唐纳德·霍尔(唐纳德·豪尔、Donald Hall,1928.9.20—2018.6.23),1928年生于美国康州纽海文,1951年毕业于哈佛大学(B.A.),1953年毕业于牛津大学(B.Litt.);曾任《帕里斯评论》等多家刊物编辑,长期在哈佛、斯坦福、密歇根等多所大学教书,1972年与女诗人简·肯庸(Jane Kenyon, 1947-1995)结婚。霍尔著有15本诗集,另著有戏剧、儿童文学等作品若干,2006年美国桂冠诗人。
Affirmation
To grow old is to lose everything. 
Aging, everybody knows it. 
Even when we are young, 
we glimpse it sometimes, and nod our heads 
when a grandfather dies.
Then we row for years on the midsummer 
pond, ignorant and content. But a marriage,
that began without harm, scatters 
into debris on the shore, 
and a friend from school drops 
cold on a rocky strand.
If a new love carries us 
past middle age, our wife will die 
at her strongest and most beautiful. 
New women come and go. All go. 
The pretty lover who announces 
that she is temporary
is temporary. The bold woman,
middle-aged against our old age,
sinks under an anxiety she cannot withstand. 
Another friend of decades estranges himself 
in words that pollute thirty years. 
Let us stifle under mud at the pond's edge 
and affirm that it is fitting
and delicious to lose everything.
Weeds and Peonies
Donald Hall
Your peonies burst out, white as snow squalls,
with red flecks at their shaggy centers
in your border of prodigies by the porch.
I carry one magnanimous blossom indoors
and float it in a glass bowl, as you used to do.
Ordinary pleasures, contentment recollected,
blow like snow into the abandoned garden,
overcoming the daisies. Your blue coat
vanishes down Pond Road into imagined snowflakes 
with Gus at your side, his great tail swinging,
but you will not reappear, tired and satisfied,
and grief's repeated particles suffuse the air —
like the dog yipping through the entire night,
or the cat stretching awake, then curling
as if to dream of her mother's milky nipples.
A raccoon dislodged a geranium from its pot.
Flowers, roots, and dirt lay upended
in the back garden where lilies begin
their daily excursion above stone walls
in the season of old roses. I pace beside weeds
and snowy peonies, staring at Mount Kearsarge 
where you climbed wearing purple hiking boots.
"Hurry back. Be careful, climbing down."
Your peonies lean their vast heads westward
as if they might topple. Some topple.
新超现实主义诗派,具有强烈的反学院派色彩,主要特点是对探索潜意识感兴趣,甚至认为只有潜意识才能认知真理,罗伯特·勃莱通过翻译大量拉丁美洲诗人如聂鲁达、瓦叶霍等一些人的作品,而主张追求从潜意识中抓出“深层意象”,回到更少理性、更多本能的自我愿望中去,用“新脑”,能够“在不抛弃客观世界现实”的条件下发现“在意识和无意识之间隐藏的联系”,努力表现“生命的二重性和二种意识的溶合”。
在上世纪六七十年代,新超现实主义在美国的影响面很大,是同期美国各种诗派中最突出的。“当其他诗派已成为文学史课题时,它还活着。而且在发展。”
有意思的是,詹姆斯·赖特的诗歌创作和其所反对的以庞德等人持守的学院派一样,都取法于东方文化的诗学传统特色,从中国古典诗歌中得到了不少好处。赖特是中国古典诗歌的崇拜者,白居易、王维等诗人简朴明快但意蕴很深的诗风使他倾倒不已。他甚至仿照中国诗那样用很长的标题,在诗艺上形成了独特的风格,取得了显著的成就。
由呐石翻译的这10首诗歌,具有一股典型的乡村田园风,不难看出新超现实主义的美国诗人们认为的“深意象”,正是中国诗歌读者喜欢的一种阅读情调,这种基于中国传统思维的东方美学、哲学、诗学为一体的现代诗歌,形成了今日中国诗人创作的一面质地优良的镜子。无论面临的外部是怎样的一个喧嚣世界,心像自有诗意的山水田园,这就是人类的“去处”,生命的终结地。因为有对于广阔现实的明察秋毫,诗人才可以说获得了“栖居”的理由。在远离浮世的“在场”的细部打开之中,诗意的再生,就有了迷人的气息与意象的活力呈现。
相比詹姆斯·赖特,另一主将罗伯特·勃莱更为当代中国诗人熟知。罗伯特·勃莱(Robert Bly, 1926- ),当代美国最著名诗人,“新超现实主义诗派”(又称“深度意象诗派”)领袖人物之一。他早年就读于哈佛大学,二战中在海军服役,后长期生活在明尼苏达州的乡村小镇,在朴素和宁静中从事写作、翻译、讲学和编辑工作。1958年与詹姆斯·赖特等人创办了旨在反对学院派诗歌的诗刊《五十年代》《六十年代》《七十年代》《八十年代》杂志,领导和培养了美国当代最负盛名的松散性诗歌流派——新超现实主义诗派,在诗歌观念和语言等方面扭转了以T·S艾略特为代表的现代主义传统诗潮,使美国诗歌从现代走向当代(亦称后现代),从力主智性的学院走向感性体验的民众,从反浪漫主义的“逃避个性”走向新超现实主义的“天人合一”。他最向往的是中国古代诗人,尤其是陶渊明先生。
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