Lesson1: Introduction to William Blake and His Songs of Innocence and Experience

文本编辑：Dawn

文本校对：Belinda & Doris

文本翻译：Dawn & Belinda

重点词汇：Dawn

Hello, I am Joe,welcome back to MT English, this is a podcast discussing some of William Blake’s poems in The Songs of Innocence and Experience.

大家好，我是周培森，欢迎收听MT英语。本期电台主要给大家介绍威廉·布莱克写的诗集《天真之歌》与《经验之歌》中的一些诗歌。

It’s important to notice that on the frontispiece of the books bound together, Innocence and Experience. Blake inscribed showing the two contrary states of the human soul. 

值得注意的是，《天真之歌与经验之歌》诗集封面，布莱克刻写的是人类灵魂的两种相反状态。

So a very important concept that Blake is making very clear here is that he really believes that innocence and experience are the two things which make us who we are, they really make up our thoughts, our minds and who we are, and we are human beings.

所以布莱克在这里明确强调的一个非常重要的观念是，他真的相信天真和经验成就了(现在的）我们，它们的确是我们思想和灵魂的一部分，使我们成为了真正的人类。

So let’s listen first to the introduction to The Songs of Innocence and just get a feeling for the poetry. From Songs of Innocence Introduction:

所以，让我们先听一下《天真之歌》吧！用心感受一下这首诗。

Piping down the valleys wild

我吹着枚笛从荒谷走下来

Piping songs of pleasant glee

吹着愉快欢欣的歌

On a cloud I saw a child

我看见云端上有一个小孩

And he laughing said to me

他乐呵呵地对我说

‘Pipe a song about a Lamb!’

吹一支小羔羊的歌吧

So I piped with merry chear

我便吹得如痴如醉

‘Piper pipe that song again—’

吹笛人再吹一遍吧

So I piped, he wept to hear

我就吹了，他听着却掉了泪

‘Drop thy pipe thy happy pipe

放下你的风笛，你美好的风笛

Sing thy songs of happy chear’

唱一些欢乐的曲调

So I sung the same again

我就又把它重新唱起

While he wept with joy to hear

他听着、高兴得眼泪直掉

‘Piper sit thee down and write

吹笛人你坐下来写点吧

In a book that all may read—’

写成一本书让大伙都读到

So he vanish'd from my sight

他说完就消失在我眼前

And I pluck'd a hollow reed

我就摘了一根空心的芦苇草

And I made a rural pen

我做成一枝乡土味的笔

And I stain'd the water clear

我把它往清清的水里一蘸

And I wrote my happy songs

我写下我快乐的歌曲

Every child may joy to hear

孩子们个个都听得欢喜

So a very fairly simple song, maybe a couple of words you don’t know, but the language is quite simple, it's not a very complicated poem, similarly to the other poems in The Songs of Innocence. 

这是一首非常简单的歌，或许有几个你不认识的单词，但里面的语言很简单，不是一首非常复杂的诗，类似于《天真之歌》中的其他诗。

So what can we make of (了解) this poem? It’s important to know that the “Piper” in the poem, most likely represent Blake himself. You know, the child asks him to write down his songs and his poems, so that other people can hear them. 

那么，我们可以从这首诗中学到什么呢，重要的是要知道诗人中的“吹笛者”很可能代表布莱克本人。你知道，这个孩子让他写下他的诗歌，以便其他人可以听到它们。

The tone is of course very happy and sweet and lovely, the countryside, nature, small child, music, all very nice things. But let’s pay special attention to some things in the poem, particularly the child asks:  “Pipe a song about a Lamb ”. Why would a child asks this? Maybe because you know in the countryside there are many lambs, lambs are lovely, but also let’s remember the lamb is a Christine symbol for Christ Jesus. 

曲调当然是非常柔和轻快的，乡村、大自然、小孩、音乐，都是非常美好的事物。但是，让我们重点留意一下诗歌中的某些东西，尤其是孩子说“Pipe a song about a Lamb! 吹一支小羔羊的歌吧”为什么这个小孩会叫他这样做呢？可能是因为在乡村会有很多羊，小羊们都很可爱，但同时，我们也应该知道羊对于基督来说是神圣的象征。

So there are some kind of religious meaning here, and particularly about innocence, you know lambs are very innocence, they are newly born, very soft and white, and lovely.

所以这里有一些宗教意义，尤其是关于天真，你知道小羊羔是是天真的，它们新出生，非常柔软，非常洁白可爱。 

Also we must pay attention to the last stanza ：“And I made a rural pen, And I stain'd the water clear” so what he saying here is the water was clear, but he stained it, very important thing here is that something is slightly negative in a very positive happy poem. 

我们还必须注意最后一节：“And I made a rural pen, And I stain'd the water clear，我做成一枝乡土味的笔，我把它往清清的水里一蘸”，所以他在这里想表达的是，水原本是清澈的，但是他弄脏了它，这里非常值得注意的是，在这首看起来非常积极快乐的诗歌中潜藏着一些消极的东西。

So what can it mean? In Christianity, the staining on mankind is the sin of man, Adam and Eve committed by eating the apple, which god told them not to eat, so we get in some clues here, there are some kind of religious massage also in the poetry, that’s not to say that he is trying to give us a Christine way of thinking at all. But it’s rather his interpretation of how Christianity affects human nature, innocence and experience.

那么它意味着什么？在基督教里，人类的污点是人类的罪孽。亚当和夏娃偷吃上帝的禁果犯下了错。所以我们在这里得到了一些线索：诗歌中也有某种宗教的意义， 这并不是说他试图带给我们一种基督教的思维方式，而是他插入的这一段其实是想说明基督教如何影响人性，如何影响人类的天真和经验。

So hope you can make sense of the poem, you know read a few times to yourselves, practice, understand the meaning. Thanks for listening, see you next time, we’ll continue more poems. Bye~

希望你们能理解这首诗，自己多读几遍，去练习，理解其中蕴含的深意。谢谢收听，下次再见，我会继续讲解更多的诗，再见〜

重点词汇：

make of 理解、了解

e.g.What do we make of this conclusion? 

我们是如何理解这个结论的？