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.

—— • —— • —— • —— • —— • —— • —— • ——

【《最高虛構筆記——它必要改變·之三》(1942年)】

威爾士人·史蒂文斯(1879生—1955卒)

            火山將軍的壯觀雕像

            永垂不朽，儘管鄰近的靈柩台

            厭煩了這位君臨天下的住戶。

            馬匹高抬起右前蹄

            暗示，告別葬禮上，

            音樂停止與坐騎靜立不動。

            星期天，律師沿濱海步行大道

            走近這尊巍峨挺拔的雕像

            去審視歷史，而醫生，早已

            沉浸其中並小心地，找出麻木的骨架

            一種漂浮，一種永恆，固守成規

            把將軍塑造得近乎荒唐，

            讓鮮活的形象變成迂腐的青銅。

            從來沒有過，永遠不可能，像

            這樣的人物。律師懷疑，醫生

            稱之為穿透力非凡的擺設，

            用以襯托天竺葵，雕像、

            所在的火山廣場，實際上，屬於

            揮之難去的思想範疇。

            什麼都沒有發生畢竟一切如故。

            到頭來雕像成了垃圾。

——【紅霞譯】

【注】早在18世紀初期，來自德國、瑞士和荷蘭的農民湧進柳樹津下鎮及和平使者下鎮，由萊茵河上谷宮廷德語(Palatine German)演繹而來的賓州德語(PA Deitsch/Dutch/Diets/Deutsch)因此而盛行至20世紀中葉。如果用“生如夏花之絢爛，死如秋葉之靜美”來讚譽這一地區歷經沉浮後所展現的質樸之韻，我看實不為過。

以下大多數建築被列入《國家史跡名錄》(Natl. Register of Historic Places)。

Today in History(歷史上的今天):

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

2017: Amsterdam─Van Gogh Museum, NLD(荷蘭阿姆斯特丹─梵高博物館)

2014: YMCA Camp─Day @ Home(基督教青年會營─賦閒在家)

2009: 孩子手記(Kid's Writing)

Crosslinks(相關博文):

USA(出遊美國)

萬花筒(Kaleidoscope)