第11章　威廉·卡伦·布莱恩特

11.1　复习笔记

William Cullen Bryant (1794－1878) (威廉·卡伦·布莱恩特)

1．Life (生平)

William Cullen Bryant was born in Cummington, Massachusetts. Bryant was considered a child-prodigy, publishing his first poem at age ten and his first book when he was thirteen. His literary career was greatly influenced by his physician father, Dr. Bryant. Later on he became assistant editor to the New York Evening Post, after giving up the drudgery of practicing law. In 1866, after the death of his wife, Bryant resumed translating the Iliad and subsequently the Odyssey into English blank verse. At his death, all New York City went into mourning for its most respected citizen, and eulogies poured forth as they had for no man of letters since Washington Irving.

威廉•卡伦•布莱恩特生于马萨诸塞卡明顿。布莱恩特被认为是天才儿童，十岁时出版第一首诗，十三岁时出版第一本书。他的文学生涯很大程度上受作为医生的父亲的影响。放弃辛苦繁重的律师工作后，他成为了《纽约邮报》的副编辑。1866年妻子逝世后，他继续将《伊利亚特》和《奥德赛》翻译成英语无韵诗。他死后，全纽约民众为这位最受尊重的公民哀悼，所致悼词之多自欧文以来别无他人。

2．Literary Achievements and Status (文学成就和地位)

Bryant is the best poet in America up to that time. Apart from his fames as a poet, Bryant merits a reputation as one of the great editors of American journalism. He supported such causes as free speech, free trade, and the abolition of slavery.

Greater poets than Bryant were to follow, but none possessed more of the quality of serene and noble imaginative power.

As Irving had shown that American prose had come of age, Bryant demonstrated to European readers that American poetry was ready to demand serious attention. He was the first American to gain the stature of a major poet.

布莱恩特是美国当时最优秀的一位诗人。布莱恩特除了是一位诗人外，还当之无愧地被誉为美国新闻界最出色的编辑之一。他支持言论自由、贸易自由和废除奴隶制。

比布莱恩特更伟大的诗人越来越多，但没有人能比布莱恩特更富有想象力了。

正如欧文开创了美国散文新时代一样，布莱恩特也向欧洲读者们证明了美国诗歌正在受到人们的关注。他是第一位赢得杰出诗人地位的美国人。

3．Major Works (主要作品)

“Thanatopsis” (1817) 《死亡随想》

“To a Waterfowl” (1818) 《致水鸟》

4．Selected Works (选读作品)

“Thanatopsis” 《死亡随想》

“Thanatopsis”, was Bryant’s best-known poem, was in large part written when the poet was only 16 years old.

The poem, the title of which means “view of death”, should be read in the light of both literary tradition and Bryant’s own religious background. From some English poets he learned of the possibilities of blank verse and the themes of the “graveyard school” of writers.

《死亡随想》是布莱恩特最著名的诗歌，做诗时他只有16岁。

诗歌标题的意思是“死亡观”，应该在文学传统和诗人本身的宗教信仰背景下来读这首诗。他从一些英国诗人那里学到无韵诗的写法和“墓园诗派”诗人的主题。

“To a Waterfowl” 《致水鸟》

“To a Waterfowl” expresses both the poet’s grateful view, at the close of a day of self-doubt and despair, of a solitary bird on the horizon, and his sense of a divine power guiding and protecting everything in nature. The clarity of the central image and the aptness and simplicity of the moral analogy have always been admired, even by those who dislike “preaching” in poetry.

《致水鸟》不仅描绘了诗人在令人产生自我怀疑和绝望的日暮时分看到孤鸟飞翔的悦目景象，也表达了自己所感受到的一种引导、保护自然界一切生物的神圣力量。诗中清晰的意象和简明有力的道德类比一直为读者所钦佩，甚至得到了那些讨厌“说教”的人的认可。