovely. There is the gorgeous pun on change. So change is the thing that threatens love always, but also buried in the word he uses for change, altar, is the very place where, which would have been consecrated, at the altar.

这首诗突出的地方在于，它描述了爱情可能的样子，而不是在表达某种爱欲。这里的观点既是高度理想化的，也如同夏日一般短暂易逝。第一句：“我绝不承认两颗真心的结合，会有任何障碍。”我觉得这表达了对一种理想的亲密关系的向往，他向往着“两颗真心的结合”。有意思的是，在这句诗中，爱情无关性别，而是源自思想，源自感情，诗歌赞美的是一种内在的感情。“爱算不得真爱，若是一看见人家改变便转舵。”这一句十分可爱，巧妙地运用了关于“改变”（change）的一个双关。“改变”总是威胁着爱情，同时爱情也被置于“圣坛”之上。“圣坛”（altar）这个词的英文和同样表示“改变”意义的“转舵”一词（alter）发音接近。人们总认为爱情是崇高神圣的，是被置于圣坛之上的。

And the power of that expression, which then gets fully laid out in the very complicated definition -- “Love is not love” -- a really hard line with the line break. And then “which alters,” you know, suddenly you realize how hard love is to manifest, if “love is not love, which alters when it alteration finds” -- things change. And one of the things that haunts these poems is the idea of change. And one of the things these poems are struggling towards is what does obtain, what does sustain.

这个表达的力量，在之后对爱的复杂定义中得到了充分阐述。“爱算不得真爱”是一个非常强硬的表态，但是它是断裂的。爱会“转舵”，此时你突然意识到想要证明爱是很难的，因为“爱算不得真爱，若是一看见人家改变便转舵”，事事易变。一直萦绕在诗歌中还有“变化”这个概念。这些诗歌正在努力探寻什么是存在，什么是永恒。

I find this poem, a series of almost optative statements about love, what he would love for love to be: it never changes, it’s not time's fool -- it keeps saying what love isn't, because love is so hard, in fact, to define. And it gets defined weirdly enough by its unchangeability, which suggests that if either the object changes or the subject changes or the feeling itself changes somehow, that's not love. And yet this is also the poet who could write in Hamlet,one of the saddest lines, “I did love thee once.” Love is there and then it evaporates it where the hell does it go, is kind of what he's trying to sort out in this poem in a deeply idealized form.

在这首诗中，我们可以看到一系列关于爱情的祈使句，在诗人心中，爱情应该是永远不会改变的，不会被时间愚弄。诗人一直在说爱不是什么，因为爱很难被定义。爱的定义之所以奇怪，就在于它的不可改变，这意味着一旦爱的对象改变了，一旦爱的主体改变了，或者爱这种感情本身发生了改变，那这就不再是爱了。诗人在《哈姆莱特》中就曾写过这样一句哀伤至极的台词：“我的确曾经爱过你。”爱出现过，但又逐渐消失了，它究竟去了哪儿？诗人希望在这首诗中，用高度理想化的形式理清爱情这种东西。

And I would argue that here with the couplet -- the couplet reveals how bad the hand is that we're all playing in this game of love. “If this be error,” if things do change “and upon me proof, I never” -- he makes it an almost absurd proposition, since we've just read a poem -- if I’m wrong to say that love never changes, then nobody ever loved, which just kind of the nightmare of this poem, which is kind of the possible nightmare of this book. And “I never writ”, which is kind of the impossibility of this poem that we've just read. So I find it's a, it's a desperate effort to, a brilliant and gorgeous and lovely effort to articulate the ideals, I think, that we all feel in those moments of heightened head over heels love and all of that, but not quite ready to take off on the sort of mundane, domestic, “who's done the dishes” kind of love that we all have to learn to sustain in order to try to have an intimate relationship with another being.

接下来，我们要欣赏的是最后的对句。这组对句表明在爱情这场游戏中，我们表现得有多糟糕。“我这话若说错”，如果出现了变化，“并被证明不确”。诗人这里的假设近乎荒谬，因为我们刚刚才读完这首诗。如果“爱情永远不会改变”这个观点是错误的，那么就没有人曾经爱过，这是这首诗的噩梦，甚至可能是整本书的噩梦。“就算我没有写诗”，这在一定程度上否定了我们刚才读完的这首诗。我认为这是一种不惜一切代价的努力，是一种为了表达理想爱情而作出的绚烂华丽又可爱的努力。这些理想爱情，可以在浓情蜜意的一见钟情中感受到，但是在那平凡琐碎的“该谁洗碗”的爱情里却很少能够感受到，但是我们必须学着去维持这种爱，因为只有这样，我们才能与另一个鲜活个体建立亲密关系。

So I love this poem, and I find this a little machine of optative desire, which it's really powerful, but I think it's somewhat limited in that regard too, and limited by things that erupt throughout the sequence deliberately.

我很喜欢这首诗，我觉得它就像是一台小小的欲望机器，强大又有力。但同时，它在一定程度上又是被束缚着的，它被整个组诗中刻意迸发的情绪所限制。

Our final sonnet, 129, is also closely connected to time, but in a different sense. It looks not at the vast expanses of eternity, but at the vast difference we can experience between one moment and the next--the moment before and the moment after a certain action. Listen particularly for the verbs and the different verb tenses in this poem: how does the speaker’s experience change when we move from “having” to “had”? You can also listen for antitheses or opposites, such as “bliss” and “woe,” and consider how they work to evoke the speaker’s extreme feelings.

最后，我们要看的是十四行诗第129首，它同样也是紧紧围绕时间，但分析的角度很不一样。它没有探究宏大的永恒，而是关注人们在某一特定行为前后时刻不同体验之间的巨大差别。在欣赏的时候，我们尤其要注意诗中的动词和时态。关注当从“已有”转到“现有”时，讲述者的体验发生了怎样的改变。同时，大家也需要留意对立的概念，例如“幸福”和“灾殃”，并思考这些对立的概念是如何唤起讲述者的极端情绪的。

Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame

把精力消耗在耻辱的沙漠里，

Is lust in action; and, till action, lust

就是色欲在行动；而在行动前，

Is perjured, murd’rous, bloody, full of blame,

色欲赌假咒、嗜血、好杀、满身是

Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;

罪恶，凶残、粗野、不可靠、走极端；

Enjoyed no sooner but despisèd straight;

欢乐尚未央，马上就感觉无味：

Past reason hunted, and no sooner had,

毫不讲理地追求；可是一到手，

Past reason hated as a swallowed bait

又毫不讲理地厌恶，像是专为

On purpose laid to make the taker mad.

引上钩者发狂而设下的钓钩；

Mad in pursuit and in possession so;

在追求时疯狂，占有时也疯狂；

Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;

不管已有、现有、未有，全不放松；

A bliss in proof and proved a very woe;

感受时，幸福；感受完，无上灾殃；

Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.

事前，巴望着的欢乐；事后，一场梦。

All this the world well knows, yet none knows well

这一切人共知；但谁也不知怎样

To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.

逃避这个引人下地狱的天堂。

For me, this is the most unique poem -- first of all, it's the first poem I know whose explicit subject is orgasm. Since Petrarch people have been longing and desiring, for centuries, this poem is about what happens when you get what you want. And it's really not a very pretty picture, according to Shakespeare, at least. There was the belief in the time that each orgasm shortened your life -- you can hear how powerfully the financial language underpins, “Theexpenseof spirit,” it's giving up something, “in awaste.” What a bad investment, a waste and “waist” is of course also the erotic part of the body -- and shame -- Shakespeare would've known from his Latin that the very words for female genitalia, “pudenda,” mean shame, shameful parts.

我觉得，这是一首独特的诗。首先，在我所知道所有诗歌中，它是第一首明确将“性高潮”作为主题的诗。自彼特拉克以来，人们一直期盼着、渴望着，数百年来，这是第一首讲述人们在得到了一直渴望的东西时，会发生什么。但从莎士比亚的描述来看，这根本称不上是多么美好的画面。在那时，有观点认为，每一次的性高潮都会缩短人的寿命。诗中与经济相关的语言十分震撼人心，“消耗精力”的意思是放弃或浪费。这个投资很糟糕，浪费（waste）和“腰”（waist）的英文发音相似，腰是一个充满情欲色彩的身体部位。而对于“耻辱”一词，饱读拉丁文学的莎士比亚，一定也知道在拉丁语中，表示女性阴部（pudenda）的词汇意思就是“耻辱的部位”。

I was talking earlier about the music of Shakespeare's verse. For me, this is one of the least musical verses he's ever done -- “Savage extreme, rude, cruel not to trust” -- those are some of Shakespeare's most rough ragged lines describing the compulsions described here.

之前，我曾探讨过莎士比亚诗歌的音乐性。我认为，这一首诗是最不具备音乐性的一首。“凶残、粗野、不可靠、走极端”等等，它们是莎士比亚最粗糙破碎的诗行，描绘的都是压抑的冲动。

And for me, this poem plays out the physiological underpinnings of the kinds of desire that other poems articulate in such exalted ways. This poem is about the cycle of physiological desire and how it becomes almost a kind of nightmarish treadmill, kind of Sisyphean pushing the Boulder, no satisfaction, and suddenly you're back at the bottom, pushing it back up again. I find it stunning that he would include in these poems with such gorgeous expressions of lightness and beauty, such as “Shall I compare thee to a summer's day,” this poem about the physiological compulsions of human sexuality.

这首诗从生理本能层面，阐述了其他诗歌用崇高方式表达的种种欲望。诗歌探讨了生理欲望的循环，以及这个循环是如何成为噩梦般只会单调重复的跑步机，那情形就像西西弗斯不断推起巨石的场面。你无法从中获得满足感，巨石会不断跌落谷底，你不得不再次推起巨石。令人惊叹的是，诗人在创作十四行诗时，确实写出了不少轻快华丽的表达，既有“我怎么能够把你来比作夏天？”这样美丽的诗句，但也不乏对于人类性欲冲动的描写。

It's telling in this poem that there's no gender of the object, that in fact, it's just about lust. There's no possibility here about how interest can be paid back, not just in emotional satisfaction, but in children. There's nothing about that here. There's just a sense of being drawn to expend energy in a wasteful and demeaning way for an endless cycle until the couplet here, “All this,” he says, he loves to sum up things like that in, “All this, the world well knows, yet none knows well / To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell” -- the idea that this is a kind of apparent heavenly pleasure that really just produces a hell of pursuit, as he says, “mad in pursuit and mad in possession.” So it's almost like catnip. We can't stop it and yet it makes us crazy when we do it. We hear “Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream” -- what's stunning there is that the act itself is just in this edition a semicolon. That's how quickly it -- the pleasure is so ephemeral, and that too haunts him, and then something like a post-coital tristesse settles in that makes one feel bad, and then the desire starts creeping up again. I find this poem in its portrait of the compulsions of desire to be powerful and stunning and nothing like anything that I've seen in previous English poetry.

诗中没有说明对象的性别，这很说明问题，因为这表明诗歌只探讨色欲。这里没有探讨回报的可能，没有谈论情感上的满足，也没有谈论子嗣的繁衍。没有任何这方面的内容。似乎所有的精力都被挥霍在了不体面的无尽爱欲循环中，直到我们读到最后的对句。“这一切”，诗人写道，莎士比亚很喜欢用这个方式进行总结，“这一切人共知；但谁也不知怎样，逃避这个引人下地狱的天堂。”这表面上看似乎是天堂般的愉悦，但实际上却是地狱般的追求，“在追求时疯狂，占有时也疯狂”。这就像猫咪吸猫薄荷，一旦吸上，就很难停下，它令人疯狂迷乱。对于“事前，巴望着的欢乐；事后，一场梦”这句，在我们选用的这个版本中，性爱行为本身仅仅如分号一般短暂。一切发生的十分迅速，快感转瞬即逝，这也令诗人惶恐不安，这就像是性爱过后的忧郁沉闷，让人生出了不好的感觉，而后便新的欲望又会骚动起来。这首诗对于欲望冲动的描摹强大且震撼，这是我在这之前的英文诗歌中所不曾体会过的。

So for me, the value of this, this poem, plumbs the depths, the physiological depths, of the desire that produces so many of the celebrations in the other poems, and part of our effort is to try to calibrate those things, and they never seem really able to be calibrated.

这首诗歌的价值在于，它探究了欲望的生理深度，而这种欲望在其他诗歌中激发的往往都是称赞与颂扬，我们的努力有部分原因就是为了校准这些内容，但实际上，这些内容根本不可能被校准的。

Part of what makes Shakespeare’s sonnets so extraordinary is precisely in how they can articulate our most celebrated ideals andour most devastating experiences, in language that allows us to feel the force of both anew.

莎士比亚的十四行诗之所以这么与众不同，部分源于它们表达出了我们最崇尚的理想观念，书写出了我们最悲怆的经历和体验，而它们所运用的语言让我们有机会重新去感受这两股力量。

We would probably value the sequence less if it were only idealized poems or for only dark turgid poems. What I find lovely, like the alternation of sun and shadows is the ways in which love can be this gorgeous and ennobling thing, and this painful thing that makes you do things that you would never want to do -- the poet who can write both that, the idea of love as a disease that haunts you and makes you consuming exactly what's terrible, what makes you sicker, and “Shall I compare thee to a summer's day” -- that tonal range is, is stunning and part, I think of the real value.

如果说莎士比亚的十四行组诗仅仅只是理想化的诗篇，仅仅只是晦涩难懂的神秘诗篇，那我们也许也不会这么重视它们了。但它们可爱之处在于，爱如同光影的交替，既可以是这种绚烂高贵的，又可以是这种痛苦难堪的，爱会让你做出你永远不愿做的事。诗人既可以把爱情描写成令人困扰、令人消瘦、令人憔悴的疾病，同时又可以写出“我怎么能够把你来比作夏天？”这样美好动人的诗句。这样广阔的范围层次，着实令人惊叹，而这也正是这些十四行诗真正的价值所在。