Why You Should Read Louise Glück’s Poetry為何要讀露易絲·格麗克的詩

迪比奧德·達斯　成玉華/譯

The winner of 2020 Nobel Prize in literature Louise Glück has been publishing poetry for nearly 58 years， yet a lot of us are not very familiar with her work or her importance as one of Americas leading poets. She works as an adjunct1 professor and the Rosenkranz Writer-in-Residence2 at Yale University， and has won almost every major award in literature including a Pultizer， a Bollingen Prize， the National Humanities Medal， National Book Award to name a few. She has even served as the Poet Laureate of United States. That is some CV.

2020年的諾貝爾文學獎得主露易絲·格麗克出版詩歌已近58年，但我們很多人仍然不太熟悉她的作品，也不太了解她作為美國領軍詩人之一的重要性。她現任耶魯大學客座教授及羅森克蘭茨駐校作家，幾乎已將所有重要文學獎項收入囊中，包括普利策獎、博林根詩歌獎、美國國家人文獎章、美國國家圖書獎等。她甚至還擔任過美國桂冠詩人。這是份了不得的簡歷。

Yet， the news of her winning the Nobel came like just her poetry： sudden， with leanness3 of sentiment and in a flash of everyday beauty.

然而，她獲諾獎的消息就像她的詩歌一樣突如其來、感情平淡，瞬間閃出日常之美。

According to reports， Glück lives like any other overachiever4： reading mystery novels， gardening， cooking and writing bomb poetry with an analytical clarity about inner life.

據報道，格麗克的生活與其他成就非凡的人別無二致：閱讀懸疑小說、擺弄花草、烹飪美食、寫出洞悉人心的絕佳詩歌。

From weaving themes of childhood and married life with Greek and Roman myths， to writing feminist anthems， Glück is as prolific as prolific can get.

從借用希臘羅馬神話編就童年往事和婚后生活，到書寫女性主義贊歌，格麗克足夠多產。

In an interview with Poets and Writers magazine， she had said， “you have to live your life if youre going to do original work”， because “your work will come out of an authentic life， and if you suppress all of your most passionate impulses in the service of an art that has not yet declared itself， youre making a terrible mistake”. Yet， her former colleague Dan Chiasson says， “She has suffered more than some， less than many; she has nothing uniquely harrowing5 to report. If someone told you to make fifty years of poetry out of what Glück has kept on hand， you would say， no， Im sorry， thats not possible.”

她在接受《詩人和作家》雜志采訪時說：“如果你要寫原創作品，你就必須體驗生活。”因為“你的作品必須來源于真實的生活，如果你為了一種尚未清晰顯露的藝術而將自己最狂熱的沖動通通壓抑，那你就是在犯一個可怕的錯誤”。然而，她的前同事丹·恰森卻說：“她受的苦比一些人多，但比許多人少；她沒有特別悲慘的事要訴說。如果有人叫你用格麗克現有的生活經歷創作50年詩歌，你會說，不，對不起，那是不可能的。”

Thats where her genius lies： in observing， feeling， really capturing those feelings in clarity and meter.

這便是她的天賦所在：觀察、體會，清晰而準確地將那些感受牢牢抓住。

When she was appointed as the US poet laureate in 2003， she said she had “no concern with widening audience”， and that she preferred her audience “small， intense， passionate”. Maybe that is why a lot of us dont actively know about her， even though we might have come across her work.

2003年，當被任命為美國桂冠詩人時，她說自己“無意擴大受眾面”，更希望受眾群體“規模不大、全心投入、激情澎湃”。也許這就是為什么我們很多人都沒有主動去了解她，即使我們可能偶然讀過她的作品。

The chair of the Nobel Prize committee， Anders Olsson， hailed Glücks “candid and uncompromising” voice， which is “full of humour and biting wit”. Her 12 collections of poetry， from Faithful and Virtuous Night to The Wild Iris are “characterised by a striving for clarity”， he added， comparing her to Emily Dickinson with her “severity and unwillingness to accept simple tenets of faith”.

諾貝爾獎委員會主席安德斯·奧爾森稱贊格麗克“坦率而不妥協”的聲音“充滿幽默和犀利的智慧”。他還說格麗克的12部詩集，從《忠貞之夜》到《野鳶尾》，都“以力求清晰為特點”，并將她與艾米莉·狄金森相比，因為她“行文簡樸且不愿接受宗教的天真原則”。

“In her poems， the self listens for what is left of its dreams and delusions6， and nobody can be harder than she in confronting the illusions of the self，” Olsson said. “But even if Glück would never deny the significance of the autobiographical background， she is not to be regarded as a confessional poet.”

“在她的詩中，自己傾聽著自己剩下的夢想和妄想，面對自我的幻想，沒有人能比她更加堅韌。”奧爾森說，“但是，即使格麗克永遠不會否認自傳性背景的重要性，她也不應該被視為自白派詩人。”

The Nobel committee singled out “Snowdrops”， a poem from her Pulitzer-winning collection The Wild Iris， in which she evokes the return of life after winter. “I did not expect to survive， / earth suppressing me，” Glück writes. “I didnt expect / to waken again， to feel / in damp earth my body / able to respond again …”7

諾貝爾獎委員會從她獲得普利策獎的詩集《野鳶尾》中，特別挑出了《雪花蓮》一詩。在這首詩中，她喚起了冬日過后生命的回歸。“我并不期望存活，/大地壓制我。”格麗克寫道，“我不期望/再次醒來，感覺/我的身體在潮濕的泥土里/能夠再次回應……”

Olsson called her collection Averno， an interpretation of the myth of Perse-phones descent into hell with Hades， “masterly”， adding that the National Book Award-winning collection Faithful and Virtuous Night is “another spectacular achievement.

奧爾森稱她的詩集《阿弗爾諾》“巧妙地”詮釋了珀耳塞福涅與哈得斯墜入地獄的神話，并表示她獲得美國國家圖書獎的詩集《忠貞之夜》是“另一個驚人的成就”。

“The reader is again struck by the presence of voice and Glück approaches the motif of death with remarkable grace and lightness，” he said. “She writes oneiric8， narrative poetry recalling memories and travels， only to hesitate and pause for new insights. The world is disenthralled9， only to become magically present once again.”

“讀者再次被格麗克字里行間傳遞的聲音震撼，她以非凡的優雅和輕盈描述死亡這一主題。”他說，“她寫下夢一般的敘事詩，回憶往事和旅行，卻為新的見解而猶豫和停頓。世界得到解放，竟神奇地再一次呈現在眼前。”

Several scholars have pointed out how Glücks poetry can be said to be focused on trauma， as she has written throughout her career about death， loss， rejection， the failure of relationships， and attempts at healing and renewal. The scholar Daniel Morris notes that even a Glück poem that uses traditionally happy or idyllic imagery “suggests the authors awareness of mortality， of the loss of innocence”.

一些學者指出，格麗克的詩歌可以說是專注于創傷，因為她終其職業生涯都在書寫死亡、失去、拒絕、感情的失敗，以及對治愈和重生的嘗試。學者丹尼爾·莫里斯指出，格麗克的詩即使采用了典型的快樂意象或田園詩意象，也會“表明作者意識到死亡，意識到純真的喪失”。

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎者）