凤舞九天沙曼妓女:The Sick Rose

The Sick Rose

病玫瑰

William Blake

作者：（英国）威廉·布莱克         翻译：张和清

（中文翻译版本一）

O Rose, thou art sick.

绽放玫瑰却销魂，

The invisible worm

无影虫子暗飞行。

That flies in the night

风雨咆哮何太急，

In the howling storm
已是茫茫夜深沉。

Has found out thy bed

寻寻觅觅愁煞人，

Of crimson joy,

绯红乐床玫瑰情。

And his dark secret love

夜阑之间幽幽爱，

Does thy life destroy.

妄送了卿卿性命。

病玫瑰

（中文翻译版本二）

玫瑰啊，病倒的玫瑰

那无形的飞虫

在狂啸的暴风雨中

在那沉沉的夜中穿行。

飞虫已找到

你绯红色快活的床。

那黑夜隐秘的爱情

毁掉了你的生命。

赏析

    在西方文学中，“玫瑰”一向是美丽爱情的象征，然而布莱克以他独特的方式对传统意象进行改造，赋予新的思想内涵。从字面上看，《病玫瑰》是一首描写风暴夜一朵玫瑰遭害虫侵袭而夭折的小诗。其实，诗中的“玫瑰”和“虫子”不仅仅是现实中的一朵花和昆虫，而是意蕴深刻的象征物。这里“玫瑰”被喻体化了，暗指“女性美”、“爱情”或一种“感官上的快感”。诗中的“床”既可以指女人的“床”，也可以指“花床”本身。同样，“绯红色喜悦”内蕴红玫瑰的美丽，也暗含了偷情的欢愉。诗中的爱情以一种病态出现，病因是那“看不见的虫子”。全诗暗示由于“黑色隐秘的爱”，爱情不再清纯美丽，丧失了天真和贞洁。由此看来，诗歌的内涵十分丰富，指向不一。全诗意蕴深刻，在一定意义上表达了一种“天真”遭“经验”摧残的思想。

    威廉.布莱克（1757~182)出身贫寒，14岁时开始学习雕版刻画。24岁时与凯瑟琳鲍乇结婚，她是文盲，布莱克教她读书识字。他一生大部分时间生活在贫穷、误解和孤独之中，他的修改桀骜不驯，思想更是不合世俗。“我的作品的性质是想象性的”。“我必须创造自己的一个体系，否则就要成为别人体系的奴隶。”可以说，布莱克是英国文学史上最具有挑战性、独创性的诗人，是杰出人物中更稀有、更卓尔不群的一类。他称人的“精神生命”应破裂多样，自由而不受任何的桎梏，而“肉体生命”简单，单调，受世俗的种种限制;他认为人必须挣脱一切束缚，解放，强化人的合理欲望，那种唯唯诺诺、自以为是的正统的宗教和伦理思想深恶痛绝。他的不同寻常的哲学思想在《天堂和地狱的婚姻》中表现得淋漓尽致。布莱克的诗有神秘主义倾向，他自己称曾亲眼看到天使和上帝，因此同时代的人认为他有点疯疯癫癫。

Nature

• Line 1: The speaker addresses the rose and says that it is sick. The form of address—"O rose"—is called an apostrophe.
• Line 2: The speaker introduces the "invisible worm." The worm probably isn't literally invisible, but might be in some kind of stealth mode. It might blend in with the surroundings like a chameleon, or it could just be too small to be seen. "Invisible" might be a metaphor for the worm's quiet act of destruction.
• Line 4: The speaker mentions a "howling storm," which gives the poem a more ominous tone. "Howling" reminds us of dogs or wolves; the sounds of those animals are here a metaphor for the storm.
• Line 5: "Bed" might refer to a plot of ground in which the rose is growing, or even the rose's petals. In the first case, it's not a literal bed with comforters and pillows, so it's a metaphor for the plot of ground. In the second case, it refers to a place where insects rest or sleep.
• Lines 7-8: The speaker describes how the worm "destroys" (8) the rose with his "dark secret love." The worm might literally destroy the rose, but he most certainly doesn't have any "dark secret love"; attributing human characteristics ("love") to inhuman things (the worm) is called personification.

The Color Red

• Line 1: The speaker addresses the rose, which we assume is red. The way in which the speaker addresses the rose—"O rose"—is called an apostrophe.
• Line 6: The rose has a "bed of crimson joy." "Bed" could refer to the garden plot in which the rose resides or even to its petals, which might function as a bed for various insects. If it refers to the ground, it could be literally red or it could just mean an intense kind of joy associated with the bed. Describing a feeling (joy) in terms of a color is an example of synesthesia, a type of figurative language in which different sensory experiences are mixed, as in "hot pink."

Sickness

• Line 1: The speaker tells the rose that it is sick. The form of address—"O rose"—is called an apostrophe.
• Lines 7-8: The speaker describes how the worm destroys the rose with his "dark secret love." The way in which the worm penetrates the "bed of crimson joy" suggests that he is infecting the rose.

Sex and Love

• Line 1: The speaker addresses the rose with phrase "O rose thou art sick"; this is called an apostrophe. The rose here could be a metaphor for love or passion; our ideas about which are "sick."
• Lines 5-6: The worm manages to worm his way into the rose's bed, which suggests some kind of sexual act.
• Lines 7-8: The worm's "dark secret love" kills the rose; a worm doesn't literally possess any "love," so this is an example of personification, where human characteristics or emotions (love) are attributed to non-human things (worm).