历史系男生

Quotations and References: Act One

(Page numbers refer to the 2004 paperback Faber & Faber edition. List compiled by Tudor Economic Documents.)

p5
"All knowledge is precious whether or not it serves the slightest human use." - Hector
A.E. Housman

"Loveliest of trees, the cherry now." - Hector
A Shropshire Lad, A.E. Housman

p6
"Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire!" - Hector
Othello, Othello, William Shakespeare, Act V, Scene 2

"I have put before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live." - Hector
Deuteronomy 30:19

p7
"Look up, My Lord."
"Vex not his ghost. O let him pass. He hates him
That would upon the rack of this tough world
Stretch him out longer."
"O, he is gone indeed."
"The wonder is he hath endured so long.
He but usurped this life..."

"...I have a journey sir, shortly to go;
My master calls me, I must not say no." - Hector
"The weight of this sad time we must obey
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say."
- Edgar (Posner), Kent (Timms/Hector), King Lear, William Shakespeare, Act V, Scene 3

Hymns Ancient and Modern - a Church of England hymnal.

p9
Renaissance Man - answers.com: "A man who has broad intellectual interests and is accomplished in areas of both the arts and the sciences."

p12
Although the script does not make it clear, Posner here sings the chorus of L'Accordéoniste, a song popularised by Edith Piaf.

p13
La Vie en Rose - 1946 song, Edith Piaf's signature song. (lyrics)

p23
The Catcher in the Rye - a novel by J.D. Salinger.

"Let each child that's in your care-"
"Have as much neurosis as the child can bear." - Hector and Mrs Lintott
W.H. Auden, Letter to Lord Byron

Hecatomb - like holocaust, a word associated with sacrifice. In this sense, 'holocaust' refers to an animal sacrifice by fire.

p24
"...since Wilfred Owen says men were dying like cattle, [hecatombs] is the appropriate word." - Dakin
Referring to Wilfred Owen's famous WWI poem, Anthem for a Doomed Youth.

Trench warfare - static lines of defence in war, with each side basing soldiers in trenches as a means of defence.

Haig - Field Marshal Douglas Haig, nicknamed 'Butcher of the Somme', one of the more controversial figures in WWI.

"The humiliation of Germany at Versailles." - refers to the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, a formal peace treaty with Germany at the close of WWI. It included that Germany take full responsibility for the war and imposed several restrictions of territorial, military and economic matters.

"Ruhr and the Rhineland." - refers to the Ruhr Crisis. France sent forces to occupy the Ruhr, an area in the north of the Rhineland, in an effort to force Germany to once again make reparation payments, which they stopped in 1923. Britain and the United States did not support this action.

"The collapse of the Weimar Republic" - in the late 1920s and early 1930s, towards the beginning of depression in Germany, the Weimar Republic saw the rise of the popularity of the Nazi party.

p25
The Cenotaph - The Cenotaph in Whitehall, London is where the national ceremony takes place on Remembrance Sunday (11th November, the day hostilities ceased in the First World War).

The Last Post - a bugle call used to commemorate those who have died in war. It is sounded on Remembrance Sunday following the two minutes' silence.

Passchendaele - refers to the 1917 battle of Passchendaele. Dakin is referring to Haig's controversial campaign, in which damage was inflicted to the German Army at great expense to the lives of British troops.

The Somme - refers to the 1916 Battle of the Somme. Exact casualty figures vary, but several hundred thousand were killed in battle, a large proportion of these on the first day. Again, blame was laid upon Haig's leadership.

The Unknown Soldier - the Unknown Soldier is an unidentified soldier killed in battle, buried with full military honours as a symbol of all the unidentified soldiers killed in battle. The British tomb dedicated to the 'Unknown Warrior' is found in London, and contains the body of an unidentified soldier killed in the First World War.

Siegfried Sassoon - an English poet famous for his anti-war poetry.

"If any question why we died,
Tell them because our fathers lied." - Irwin
Common Form, Rudyard Kipling

Rembrandt - Dutch painter, 1606 - 1669.

p27
"Those long uneven lines
Standing as patiently
As if they were stretched outside
The Oval or Villa Park,
The crowns of hats, the sun
On moustached archaic faces
Grinning as if it were all
An August Bank Holiday lark..."

"...Never such innocence,
Never before or since,
As changed itself to past
Without a word--the men
Leaving the gardens tidy,
The thousands of marriages,
Lasting a little while longer:
Never such innocence again." - Scripps, Lockwood, Akthar, Posner, Timms.
MCMXIV, Philip Larkin.

p28
Western Front - the term used in WWI and WWII to describe the frontier between the Allied Forces and Germany.

p29
Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered - 1940s song with lyrics by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rogers. Features in the musical Pal Joey.

p30
"O villainy! Let the door be locked!
Treachery! Seek it out." - Hector
Hamlet, William Shakespeare, Act V, Scene 2

The Trial - a novel by Franz Kafka, about a man arrested and charged with a crime he knows nothing about.

"The person from Porlock" - a reference to the story of the visitor to Coleridge during the writing of Kubla Khan, resulting in the poem's incomplete status.

"Don Giovanni: the Commendatore" - Don Giovanni is an opera by Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte. Il Commendatore is a significant character in the work.

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock." - Scripps
Revelation 3:20

p31
"Did the knights knock at the door of Canterbury before they murdered Beckett?" - Hector
Thomas Beckett, the Archbishop of Canterbury (1162 - 1170) was assassinated inside Canterbury Cathedral. He was later canonised in 1173.

Now, Voyager - a 1942 film starring Bette Davis and Paul Henreid, about a woman who falls in love whilst in therapy after a nervous breakdown.

p32
"The untold want by life and land ne'er granted,
Now voyager sail thou forth to seek and find." - Hector
Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman.

p33
The Carry On films - a series of British comedy films, parodies of famous historical and literary events or people. They are famous for their excessive use of double entendres in dialogue and slapstick comedy.

p34
George Orwell - an English author and journalist, who was famous for his political and social commentary in his essays and novels.

p35
Stalin - First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Part from 1922 to 1953, effectively becoming a dictator by the late 1920s.

Henry VIII - Second Tudor King of England, reigning from 1491 - 1547. Responsible for the introduction of Protestantism to England.

"Mrs Thatcher" - Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister from 1975-1990. She was the first (and, thus far, only) female Prime Minister in Britain.

Pearl Harbour - the attack on Pearl Harbour took place in 1941, when the Japanese attacked the American naval base at that location. Franklin Roosevelt, the President at the time, delivered the Infamy Speech condemning the attack.

Francis Bacon - English philosopher, knighted by James I in 1603.

p36
"Turner, then, or Ingres." - Irwin
J. M. W. Turner was an English painter in the Romantic movement. Jean Ingres was a French painter working in the 1880s.

"About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters...
how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window..." - Timms
Musée des Beaux Arts, W. H. Auden.

p37
"Breaking bread with the dead, sir. That's what we do." - Akthar
- from the statement "Art is breaking bread with the dead", by W. H. Auden.

The Mikado - an opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, first opening in 1885.

"The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing."
Pensées, a philosophical work by Blaise Pascal.

p38
"We're not just a hiccup between the end of university and the beginning of life, like Auden are we, sir?" - Lockwood
Auden was a schoolteacher.

"Lay your sleeping head, my love,
Human on my faithless arm." - Dakin
Lullaby, W. H. Auden

"England, you have been here too long,
And the songs you sing are the songs you sung
On a braver day. Now they are wrong." - Lockwood
Voices Against England in the Night, Stevie Smith

Not Waving But Drowning - a poem by Stevie Smith, published in 1957.

p40
Brief Encounter - a 1945 film starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, telling the story of a couple, both married, who meet in a railway station and soon fall in love. This scene takes place at the end of the film, when Laura (Celia Johnson) returns to her husband, rather than the man she has just fallen in love with.

p44
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross - a hymn written by Isaac Watts.

p45
Matins - Early morning or late night prayers, a feature of many Christian denominations.

"A painter of the Umbrian school
Designed upon a gesso ground
The nimbus of the Baptized God.
The wilderness is cracked and browned
But through the water pale and thin
Still shine the unoffending feet
And there above the painter set
The Father and the Paraclete." - Scripps
Mr Eliot's Sunday Morning Service, T. S. Eliot

Piero della Francesca - an Italian Renaissance artist.

p47
Nietzsche - a German philosopher, writing in the 1800s.

p51
"After such knowledge, what forgiveness?" - Hector
Gerontion, T.S. Eliot.

p52
"The tree of man was never quiet:
Then 'twas the Roman, now 'tis I." - Hector
On Wenlock Edge, A. E. Housman

"To think that two and two are four
And neither five nor three
The heart of man has long been sore
And long 'tis like to be." - Hector
A Shropshire Lad, A. E. Housman

p53
Plato - an ancient Greek philosopher, who wrote about the teachings of Socrates. The notion of Platonic love is found, in one example, in his discussion of the relationship between Socrates and the young Alcibiades.

Michelangelo - Italian Renaissance artist. He is famous focus upon the aesthetic of male beauty and the homoeroticism which may be found in his work.

Oscar Wilde - English playwright and poet of the nineteenth century. He was famously tried and sentenced for his homosexuality.

p54
Rupert Brooke - an English poet, most famous for his First World War poetry. Posner here quotes the opening of his poem The Soldier.

p55
"The Zulu Wars" - a reference to the war between the Zulus and the United Kingdom in the 1870s.

"The Boer War" - refers to either the first or the second Boer wars, fought between the British Empire and the Boer Republics in the late 1800s.

p57
"The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo." - Hector
Love's Labour's Lost, William Shakespeare, Act V, Scene 2

---------------------------
以上是quote的quote=)
from: http://www.subjunctive-history.co.uk ,是这部剧的专门网站

      刚好是前几天听的lecture里，说的是美国大学的 law in history，提到the most dramatic change is the way teaching was done,which is followed the Socrqtic questioning style，并且一直沿用至今。而在那之前的一个星期，刚好有南周评论版一哥们儿写苏格拉底的死写得风姿勃发。
 
    下午看了《The history boys》，戏剧改电影，演员台词功底实在了得，用词华丽流畅，书袋也吊得无迹可觅，看完了想想差不多题材老美的《死亡诗社》确实够烂，不论老师学生都只能念几句惠特曼的“Oh，captain，my captain”，怪不得欧洲文化中心论到现在也是如此地有市场。
 
    背景是80年代文法男校，出场人物有三位历史老师、八名学生和一个校长。
 
    喜欢在骑摩托车时把手放到后座男生ball上面去的Hector老师为人风趣随和不拘小节，教学方式散漫又无章法，他热衷于培养学生对诗歌修辞的好感，八个学生经常会在法语课上模拟妓院的对话场景以巩固对虚拟态语气词汇的掌握……然而学生并非会被这种慢节奏无绩效的老式教学方式所迷惑——他们的目标是牛津或剑桥的历史系。校长请来了牛津毕业的年轻教师Irwin，这位老师的教学犀利、深刻而充满激情，与Hector的方法刚好形成良性互补，最终八名学生全部得偿所愿。
 
    被我说的若无其事的概括底下大概是一般中国学生难以理解的种种情感及其处理方式。当我将Darkin对Irwin的表白与Clive对Maurice的进行对照时，发现了相类似的各种要素。因此感情是激励我观看然而我却不愿予以多说的东西，我对苏格拉底感兴趣。
 
    Hector的教学方式是苏格拉底式的吗？校长对这个做了肯定的回答，那么看起来新潮锋利的Irwin呢？我倒觉得也是。
 
    片中开头一幕很有意思，也有可能是我想多了：一个学生骑车去了教堂，神父正在说着祷词：“神所赐出人意外的平安，必在基督耶稣里保守你们的心怀意念。全能之主的祝福，圣父、圣子和圣灵，会保佑汝等，并与汝共存，现在如此，今后亦然，阿门。”再看到后面分别出场的三位老师，总有一种隐隐对照着trinity的感觉。刚好三位老师采取的是三种不同的教学方法，于是就想当然了。
 
    Dorothy作为唯一的女教师，她的教学严谨而深具批判意识。Hector则并非是散漫无目的教学方法令学校不能令人接受，相反，校长说过“有效”这样的话，只不过因为他摸ball的动作被女巡查员看到了而被迫退休。新来的Irwin则能够最大地调动学生的求知热情，三个性格、方式各异的老师凑在一起，教出了八个牛津剑桥的学生其实也顺理成章。
 
    Hector是要求在长期的教学中对学生潜移默化，注重文学素养并依赖这样的基础，喜欢吊书袋的他何尝不是在白发苍苍的时候才能够“随心所欲”的呢？他深信时间能够带给人最大的安慰，然而他又确实被时间伤害不浅这样的矛盾体现在他出场发言的每时每刻，并且他是以此为享受的。崇拜安逸是懦夫的行为，他在花甲之龄仍然以一种浮士德式的姿态战斗着，一点儿也不美观，但却让人心生好感——这不能够称之为同情，同情该是对他以及对我们这些心生好感的人的嘲笑。它不会让人愤怒，但它不应该用在Hector的身上，即便他壮士断腕般今朝酒醉明日赴死。Hector是个纯粹的、天生的老师，他不需要用校规或者其他东西包括道德来约束自己，因为他认为对于一个真正的教师来说，“教师”的身份就应该是最大的约束，除此之外，百无禁忌。
 
    Irwin则简单得多，他是个已经被急功近利的现代性给弄得别别扭扭的那种家伙，可是，无奈地，非常招人喜欢。无论是观众还是学生，更或者是万人迷的Darkin。他的尖酸和深刻一样惹人怜爱，犹如他的自信和自卑，那般恰到好处地融合，使他既嚣张又惶惑。凉薄的双颊代表自制，眼镜的遮掩则又精光四溢，每个人都爱他爱得不行，爱到连他漏洞百出的字体也被了解和模仿。Irwin上课时的passion很强大，相当吸引人，赚得的眼球使他既得意又恐惧。以至于到最后，连我都以为他真的会跪在地上，suck Darkin……Irwin是这样的一位老师，他不止像Hector那样简单的传递与索取，更多的时候他将两者融为一体，使自己犹如禁欲的僧侣一般脆弱到不堪一击，而揭开寡陋的面具攻击他的人总是存在。我们都爱Irwin，学生爱，老师同样爱，他自己也爱，所以在最后他对与Darkin之间约会的忘却是那样的无理但含情脉脉。Irwin本身没有做教师的自觉，所以，他越来越是那种需要随时提醒自己有所自觉的讨厌状。他太年轻，经不起考验，故而不如舍弃考验，这一点我们既爱又恨。
 
    Dorothy的出场份额短暂但并非无效，她对历史的看法犹如历史自身一样地充满了偏见但使人不得不敬畏。她是隐者，但并不低调，她在合适的时候绽放，容易教人忽然陷入无所适从地尴尬，因为她居然那么简单又真实，就好像近代史手册一样，却又最容易受到无数观点的左右而易于摇摆。Dorothy应该起调和的作用，但事实上她往往最为激动，学生记得这样的老师的存在，正因为记得她偶尔的雷霆万钧。
 
    三位老师其实共同体现的都是苏格拉底的智慧与责任，因为这一点避无可避，又因为——there it is。短短两个小时的电影，反映出了如此多的道理，却并不拥挤逼仄，相反倒有一种天性的诗意缓缓淌过，简直是最好的英式教育白皮书，不得不感叹，一个好的戏剧，张力的确能够做到文学性与表演性的极致，或者说是能够找准那个最佳平衡点，从而在任何情况下赢得时间和空间。
 
    电影看完了，有人醒悟说，原来自始至终强调的居然不是那句“history is just one fuckin' thing after another.”而是Hector说的，education needs “Take it, feel it and pass it on”。
 
    所以，这部影片其实从头到尾都是在向雅典公民苏格拉底先生致以最崇高的敬意。包括那无处不在的洋溢在年轻与老朽的肉体之中的爱与责任。

校园片的一个特点就是励志,肯定有一位春风化雨的老师,这是必需的,然后肯定还有一位代表顽固实力的校长或是训导主任之类的反派角色.而学生方面,肯定都是内心期望着变革,可是肯定是毫无勇气挑战传统的,直到那位老师来了之后,革命的暴风雨也为之降临,而结尾毫无疑问的是,那位优秀的老师在传统的势力下默默的离开,然而他却赢得了学生的心.
但是这部戏却恰恰相反,学生们居然是一群渴望得到高分的学生,对于原来老师的春风化雨式的教学方式很不买账.认为诗歌只类不过是一种浪费时间的课程,他们需要的,是可以让他们得到大学录取通知书的课程.这一点就是让人大吃一惊,还有这么势利的学生.
这里面的老师也是非常的奇怪,两个用来作对比的老师有一个同样的特点,都是同性恋.只不过,一个经常对男学生动手动脚,采取很明目张胆的方式,结果,被人起诉了.而另一个,却是掩饰自己的取向,让自己看上去没什么两样.而且,他的教学方式是激进的,是直接指向目标的,却和他的生活态度也有了很大的反差.
学生除了上面说到的势利之外,根本没有以往电影中那种对于传统的反叛,他们一个个的都很正常.知道什么时候该做什么,一心用功在学习上.一次次看他们从图书馆借了厚厚的一摞书,然后拼命用功的样子,真是让人感到振奋,自己的高中时代不也是一样.有一个不同的就是,他们的感情问题也是出了问题,其中一个居然爱上了自己的好朋友,当然了,也是男的.然后他向同样是同性恋的老师倾诉,当然了,没有俗套的爱上了老师,只不过老师让他从容面对而已.虽然少了情节上发展的空间,不过显得更加真实.
这群男生的组合也相当的多姿多彩,传统的小白脸之外,还有一个开朗的大胖子,简直就是那个老师的翻版,而且还很愿意学女生,真是别具一格;一个运动方面的专家,说萨特非常擅长高尔夫;一个犹太人,不能自慰,而且对于集中营的惨剧认识很深;还有一个穆斯林,却被人与印度人混为一谈;还有一个黑人...总之,不是传统的白人天下,这么多的男生,总有一款适合那些女观众吧.
最后的那个结尾,虽然我认为有点悲惨,一个皆大欢喜的结局难道不好?但是,当镜头慢慢的拉开,用一种回忆的语气谈论那些男生之后的生活时,一种沧桑感突然的涌上了心头,突然间,这部喜剧有了深度.它所说的不仅是大学录取前的补习课了,更变成了,一个优秀老师对于学生影响的很好的诠释.这点和其他的校园片没什么两样,可是,这样不好么?
还有,这部电影的台词真是太赞了.让我们顺便体验了一下英国诗歌的美.

有一个疑问,为什么同样是大学的入学考试,斯国的可以如此的多姿多彩,反身自顾,我操.真希望中国早日有这么一部影片出现,而且还是现实主义作品.
http://tin1016.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!49A79B57DDF65AA1!1238.entry

考据癖如我找了找片中提到的诗歌。
原诗在前，网上能找到的中文译本放在后面。这几首里我最喜欢是《鼓手霍奇》。

[No.1] 眠歌- []Lullaby

By W.H.Auden

Lay your sleeping head, my love,
Human on my faithless arm;
Time and fevers burn away
Individual beauty from
Thoughtful children, and the grave
Proves the child ephemeral:
But in my arms till break of day
Let the living creature lie,
Mortal, guilty, but to me
The entirely beautiful.

Soul and body have no bounds:
To lovers as they lie upon
Her tolerant enchanted slope
In their ordinary swoon,
Grave the vision Venus sends
Of supernatural sympathy,
Universal love and hope;
While an abstract insight wakes
Among the glaciers and the rocks
The hermit's carnal ecstasy.

Certainty, fidelity
On the stroke of midnight pass
Like vibrations of a bell
And fashionable madmen raise
Their pedantic boring cry:
Every farthing cost,
All the dreaded cards foretell,
Shall be paid, but from this night
Not a whisper, not a thought,
Not a kiss nor look be lost.

Beauty, midnight, vision dies:
Let the winds of dawn that blow
Softly round your dreaming head
Such a day of welcome show
Eye and knocking heart may bless,
Find our mortal world enough;
Noons of dryness find you fed
By the involuntary powers,
Nights of insult let you pass
Watched by every human love.

　摇篮曲

　　薛舟 译

放下你沉睡的头，我的爱，
在我背叛的臂弯里：
时间和热病烧掉了
个体的美丽，从
沉思的孩子身上，坟墓
证明那孩子的短命：
但在破晓之前，先让仅存的生者
躺在我的臂弯，
平凡、有罪，对我来说
却是彻底的美丽。

爱人们的灵魂和肉体没有界限：
当他们躺在
惯常的陶醉中那
被施以魔法的宽容的斜坡，
铭记下维纳斯送来
超自然的同情心、
以及普遍的爱和希望的幻象；
当一个抽象的顿悟
从冰河与岩石中
唤醒隐士世俗的狂热。

确定性，和忠诚
在午夜钟声的敲打中走开
像一个铃铛在颤动
时髦的疯子提高了
他们书生气的烦人的喊叫：
损失掉的每一法寻都要被偿还。
所有恐怖的纸牌的预言都要得到兑现。
但不是从这个夜晚
也不是一声耳语，一个想法
不是一个吻，更不是错过的一瞥。

美、午夜、幻象都将死去：
就让黎明的风吹着
轻柔地环绕你做梦的头
这样受欢迎的一天显示出
眼睛和搏动的心脏或许在祝福，
发现我们平凡的世界已经足够；
干燥的正午你已经被喂饱
被一种不经意的力量，
凌辱之夜允许你通过
在每一对世间爱人的注视下。
 

　



[No.2] 美术馆- []Musée des Beaux Arts

By W. H. Auden

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

美术馆

查良铮 译

关于苦难他们总是很清楚的，
这些古典画家：他们多么深知它在
人心中的地位，深知痛苦会产生，
当别人在吃，在开窗，或正作着无聊的散步的时候；
深知当老年人热烈地、虔敬地等候
神异的降生时，总会有些孩子
并不特别想要他出现，而却在
树林边沿的池塘上溜着冰。
他们从不忘记：
即使悲惨的殉道也终归会完结
在一个角落，乱糟糟的地方，
在那里狗继续过着狗的生涯，而迫害者的马
把无知的臀部在树上摩擦。

在勃鲁盖尔的《伊卡鲁斯》里，比如说；
一切是多么安闲地从那桩灾难转过脸：
农夫或许听到了堕水的声音和那绝望的呼喊，
但对于他，那不是了不得的失败；
太阳依旧照着白腿落进绿波里；
那华贵而精巧的船必曾看见
一件怪事，从天上掉下一个男孩，
但它有某地要去，仍静静地航行。

美术馆

余光中 译

说到苦难，他们从未看错，
古代那些大师：他们深切体认
苦难在人世的地位；当苦难降临，
别人总是在进食或开窗或仅仅默然走过；
当长者正虔诚地、热烈地等，
等奇迹降临，总有孩子们
不特别期待它发生，正巧
在林边的池塘上溜冰：
大师们从不忘记
即使可怖的殉道也必须在一隅
独自进行，在杂乱的一隅
一任狗照常过狗的日子，酷吏的马匹
向一颗树干摩擦无辜的后臀。

例如布鲁果的《伊卡瑞斯》，众人
都悠然不顾那劫难，那农夫可能
听见了水波溅洒，呼救无望，
但是不当它是惨重的牺牲；阳光灿照，
不会不照见白净的双腿没入碧湛
的海波；那豪华优雅的海舟必然看见
一幕奇景，一童子自天而降，
却有路要赶，仍安详地向前航行。
 

ABOUT THE POEM:

meaning:
The basic premise of the poem is response to tragedy, or as the song goes "Obla Di, Obla Da, Life Goes On." The title refers to the Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels. Auden visited the museum in 1938 and viewed the painting by Brueghel, which the poem is basically about. Generalizing at first, and then going into specifics the poem theme is the apathy with which humans view individual suffering.
    Auden wrote that "In so far as poetry, or any of the arts, can be said to have an ulterior purpose, it is, by telling the truth, to disenchant and disintoxicate."
The poem juxtaposes ordinary events and exraordinary ones, although extraordinary events seem to deflate to everyday ones with his descriptions. Life goes on while a "miraculous birth occurs", but also while "the disaster" of Icarus's death happens.

background info:
For those cultural barbarians who don't know the story of Icarus, here it is, in condensed form. Icarus was a Greek mythological figure, also known as the son of Daedalus (famous for the Labyrinth of Crete). Now Icarus and his dad were stuck in Crete, because the King of Crete wouldn't let them leave. Daedalus made some wings for the both of them and gave his son instruction on how to fly (not too close to the sea, the water will soak the wings, and not too close to the sky, the sun will melt them). Icarus, however, appeared to be obstinate and did fly to close to the sun. This caused the wax that held his wings to his body to melt. Icarus crashed into the sea and died.

hints:
Some have even claimed to find hints of Auden's eventual reconversion to Christiantiy in the poem. Richard Johnson, author of "Man's Place: An Essay on Auden", believes there is a touch of Christian awareness in the poem, especially the timeline. The reader of the poem is placed in front of the Breughel painting in a museum, and at the same time is expected to project those images and truths to the world outside. There is also a sort of continuity through the poem as you read it and are allowed to see what the poet means. This allows a reader to become aware of his human position.
    The poem first discusses a "miraculous birth", and at the end "the tragedy" of a death. The theme in the poem is human suffering. If you add these things together, and stir really well you might even get some hints at religion, mainly at Christianity
    Also, the poem suggest a religious acceptance of suffering (example: eating your morning breakfast while watching coverage of a serious trainwreck on CNN). Religious acceptance basically means coming to terms with the ways of the world.




[No.3] 西罗普郡少年- []A SHROPSHIRE LAD

XXXI. "On Wenlock Edge the wood's in trouble..."

by A. E. Housman (1859-1936)
On Wenlock Edge the wood's in trouble;
His forest fleece the Wrekin heaves;
The gale, it plies the saplings double,
And thick on Severn snow the leaves.

'Twould blow like this through holt and hanger
When Uricon the city stood:
'Tis the old wind in the old anger,
But then it threshed another wood.

Then, 'twas before my time, the Roman
At yonder heaving hill would stare:
The blood that warms as English yeoman,
The thoughts that hurt him, they were there.

There, like the wind through woods in riot,
Through him the gale of life blew high;
The tree of man was never quiet:
Then 'twas the Roman, now 'tis I.

The gale, it plies the saplings double,
It blows so hard, 'twill soon be gone:
To-day the Roman and his trouble
Are ashes under Uricon.

               

A.E.Housman简介：

Alfred Edward Housman was born in a village in rural Shropshire, England in 1859. As a student at Oxford, he distinguished himself as a promising scholar of classics, though crises of a personal nature caused him to fail his final exams. Housman was determined to overcome this failing. When not working at the British Patent office Housman wrote scholarly articles, and published many of them to very high regard from those in academic circles. He was invited to teach at the University of London as a professor of Latin, and soon stepped up to Cambridge University, to retire to the life of a shy academic. He published only two volumes of poetry --A Shropshire Lad in 1898 and Last Poems in 1922 -- yet these were instantly and enormously popular. However successful he was, the tone of his poems remained that of the Latin poets he admired: that life is short and often, inexplicably, comes to a bad end.
         

另外，八十多年前郁达夫也曾提到过A Shropshire Lad：

   啊呵，去年六月在灯火繁华的上海市外，在车马喧嚷的黄浦江边，我一边念着Housman的A Shropshire Lad里的
    Come you home a hero
    Or come not home at all，
    The lads you leave will mind You
    Till Ludlow tower shall fall

  几句清诗， 一边呆呆的看着江中黝黑混浊的流水，曾经发了几多的叹声，滴了几多的眼泪。你若知道我那时候的绝望的情怀，我想你去年的那几封微有怨意的信也不至于发给我了。——啊，我想起了，你是不懂英文的，这几句诗我顺便替你译出吧。

    “汝当衣锦归，
    否则永莫回，
    令汝别后之儿童
    望到拉德罗塔毁。”


摘自：《茑萝行》（原载一九二三年五月一日《创造季刊》第二卷第一号，据《达夫短篇小说集》上册）



[No.4] 鼓手霍奇- []Drummer Hodge

by Thomas Hardy

They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest
  Uncoffined – just as found:
His landmark is a kopje-crest
  That breaks the veldt around;
And foreign constellations west
  Each night above his mound.

Young Hodge the Drummer never knew –
  Fresh from his Wessex home –
The meaning of the broad Karoo,
  The Bush, the dusty loam,
And why uprose to nightly view
  Strange stars amid the gloam.

Yet portion of that unknown plain
  Will Hodge forever be;
His homely Northern breast and brain
  Grow to some Southern tree,
And strange-eyed constellation reign
  His stars eternally.


 鼓手霍奇

 托玛斯·哈代

                         吕志鲁译

 鼓手霍奇被扔进坑里掩埋，
 正如找到时那样，没有棺材：
 他的坟地是南非的一座小山，
 把周围的平原稍稍撕开；
 这坟墓上空的每个夜晚，
 异国的星座在西边摆开。

 刚从威塞克斯老家来到这里，
 年轻的鼓手霍奇弄不明白，
 灌木丛丛，沃土扬尘，
 广阔干旱的高原意义何在？
 昏暗的黑夜茫茫一片，
 闪烁的星座好生奇怪。

 正是这无名平原的一角，
 霍奇将要长眠，永不离开；
 他将长成一棵南方的大树，
 带着北方质朴的头脑、胸怀，
 任凭星星闪烁陌生的眼睛，
 把他的命运永远主宰。



[No.5] 不言的渴望- [] Leaves of Grass

289. The Untold Want

By Walt Whitman (1819–1892)

THE untold want, by life and land ne’er granted,
Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find.

    在影片的结尾处，在弥漫着忧伤的毕业典礼上，男孩们温柔的唱起了那首悠扬的《Bye Bye Bird》，他们身后的幻灯片上，赫克特(Hector)和蔼的微笑显得那么温暖……
    赫克特这个人物交织了很多矛盾，一方面，是个才华横溢的教师；另一方面，他逾越了道德界限，做了令人不齿的事——性骚扰他的男学生。乍看这部电影仿佛落入了俗套：道貌岸然、道德败坏的男教师的故事?
    只是，这真的是《历史系男生》要表达的主题吗？不！影片中多彩而美妙的配乐，纯熟而毫不拖沓的节奏把握，那一个个饱满而丰实的人物，那一段段令人应接不暇的精辟睿智的对白，绝不是用来讲述这样一个关于道德批判的滥白故事。
                                 
     一、传递“包裹”
    在一堂文学课上，赫克特表达了他独特的教育理念,他告诉男孩们学诗歌的意义：即使诗歌大多是关于没有发生在我们身上的事，即使现在不能理解，即使与考试无关，但只要你现在去学习它，理解它，总有一天你会懂，那一刻也许是痛苦、快乐的时候，也许是弥留之际，而此时“你已经有解药了”。
    赫克特总是这样，用诗意唯美的方式，娓娓道来，向你传授这些凝练的感悟。
    在指导普斯纳（Posner）鉴赏《鼓手霍奇》这部作品时，赫克特的教育理念展现得淋漓尽致。
    《鼓手霍奇》是关于一个无名小卒在战争年代的故事，默默无名的鼓手霍奇死去，被孤伶伶地埋葬在遥远的异乡。此时，60多岁的赫克特刚刚遭受了被迫提前退休的打击，突如其来的变故使赫克特对人生产生了怀疑与悲哀，而《鼓手霍奇》作者托马斯•哈代孤独落魄的一生仿佛与此时的赫克特同病相怜。
    于是，前人的思想情感在赫克特心中强烈地共鸣着，与个体的经历、际遇交融，带上了个体的深刻烙印，然后，赫克特作为传播“介质”，像传递“包裹”那样,把前人的思想情感通过语言的表达，在普斯纳心中同样引起共鸣。情节发展到此处，象征着赫克特这个人物已经完成了他的使命——也就是他所说的“传递包裹”，人类文明和历史在本质上就是这样经过传递而被继承下来的，穿越时空，从一个心灵到另一个心灵。教育，也就是一种“传递”。正如赫克特所说的，接受它，感受它，传递它。这才是赫克特想让男孩们明白的“比赛（Game)”，而不是仅仅为了应付考试。普斯纳后来继承赫克特的衣钵，成为一名教师，把赫克特递过来的包裹传递下去，更是印证了这一主题。
    也许，这才是《历史系男生》想讲述的。
                                
    二、违背道德？？
    无疑地，赫克特珍视他的事业，不然他也不会因为被迫提前退休而如此黯然神伤，不知道是什么驱使赫克特冒险逾越了道德的界限，侥幸心理？还是轻视道德？或者两者兼有？我们也许无从得知。
    不过，有趣的是，对于赫克特的“骚扰”，男孩们的态度值得玩味。不同于校长认为这是一桩“极不体面的事情”，男孩们最多只是觉得赫克特是个笑料，一直以来都和赫克特亲密无间；达肯（Dakin）说赫克特的离开某种程度上不得不说是遗憾，最后甚至用小花样迫使校长收回赫克特的辞退令……
    这使我想起另外一部电影《十诫》里的一个故事，一个男人为了追求“纯粹的”自由，，于是在周末邀请友人到自己家里举办一丝不挂的“裸体Party”，别误会，他们只是想自由自在地阅读、听歌、烧烤，讨论音乐，没有其他。虽然这和赫克特的行为有着质的区别，但同样让我们萌发了一些思考：毫无疑问，道德对于维系人类社会的存在和发展有着巨大的意义，但是，我们又该如何定义某一些处在道德边缘的事情呢？特别是当人性与普遍道德价值产生摩擦的时候，比如同性恋、安乐死……
                                
    三、尾声
    不管怎样，赫克特还是优雅的赫克特，还是那个想买一辆货车装满书本，开上无尽的公路周游世界的可爱老头子……圆满的结局似乎已经来到，当男孩们的前途都有了好归宿，赫克特也不必提前退休的时候，他却突然去世了……纵然令人措手不及，但未尝不是一种美好的解脱，把一切的争论和喧嚣都抛在身后，愿他充满诗意的灵魂安息……


    历史，由始至终都是《历史系男生》展开叙事的线索。对于赫克特的死，Dakin问道：“历史是怎样发生的？”；桃乐丝（Dorothy）老师说，历史是女性提着花篮跟在无能的男人们身后；Rudge说，历史是一件又一件该死的事情……虽然是由舞台剧改编的，但人物、对白、情节，一切都很自然，没有造作的痕迹，没有过度的渲染。80年代英国校园的宁静葱郁，学院建筑的宏伟深沉，诗歌的优美雅致，男孩们惟妙惟肖的角色模仿，扑鼻的青春气息……还有令人印象深刻的那一幕：赫克特曾感慨地谈起阅读的愉悦，当你读到某些独特的文字，感悟到了什么，就像坐在某人身旁，然后有一只手握住了你……
    充满历史感的唯美，过目难忘。