2022-07-03 Independence Weekend

【Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction——It Must Be Abstract·I (1942)】

Wallace Stevens (1879—1955)

        Begin, ephebe, by perceiving the idea

        Of this invention, this invented world,

        The inconceivable idea of the sun.

        You must become an ignorant man again

        And see the sun again with an ignorant eye

        And see it clearly in the idea of it.

        Never suppose an inventing mind as source

        Of this idea nor for that mind compose

        A voluminous master folded in his fire.

        How clean the sun when seen in its idea,

        Washed in the remotest cleanliness of a heaven

        That has expelled us and our images…

        The death of one god is the death of all.

        Let purple Phoebus lie in umber harvest,

        Let Phoebus slumber and die in autumn umber,

        Phoebus is dead, ephebe. But Phoebus was

        A name for something that never could be named.

        There was a project for the sun and is.

—— • —— • —— • —— • —— • —— • —— • ——

【《最高虚构笔记——它必定抽象·之一》(1942年)】

威尔士人·史蒂文斯(1879生—1955卒)

            开始的时候，青年男生，通过概念构思

            这个创意，这样虚拟的世界，

            难以想象的太阳观念。

            你得变回无知之辈

            再用蒙昧的眼光注视太阳

            并依照它的逻辑清楚地看到实相。

            从不靠创造性思维得出

            这种想法也不用那顶脑袋勾勒

            热情奔放的多面手。

            阳光令人感觉多么纯洁，

            荡涤着离尘净土的天堂

            早已排除我们的实体影像……

            一神之死就是所有人之死。

            让紫红色地衣沉浸在棕褐色收获之中，

            使太阳神在深秋沉眠不醒，

            太阳神死了，青年男生。但太阳神代表

            没有名字的尤物。

            黄金盛世者非它莫属。

【注】北宾州溪谷地理上算作费城远郊，但其西部地区传统上更偏重农村，而南部和东部总体上则属于“卧城”，既是费城通勤者居住的田园镇，又是诸如默克(Merck)、强生(J&J)等大型药业的家属区。

以下大多是北宾州溪谷载入《国家史迹名录》(Natl. Register of Historic Places)的建筑。

Today in History(历史上的今天):

2017: Munich—BMW & Hofbraeuhaus, DEU(德国慕尼黑─宝马总部与宫廷啤酒馆)

2017: Salzburg the Stage of the World, AUT(奥地利盐堡—世界舞台)

2016: Capital Helsinki, Finland(芬兰首都赫尔辛基)

2016: Medieval Porvoo, Finland(芬兰中世纪古镇城堡河市)

2015: Naples—City of the Sun, Italy(意大利那不勒斯—太阳之城)

2015: Neapolitan Authentic Pizza, Italy(意大利那不勒斯正宗披萨)

2014: YMCA Camp—Sports Injuries(基督教青年会营运动受伤)

Crosslinks(相关博文):

USA(出游美国)

万花筒(Kaleidoscope)