勃朗宁诗歌

I.The first letter Robert Browning wrote to Elizabeth Barrett

I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett,--and this is no off-hand complimentary letter that I shall write,--whatever else, no prompt matter-of-course recognition of your genius, and there a graceful and natural end of the thing. Since the day last week when I first read your poems, I quite laugh to remember how I have been turning and turning again in my mind what I should be able to tell you of their effect upon me, for in the first flush of delight I thought I would this once get out of my habit of purely passive enjoyment, when I do really enjoy, and thoroughly justify

my admiration--perhaps even, as a loyal fellow-craftsman should, try and find fault and do you some little good to be proud of hereafter!--but nothing comes of it all--so into me has it gone, and part of me has it become, this great living poetry of yours, not a flower of which but took root and grew--Oh, how different that is from lying to be dried and pressed flat, and prized highly, and put in a book with a proper account at top and bottom, and shut up and put away ... and the book called a 'Flora,' besides!

我从心底里爱慕您的短诗，亲爱的巴雷特小姐——而这绝不是我随手写下的恭维之辞——无论它是什么，这绝对不是对您的才华、您的优雅与自然人云亦云的赞赏。自从上周我第一次读到您的诗歌，我便暗自发笑，多少次我不停地在脑海中思忖，我该如何告诉您这些短诗给我带来的影响，当我第一次想到应该冲破这被动欣赏的坏习惯，这个念头让我的脸上翻起了喜悦的红潮，到我后来完全地享受并且毫无顾忌地仰慕您——甚至想到，像一位忠实的匠人同行那样，试图挑出一些小毛病，提出给您，以便将来供我炫耀！——但是这些想法最终都无法成行——您卓越而活泼的诗歌，触及得如此之深，以至于它已经成为了我身体的一部分，它不仅是漂亮的花瓣，而且在我的身体中扎根、蔓延——哦，如果仅仅是静躺着的、被晒干和展平了的花瓣，无论多么高明的赞赏，无论将它们放在一本前言和结语如何美妙的书中，终究会被合上后搁到一边……这样的“花书”有什么样的意义！”

After all, I need not give up the thought of doing that, too, in time; because even now, talking with whoever is worthy, I can give a reason for my faith in one and another excellence, the fresh strange music, the affluent language, the exquisite pathos and true new brave thought; but in this addressing myself to you--your own self, and for the first time, my feeling rises altogether. I do, as I say, love these books with all my heart--and I love you too. Do you know I was once not very far from seeing--really seeing you? Mr. Kenyon said to me one morning 'Would you like to see Miss Barrett?' then he went to announce me,--then he returned ... you were too unwell, and now it is years ago, and I feel as at some untoward passage in my travels, as if I had been close, so close, to some world's-wonder in chapel or crypt, only a screen to push and I might have entered, but there was some slight, so it now seems, slight and just sufficient bar to admission, and the half-opened door shut, and I went home my thousands of miles, and the sight was never to be?

不过，我不需要立即放弃这么做的想法，因为即便是现在，无论我和任何人攀谈，我都能说出您的短诗之所以卓越的理由，新奇的音乐、丰富的语言、细腻和忧伤和真实勇敢的思考，但是当我，我个人写这封信给您——您个人的时候，我的所有感情一起向我涌来。的确，像我所说的那样，我全心地爱着您的这些书——同时我却也爱着您。您可知道，我曾经几乎就要与您——与真实的您见面？一天早上，Kenyon先生曾经问我“您是否愿意与巴雷特小姐会

面？”然后他前去与您会面并转达我的意思——然后他回来告诉我……您的身体欠佳，而这已经是很多年前。我感到在我前行在一条事与愿违的道路上，我曾经如此地贴近、如此地贴近藏在礼拜堂或地下室里的奇异珍宝，而只需要推开一层薄薄的屏风我便可以见到，但是，就有那么一点小小的，看起来仅仅是小小的障碍，却将我拦在了门外，而这扇半开的门关上，我回到了千里外我的家里，再也无缘一见？

Well, these Poems were to be, and this true thankful joy and pride with which I feel myself,

但是透过《Poems》我却见到了您，终于让我感到诚挚的感激、欣喜和骄傲。

Yours ever faithfully,

您最忠实的，

ROBERT BROWNING.

罗伯特勃朗宁

II.The XIV poem in Elizabeth Sonnet,

If thou must love me, let it be for nought

Except for love's sake only. Do not say

'I love her for her smile—her look—her way

Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought

That falls in well with mine, and certes brought

A sense of pleasant ease on such a day'—

For these things in themselves, Beloved, may

Be changed, or change for thee,—and love, so wrought,

May be unwrought so. Neither love me for

Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry,—

A creature might forget to weep, who bore

Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!

But love me for love's sake, that evermore

Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.

如果你一心要爱我，那就别为了么，

只是为了爱才爱我。别这么讲：

“我爱她，为了她的一笑，她的模样，

她柔语的声气；为了她这感触

正好合我的心意，那天里，的确

给我带来满怀的喜悦和舒畅。”

亲爱的，这些好处都不能持常，

会因你而变，而这样唱出的爱曲

也将这样哑寂。也别爱我因为你

又怜又惜地给我揩干了泪腮，

一个人会忘了哭泣，当她久受你

温柔的慰安－－却因此失了你的爱。

爱我，请只是为了那爱的意念，

那你就能继续地爱，爱我如深海。

罗伯特-勃朗宁（Robert Browning，1812-1889），英国19世纪著名诗人。此诗是勃朗宁最负盛名的一首抒情短诗，以其浓郁的思乡情调著称。

Home-Thoughts, From Abroad

Robert Browning

Oh, to be in England

Now that April's there,

And whoever wakes in England

Sees, some morning, unaware,

That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf

Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,

While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough

In England—now!

And after April, when May follows,

And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!

Hark, where my blossom'd peartree in the hedge

Leans to the field and scatters n the clover

Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray's edge—

That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,

Lest you should think he never could recapture

The first fine careless rapture!

And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,

All will be gay when noontide wakes anew

The buttercups, the little children's dower

--Far brighter than this gaudy milon-flower!

异乡情思

呵，但愿此刻置身于英格兰

正当这阳春四月。

不论谁在那里，一觉醒来

无意间总会看到，清晨，

那低矮的枝丫和茂密的灌木丛

在榆树周围已是一片郁郁葱葱，

燕雀在果园的枝头啁啾，

在英格兰哟—就在这个时候。

四月逝去，五月循踪而至，

灰雀筑巢，还有普天下的燕子！

围篱旁我那一树梨花

伸向田野，一地三叶草

撒满花瓣和露珠—听，在虬枝末梢—那机灵的画眉，每支歌都高唱两道，生怕你以为他永远不会重现

初唱时那份无忧无虑的惊喜。

尽管白露使田野显得凄怆，

正午的太阳将使一切重现光芒。

那金凤花，孩子们的嫁妆，

——比这俗丽的甜瓜更为灿烂明亮！