介绍： The Gentleman of Shalott
By Elizabeth Bishop

Which eye’s his eye?
Which limb lies
next the mirror?
For neither is clearer
nor a different colour
than the other,
nor meets a stranger
in this arrangement
of leg and leg and
arm and so on.
To his mind
it’s the indication
of a mirrored reflection
somewhere alon...

介绍： The Gentleman of Shalott
By Elizabeth Bishop

Which eye’s his eye?
Which limb lies
next the mirror?
For neither is clearer
nor a different colour
than the other,
nor meets a stranger
in this arrangement
of leg and leg and
arm and so on.
To his mind
it’s the indication
of a mirrored reflection
somewhere along the line
of what we call the spine.

He felt in modesty
his person was
half looking-glass,
for why should he
be doubled?
The glass must stretch
down his middle,
or rather down the edge.
But he’s in doubt
as to which side’s in or out
of the mirror.
There’s little margin for error,
but there’s no proof, either.
And if half his head’s reflected,
thought, he thinks, might be affected.

But he’s resigned
to such economical design.
If the glass slips
he’s in a fix –
only one leg, etc. But
while it stays put
he can walk and run
and his hands can clasp one
another. The uncertainty
he says he
finds exhilarating. He loves
that sense of constant re-adjustment.
He wishes to be quoted as saying at present:
‘Half is enough.’

1.Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979)
- Modern American poet and short story writer
- Growing up with a sense of divided identity
- A detailed, objective style with a distant point of view unlike her contemporaries (e.g. In the Waiting Room)

伊丽莎白·毕肖普是20世纪著名美国诗人，是目前我的频道中介绍过最“现代”的诗人之一。她出生于美国，母亲在她年幼时就被送往精神病院疗养，因此便和祖父母生活在加拿大新斯科特省。在不同国家的生活经历使她的作品中出现许多探讨身份认同的主题。毕肖普女士的写作风格很独特，不同于同期的自白派诗人，她的作品语言往往很客观，让人有距离感和疏远感。

2.Image of a divided figure as a theme for modernist writers
- A male figure split into half by a mirror
- An incomplete modern human being trying to hold himself together
- Italo Calvino’s “The Cloven Viscount” and “Half is enough”

诗中的“gentleman of Shalott”化用丁尼生的Lady of Shalott，但本诗中的主角是被镜子一分为二的男人，一边身子在镜子里，一边在镜子外。个人觉得这个形象把现代人的不完整性具象化了，而这也是现代和后现代作家经常讨论的主题。想起意大利作家卡尔维诺的《分成两半的子爵》，不完整的子爵先生曾说：“被切成两半其实是件好事，如此才会理解世界上的一切人事物都不完整、才会知道这种不完整会带来悲伤。”同为不完整的人，有点异曲同工之妙。

3.“Sense of constant re-adjustment” in Bishop’s poem
- Changing her forms to serve different subjects and purposes
- Uncertainty as in “The uncertainty /he says he /finds exhilarating./ He loves that sense of constant re-adjustment.”

毕肖普的诗歌带有动感，时间在她的文字间流动，因此她的文字也随着主题和内容不断变化着。耶鲁大学的Langdon Hammer教授提到毕肖普和W.H.奥登一样，针对不同题材和主题的诗歌会选取不同的体裁，但和奥登不同的是，毕肖普的诗歌从来都不是预先设定好的，她的写作形式往往会随着内容和主题变化，也正是她所说的“constant re-adjustment”。诗中主人公所说的“对不确定性的喜爱”也道出了毕肖普的座右铭。

参考资料：
https://oyc.yale.edu/english/engl-310/lecture-24

--
wx: 不止是一首英诗（Not_Just_English）
可找到全文文本及解析~
喜欢我的节目别忘了点赞打赏转发评论XD