Newly Seen Letters Show Philip Larkin’s Close Relationship with Mother書信揭示拉金與母親的親密關系

黃美鳳

Philip and Eva Larkin corresponded twice weekly for about 35 years， with the pair exchanging minute details of one anothers daily lives. 在大約35年的時間里，菲利普和伊娃·拉金每周通信兩次，母子二人在信中交流彼此日常生活中瑣碎的細節。

He was terrified of marriage， living a life of tangled relationships with women who became his muses. Poet Philip Larkins view of marriage may partly have been coloured1 by his mothers warnings of its disadvantages， previously unpublished letters reveal.

In 1952， Eva Larkin told her son： “Marriage would be no certain guarantee as to socks being always mended， or meals ready when they are wanted. Neither would it be wise to marry just for those comforts. There are other things just as important.”

The following year， she quoted from a George Bernard Shaw novel in offering further relationship advice： “I have just finished reading Love Among the Artists … in which occurs this passage ‘No： it is marriage that kills the heart and keeps it dead. Better starve the heart than overfeed it. Better still to feed it only on fine food， like music. In a way， I agree with him... Better to have lived a full life， I think.”

The correspondence was featured in a book， titled Writers and Their Mothers， exploring the maternal influence on literary offspring from Shakespeare onwards. A chapter on Larkin， one of the greatest poets of the 20th century， is written by Philip Pullen， who has drawn on thousands of largely unpublished letters held by the University of Hull， where Larkin worked as librarian from 1955.

Larkin biographer James Booth published a selection of the correspondence in a major book， titled Letters Home， for Faber & Faber in November. He described the previously unpublished material as “very significant”， noting that passages chosen by Pullen show that “the relationship was deeper and more valuable to Larkin than anybody might have thought”： “Its rather surprising to hear Eva trying to put her son off marriage.”

Mother and son wrote to each other twice weekly for about 35 years from 1940， when Larkin went to Oxford University. Pullen notes that no other collection of a writers dialogue with his mother contains such intimate and minute detail of each others day-to-day life.

Pullen writes that， in biographical terms， it is Larkins father， Sydney， who has taken centre stage， notably “his ardour for National Socialism during the 1930s and the impact that his adventurous admiration for English literature had on his son”： “Eva has been portrayed as a shadowy， background figure—subservient2 to her husband， nervous， continually whining， and contributing significantly to their unhappy pairing.”

Larkins long-standing relationships included Monica Jones， an English lecturer， but he shied from tying the knot3 and strayed4. “To me it was dilution”， he wrote of marriage in his poem Dockery and Son.

Booth said： “He couldnt marry anyone because he was so involved with his mother. Writing to her twice a week， he also visited her every fortnight or so. He would come down from Hull to Loughborough， and then he would visit Monica in Leicester. But he was living in Hull， which is where he got involved with Maeve Brennan in the library… Youve got this really tangled emotional situation. The mother is the key element. People have always half recognised that， but never been able to see it properly.”

He added： “Philip scarcely needed Evas advice against entering into marriage for the sake of domestic comfort… So much was he his mothers son that he always darned his own socks and cooked for himself. Each coped with their depressive pessimism in their own way： Eva underwent psychiatric treatment…; he wrote poems. Most important of all， their postal conversation kept alive the poets sense of the loveliness of ‘everyday things， so essential to such poems as ‘Love Songs in Age and ‘Faith Healing.”

Writers and Their Mothers was published on 1 March 2018， before Mothers Day5. Its editor， Prof Dale Salwak， whose books include Philip Larkin： The Man and His Work， said： “We now have a profounder understanding of just what an influence Eva was on Larkin as a man and therefore on his poetry.”? ? ? ? ? ■

詩人菲利普·拉金恐懼婚姻。他的一生中，與帶給他創作靈感的女性總是陷入戀情且關系錯綜復雜。此前從未發表過的一些信件透露，拉金的婚姻觀可能部分受到了他母親的影響：母親總是告誡他婚姻的種種弊端。

1952年，伊娃·拉金告訴兒子：“結了婚也不一定能過上襪子破了總有人給補、餓了就能吃上飯的舒適生活，而且只為享受舒適生活而結婚也是不明智的。生活中還有其他同樣重要的事情。”

次年，她引用了蕭伯納一部小說中的內容進一步提出婚戀建議：“我剛剛讀完《藝術家之間的愛情》……書中出現了這樣一段：‘不：是婚姻殺死了人的心，讓它如一潭死水。與其把心喂得太飽，還不如讓它挨餓。不如干脆只給它喂像音樂這樣精美的食物。在某種程度上，我同意他的看法……我覺得，過一種充實的人生應該會更好。”

《作家和他們的母親》一書收錄了這些信件。這本書探討了自莎士比亞以來，后世作家的母親對他們創作的影響。書中有一章是關于拉金的，他是20世紀最偉大的詩人之一。該章節由菲利普·普倫撰寫，他參考了數千封基本未曾公開發表過的書信，這些信件為赫爾大學所有。拉金本人從1955年起就一直在赫爾大學擔任圖書管理員。

2018年11月，拉金的傳記作家詹姆斯·布思將為費伯與費伯出版社出版了一本名為《家書》的重要著作，其中精選了拉金的書信。他稱這些之前從未發表過的信件“意義非凡”，并指出其中普倫所摘選的段落表明“對于拉金來說，他與母親的關系可能比任何人想象的都更深厚，也更珍貴”：“聽到伊娃試圖阻止兒子步入婚姻殿堂還是頗令人感到意外的。”

從1940年拉金進入牛津大學開始，他與母親每周通信兩次，就這樣持續了大約35年。普倫指出，其他任何一份作家與母親的對話錄，都沒有像拉金與母親的通信那樣，包含了彼此日常生活中如此私密和瑣碎的細節。

普倫寫道，在拉金的傳記中，他的父親悉尼占據了主導地位，尤其是“他在20世紀30年代對國家社會主義的熱情，以及他對英國文學的大膽崇拜給兒子帶來的影響”：“而伊娃卻一直被描繪成一個形象模糊的幕后人物——對丈夫言聽計從，神經緊張，滿腹牢騷，且二人不幸福的婚姻她負有很大責任。”

拉金長期交往的對象包括英語講師莫妮卡·瓊斯，但他逃避與之結婚，還對她不忠。“對我來說，這是一種稀釋。”他在詩歌《多里克和兒子》中談及婚姻時寫道。

布思說：“拉金無法和任何人結婚，因為他太愛他的母親了。他每周給她寫兩次信，每兩周左右就去看她一次。他會從赫爾來到拉夫堡，然后會去萊斯特大學見莫妮卡。但他當時住在赫爾，在赫爾大學的圖書館里，他又結識了梅芙·布倫南……你會發現這是一種非常復雜的情感狀況。母親是其中的關鍵因素。人們始終一知半解，但從來無法看清。”

布思補充道：“菲利普幾乎不需要母親伊娃來勸阻去為了家庭的舒適而結婚……作為媽媽的好兒子，拉金總是自己縫補襪子，自己做飯吃。母子二人都以自己的方式來應對他們的抑郁悲觀情緒：母親伊娃接受了精神治療……而他的方式是寫詩。不過最重要的是，母子之間的書信交流使詩人對‘日常事物的美好感覺得以延續，這對他的《時代情歌》和《信仰治愈》等詩歌的創作來說是至關重要的。”

《作家和他們的母親》于2018年母親節前出版。該書的編輯戴爾·薩爾瓦克教授表示：“我們現在有了更深刻的理解，知道了拉金的母親伊娃對拉金本人以及他的詩歌產生的影響有多大。”薩爾瓦克也是《菲利普·拉金和他的作品》一書的編輯。? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? □

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎者）

1 colour影響（觀點）;使有偏見。

2 subservient屈從的;低聲下氣的。? 3 tie the knot結婚。? 4 stray偏離原路。

5英國的母親節和美國等其他國家的母親節不同，不在5月的第二個星期天，而是每年四旬齋（即Lent，復活節之前為期40天的封齋期）的第四個星期天，傳統上稱為Mothering Sunday（母親禮拜日）。2018年的母親節是在3月11日。