【摘要】本文以英語擬人化手法為例,簡要敘述了英語作家筆下秋天的多種角色的呈現(xiàn),意在提供一種有關(guān)秋天的文學(xué)閱讀和文學(xué)審美的新視角,并強(qiáng)調(diào)加強(qiáng)英語文學(xué)手段學(xué)習(xí)和運(yùn)用的重要性。
【關(guān)鍵詞】秋;擬人; 閱讀審美
【作者簡介】陳認(rèn)真(1970-),男,湖北工業(yè)大學(xué)外語學(xué)院教師,研究方向:英語文學(xué)、翻譯。
在中國文化語境下,秋天是萬物成熟、農(nóng)家收獲的季節(jié),春華秋實(shí),碩果累累;秋天又是萬物凋零、滿目肅殺的季節(jié),秋瑾的“秋風(fēng)秋雨愁煞人”即有此意。在英語文化語境下,英語作家也用各種文學(xué)手段,賦予秋天非常豐富的內(nèi)涵。下面以英語中的擬人化手法為例,簡略歸納敘述。
秋天是作家們非常喜歡描述的主題。西方作家如鄧恩、朗費(fèi)羅以及喬治·艾略特等眾多文章高手,他們在描寫秋天的時候,都不約而同地使用了擬人法,為秋天創(chuàng)造出了多種鮮活的角色。這些多“面”變換的角色,令人遐想,回味無窮:
秋是藝術(shù)家:秋借風(fēng)威,點(diǎn)染群山:Fiery colors begin their yearly conquest of the hills, propelled by the autumn winds. Fall is the artist.
秋是空中持練人:它用美麗彩虹的色調(diào),讓山巒亮麗,讓河谷生輝。The bright summer had passed away, and gorgeous autumn was flinging its rainbow-tints of beauty on hill and dale.
秋是一團(tuán)火:它熊熊燃燒,火把般穿過莽莽群山……Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees.
秋是神奇的裝訂師:它把詩歌裝訂在枯萎的樹葉里。Autumn binds poetry in its own withered leaves.
秋是恪盡職守的女服務(wù)員:它為每一片秋葉服務(wù)到極致。Autumn doesnt always promise that Winter will come, but she works hard until every colored leaf has reached its destination.
秋是舞者:人們可以從南瓜和被太陽燒烤過的枯脆的秋葉的甜美的涼意中,“聞到”秋天在微風(fēng)中翩翩起舞。I can smell autumn dancing in the breeze./The sweet chill of pumpkin and crisp sunburnt leaves.
秋是技法高超的畫匠:它把鄉(xiāng)間涂抹得色彩斑斕——緋紅、橙黃、灰褐……Autumn that year painted the countryside in vivid shades of scarlet, saffron, and russet, and the days were clear and crisp under harvest skies.
秋是沉思的哲人:在多霧的清晨里,晚秋沉默地站著,聆聽著這世界的靜默。I saw old Autumn in the misty morn stand shadowless like silence, listening to silence.
秋是揮毫潑墨的詩人:秋兀自寫詩,世界默然靜觀……Autumn writes her own poetry,we are merely observers.
秋是美麗的女性:秋天的臉上,有著春天和夏天所沒有的美麗(beauty)和雅致(grace):No spring nor summers beauty hath such grace/As I have seen in one Autumnal face....秋天的九月和十月,有如美麗的倆姐妹:The foliage has been losing its freshness through the month of August, and here and there a yellow leaf shows itself like the first gray hair amidst the locks of a beauty who has seen one season too many.... September is dressing herself in showy dahlias and splendid marigolds and starry zinnias. October, the extravagant sister, has ordered an immense amount of the most gorgeous forest tapestry for her grand reception. 秋是作家心目中的靈魂伴侶::Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love — that makes life and nature harmonize. The birds are consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground, that ones very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a pefect anodyne to the restless spirit. Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
秋是魔術(shù)師:秋葉魔法般地隱藏了小路falling leaves hide the path so quietly,秋天暗淡了夏空:When autumn dulls the summer skies,/And paler sunshine softly lies/Upon the brown and fallow lands:—/As fairy artists come in bands/To paint with brushes dipped with frost:—/They pay with gold, for verdure lost...
秋是舞會持辦者:它開派對:October gave a party;/The leaves by hundreds came,—/The Ashes, Oaks, and Maples,/And leaves of every name./The sunshine spread a carpet,/And every thing was grand;/Miss Weather led the dancing;/Professor Wind, the band..../The sight was like a rainbow/New-fallen from the sky....它彬彬有禮,為黎明皇后戴上美麗的皇冠:Autumn bowed to place a beautiful crown on the Queen of Morning, and her velvet robes sway merrily in the chilly breeze.
秋是勇士:它宏偉壯觀,身穿黃銅鎧甲,橫空出世:Magnificent Autumn! He comes not like a pilgrim, clad in russet weeds. He comes not like a hermit, clad in gray. But he comes like a warrior, with the stain of blood upon his brazen mail. His crimson scarf is rent.... The wind.... wafts to us the odor of forest leaves, that hang wilted on the dripping branches, or drop into the stream. Their gorgeous tints are gone, as if the autumnal rains had washed them out. Orange, yellow, and scarlet, all are changed to one melancholy russet hue.... There is a melancholy and continual roar in the tops of the tall pines.... It is the funeral anthem of the dying year.
秋天真爛漫:它象個兒童,口袋中總裝著美好的東西:Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.
秋古道熱腸:它用repay表達(dá)它的溫情厚意:Autumn repays the earth the leaves which summer lent it.
秋冷酷無情:它抓(clutch),扣(clasp),夾(grasp),拼命想窒息那執(zhí)著于夏的綠意:And the Autumn clutches the forests green/In a hasty and eager clasp;/But the leaves are true to the Summer they love,/And they wither and fade in his grasp它攜帶著死亡的陰影:The human soul is slow to discover the real excellence of things given to us by a bountiful Creator, and not until the shadows of death begin to gather around the object that we love, do we see its worth and beauty. Autumn is the dim shadow that clusters about the sweet, precious things that God has created in the realm of nature. While it robs them of life, it tears away the veil and reveals the golden gem of beauty and sweetness. Beauty lurks in all the dim old aisles of nature, and we discover it at last. 它傳布著死亡的氣息:The breath of autumn had already passed along the foliage, and a coming death had spread over its hues golden, brown and crimson—a strange gaiety of decay, which, with all its beauty, carries an idea of sadness into ones heart.
以上秋的多“面”角色轉(zhuǎn)換,都以擬人化的手法呈現(xiàn)出來,生動形象,讓讀者印象深刻,給文學(xué)內(nèi)容增加了色彩和深度,提供給讀者新的不同的視角,來觀察和欣賞秋的特質(zhì)。
總之,英語文學(xué)的表現(xiàn)手法,除了擬人法之外,還有很多。我們平時要多加熟悉和研究它們,這樣,在閱讀英語作家的作品的時候,就能更有意識地品味這些文學(xué)手段的功能與作用,更好地欣賞文字的魅力,吸收文學(xué)的養(yǎng)分,提升閱讀審美能力。
參考文獻(xiàn):
[1]胡壯麟,劉世生.西方文體學(xué)詞典[M].清華大學(xué)出版社,2004.
[2]秦涵榮.英語常用隱喻詞典[M].北京大學(xué)出版社,2011.