2022-08-14

【Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction—It Must Chang·III (1942)】

Wallace Stevens (1879—1955)

        The great statue of the General Du Puy

        Rested immobile, though neighboring catafalques

        Bore off the residents of its noble Place.

        The right, uplifted foreleg of the horse

        Suggested that, at the final funeral,

        The music halted and the horse stood still.

        On Sundays, lawyers in their promenades

        Approached this strongly-heightened effigy

        To study the past, and doctors, having bathed

        Themselves with care, sought out the nerveless frame

        Of a suspension, a permanence, so rigid

        That it made the General a bit absurd,

        Changed his true flesh to an inhuman bronze.

        There never had been, never could be, such

        A man. The lawyers disbelieved, the doctors

        Said that as keen, illustrious ornament,

        As a setting for geraniums, the General,

        The very Place Du Puy, in fact, belonged

        Among our more vestigial states of mind.

        Nothing had happened because nothing had changed.

        Yet the General was rubbish in the end.

—— • —— • —— • —— • —— • —— • —— • ——

【《最高虚构笔记——它必要改变·之三》(1942年)】

威尔士人·史蒂文斯(1879生—1955卒)

            火山将军的壮观雕像

            永垂不朽，尽管邻近的灵柩台

            厌烦了这位君临天下的住户。

            马匹高抬起右前蹄

            暗示，告别葬礼上，

            音乐停止与坐骑静立不动。

            星期天，律师沿滨海步行大道

            走近这尊巍峨挺拔的雕像

            去审视历史，而医生，早已

            沉浸其中并小心地，找出麻木的骨架

            一种漂浮，一种永恒，固守成规

            把将军塑造得近乎荒唐，

            让鲜活的形象变成迂腐的青铜。

            从来没有过，永远不可能，像

            这样的人物。律师怀疑，医生

            称之为穿透力非凡的摆设，

            用以衬托天竺葵，雕像、

            所在的火山广场，实际上，属于

            挥之难去的思想范畴。

            什么都没有发生毕竟一切如故。

            到头来雕像成了垃圾。

——【红霞译】

【注】早在18世纪初期，来自德国、瑞士和荷兰的农民涌进柳树津下镇及和平使者下镇，由莱茵河上谷宫廷德语(Palatine German)演绎而来的宾州德语(PA Deitsch/Dutch/Diets/Deutsch)因此而盛行至20世纪中叶。如果用“生如夏花之绚烂，死如秋叶之静美”来赞誉这一地区历经沉浮后所展现的质朴之韵，我看实不为过。

以下大多数建筑被列入《国家史迹名录》(Natl. Register of Historic Places)。

Today in History(历史上的今天):

2022: Germanic Upper Frederick Twp, PA (宾州日耳曼式和平使者上镇)

2017: Amsterdam─Van Gogh Museum, NLD(荷兰阿姆斯特丹─梵高博物馆)

2014: YMCA Camp─Day @ Home(基督教青年会营─赋闲在家)

2009: 孩子手记(Kid's Writing)

Crosslinks(相关博文):

USA(出游美国)

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