解读叙事诗《奥西曼提斯》的艺术特色
一、引 言
当代西方文艺批评理论多来自于对小说的分析,也多应用于对小说的批评。但如果我们运用这些理
论对诗歌进行解读,就会对诗歌产生新的认识。以雪莱的十四行诗Ozymandias为例,我们可以运用叙
事理论和读者反应批评理论来分析这首诗的主题。原文如下
Ozymandias*
Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear --
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.'
王佐良的译文如下[2]:
奥西曼提斯①
客自海外归,曾见沙漠古国
有石像半毁,唯余巨腿
蹲立沙砾间。像头旁落,
半遭沙埋,但人面依然可畏,
那冷笑,那发号施令的高傲,
足见雕匠看透了主人的心,
才把那石头刻得神情唯肖,
而刻像的手和像主的心
早成灰烬。像座上大字在目:
“吾乃万王之王是也,
盖世功业,敢叫天公折服!”
此外无一物,但见废墟周围,
寂寞平沙空莽莽,
伸向荒凉的四方。
①奥西曼提斯即公元前十三世纪的埃及王雷米西斯二
世。他的坟墓在底比斯地方，形如一庞大的狮身人面像。
二、开放性主题
在分析诗歌的时候,我们通常关注诗歌的主题。中国古代多以抒情诗为主,从《尚书·尧典》的诗言志说,到王国维的《人间词话》中的“意境说”,都是关注到诗歌的起源、作用和审美特征。但中国古代缺乏规模宏大的长篇叙事式的英雄史诗。亚里士多德的《诗学》关注情节,注意到文艺的快感和教益两个方面的作用。雪莱虽然主张灵感说,行动上却是一个革命者。“诗使万象化成美丽;它使最美丽的东西愈见其美,它给最丑陋的东西添上了美;它撕去这世界的陈腐的面幕,而露出赤裸的、酣睡的美——这种美是世间种种形相的精神。”[3]雪莱是积极浪漫主义诗人,他反抗压迫和剥削。他的十四行诗Ozymandias可以被看成是暗指世间仍有暴虐、专制、压迫。但如果我们运用叙事理论和读者批评理论来分析,这首诗是开放性的文本,具有更加广泛的主题。
第一,这首诗可以被看成是对权势的嘲弄。在古埃及国王拉默西斯第二命令雕刻他永久的纪念碑时,工匠以其艺术品展现了他对国王的嘲弄;而曾经辉煌一时的国王也不可避免地被时间所淹没,变得默默无闻,只留下破碎的石像供后人追思。而这破碎的石像最终也会随着时间的流逝而消失。这种权势功绩和荣耀辉煌都转瞬即逝,国王想要的永垂青史也是一场空。
第二,这首诗反映了艺术和美也难以永存。作为美的象征的艺术品石像经过风吹雨打已经破碎,这破碎的石像还能存在多久?谁也无法回答。在时间的面前,一切的美将变成不完美,最终消失殆尽。
第三,这首诗反映了只有时间是永恒的,所有的一切包括权力、艺术美甚至人类,随着时间的推移都会消失,只剩下茫然无际的大自然。
三、叙事理论的角度
1.第一人称的叙事方式
一般说来,叙事诗中的叙述者多以第一人称和第三人称的形式出现。“使用第一人称有很多好处。首先可以开阔思维空间,使叙述者和作者之间存在思维共性的瞬息;其次,读者随后也可以堂而皇之地走进作者这个思维和讲述的血肉之躯。”[4]在这首十四行诗中,作者用了第一人称的叙事方式,给读者讲述了两个故事:旅行者的故事和国王的故事。叙述者“我”聆听着旅行者讲述的故事,从古埃及回来的旅行者向“我”描述了他的所见所闻:失去了躯干的石雕人腿,立在沙漠中。在附近半埋在沙中支离破碎的人
面,双眉紧皱,嘴唇紧闭,带着冷酷权威的嘲笑表情。它的雕刻师揣摩着这些表情,并把它们刻在了无生命的石头上。另一个是国王的故事,国王说道:“不服气,要和我比一下的人们,你们看看我的功绩,也就只好望洋兴叹了吧。”这里就有必要了解一下背景,古埃及国王拉默西斯第二创造了伟大的功绩,建立了
巨大的陵墓,雕刻了自己的石像,取名Ozymandias,希望他自己的功绩能流芳百世。这里,“我”是叙述者,同时也可看作是作者的声音。作者声音的存在不必由他或她的直接陈述来标识,而可以在叙述者的语言中通过某种手法或通过某种行为结构等非语言线索表示出来,以传达作者与叙述者之间价值观或判断上的差异[5]。作者通过“我”介入了故事,表达了作者的情感,作者的身影时隐时现。但同时“我”又不完全是作者,“我”所听到的也是读者所听到的。读者也因此可以与叙述者对话,寻求共同的感受。
2.两层叙事结构
这首诗的故事结构有两层叙事。表层叙事:旅行者的故事,“我”是听众;国王的故事,工匠是见证人。在旅行者的故事中穿插了国王的故事,因为国王的故事是旅行者讲述的。两个故事交织在一起构成了“我”听到的故事,即深层叙事:“我”听到的故事又是读者读到的故事,我向读者转述了旅行者的故事。这种结构跨越了时空,使连绵的时间和无垠的空间浓缩在几分钟内和十四行诗中,有助于读者在这样开放的文本中发挥他们的想像力,同时也有助于揭示这首诗的时间主题。
3.多个叙事声音
詹姆斯对传统叙事理论的一个突破性观点是,他反对自亚里士多德以来关于叙事要以情节为中心的观念,而主张要以人物为中心[6]。对于人物而言,声音是必不可少的。人物的声音就折射出人物的个性、身份和地位。在这首诗中,旅行者和国王的声音是有标记的,用said和引号表示出来;“我”和雕刻家的声音是无标记的,“我”在诗中只是个聆听者,而雕刻家地位低微,没有发言权,统治阶级不允许受压迫者表露真情实感,他只能把自己的想法通过艺术品表现出来。这种有意的沉默是迫不得已的,更具力量,能达到“此时无声胜有声”的效果。四种声音从四个不同的角度展示同一幅场景:在广袤无垠的沙漠中,古代的废墟诉说着岁月的沧桑。高贵的国王和低贱的工匠,典雅的艺术和荒芜的古迹都在时间河流的冲刷中模糊难辨。
四、读者反应批评的角度
所有的作品都要由它的审美主体——读者来阅读,对文本的阐释、阅读体、意义的生成都离不开读者。费什认为读者制造了他在文本中所看到的一切[7]。一个句子(段落、一部小说、一首诗)的意义同句子中间的意义并无直接关系,或者换一句并不那么咄咄逼人的话来说,一个句子所传达的消息,亦即一句话的信息构成了其意义的一部分,但决不完全等同于意义本身。不是别的其他的什么,正是一个句子的全部经验不是指对它本身的描述,包括我要作出的任何评述才是它的意义。运用这一理论我们来分析这首诗,当读者首先读到“I met a traveler…who said”时,就会想到这是一个旅行者在讲述他的旅行见闻。读者此刻是对古代艺术的欣赏和惋惜,感慨岁月的无情,艺术美也无法永存。当读者读到“Look on my works,…”时,读者又读到了国王的故事,此刻读者是对国王的嘲笑,国王想要永垂不朽,正如中国古代的皇帝寻找长生不老药一样的愚蠢可笑。到最后两行,各种声音都静了下来,只有浩瀚的沙漠伸向远方。作者用boundless,bare,lone,faraway给读者以想像的空间。叙事时间也从远古拉回到现在,甚至未来。此刻读者似有所悟,在天地之间人是多么得渺小,而时空永存。
诗歌已经结束,但文本的意义并未结束。由于读者有不同的人生体验和审美情趣,对作品的理解和阐释也会不尽相同。
作者反应批评理论的代表人物之一伊瑟尔提出了“隐含的读者”,是非真实的,是作者在其作品中所要求的能够体验文本或使文本产生意义的读者[8]。如果从“隐含的读者”的角度去考察这首诗的主题,我们就首先应该考察作者的意图。雪莱是一个关心民众疾苦的积极浪漫主义诗人,他以诗为武器表达了他
的战斗精神。他的代表作《西风颂》就说明了这一点。同样,我们也可以说在这首诗中他想借古讽今,为受压迫者疾呼,古埃及国王已成为历史,但专制暴虐现今还存在。时间可以改变一切,也将最终改变剥削制度。君不见曾经辉煌一时的国王和他的王国(mighty works),如今无处寻觅,只有断壁残垣（remains and wrecks）。
五、结束语
借鉴叙事理论为分析叙事诗提供了新的方法和新的角度。而读者反应批评理论使文本更具开放意义。作者、文本和读者三者是有机统一的整体。作者的思想在文本中得以表现,读者对文本有不同的阅读体验。最成功的阅读是这样的:在阅读中被创造出来的这两个自我,作者和读者,能够找到完全的和谐
一致.
该文作者：黄 忠
原文转自：
http://www.reeds.com.cn/archiver/?tid-1534.html*Percy Bysshe Shelley was the husband of Mary Shelley (writer of Frankenstein) and a contemporary and friend of Lord Byron. He is widely regarded as the finest poet of the Romantic period and possibly the greatest English poet of all time. A philosopher and atheist , expelled from Oxford for the publication of a pamphlet entitled "The Necessity of Atheism", Shelley led an itinerant life and died in 1822, drowned.
"Ozymandias" was written in 1818, in the same year that he started on his most famous work, "Prometheus Unbound". At the time he was wandering in Italy and Venice with Mary and Clare Claremont, the cast-off lover of Byron, and the melancholy that affected him during that time shows through clearly in "Ozymandias".
The eponymous "Ozymandias" is perhaps better known as Rameses II, ruler of Egypt in the 13th century BC. The poem has been interpreted in a number of different ways, but all center on the irony in Ozymandias' declaration that the "Mighty" should "look upon my works, and despair".
Shelley wrote many other poems during this time, of which "Prometheus Unbound" remains the best known. Four years later, he died, drowned at sea, with the conviction that his work would never receive popular acclaim.
Ozymandias
1I met a traveller from an antique land,
2Who said -- "two vast and trunkless legs of stone
3Stand in the desert ... near them, on the sand,
4Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
5And wrinkled lips, and sneer of cold command,
6Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
7Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
8The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
9And on the pedestal these words appear:
10My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,
11Look on my Works ye Mighty, and despair!
12Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
13Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
14The lone and level sands stretch far away." --
Notes
1] Shelley evidently wrote this sonnet at Marlow in friendly competition with Horace Smith, whose own sonnet of the same name was published Feb. 1, 1818, also in The Examiner, no. 527, p. 73:
In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone,
Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
The only shadow that the Desart knows: --
"I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone,
"The King of Kings; this mighty City shows
"The wonders of my hand." -- The City's gone, --
Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose
The site of this forgotten Babylon.
We wonder, -- and some Hunter may express
Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness
Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,
He meets some fragments huge, and stops to guess
What powerful but unrecorded race
Once dwelt in that annihilated place.
5] lip Bod. Shelley MS e.4; lips 1819
6] Lines 6-8 pose some difficulty, but "survive" (7) must be a transitive verb whose object is "The hand" and "the heart" (8). The "passions" on Ozymandias' face, that is, survive or live on after both hand and heart. "The hand that mocked them" seems to be the sculptor's hand, delineating the vainglory of his subject in "these lifeless things"; and "the heart that fed" must be Ozymandias' own, feeding on (perhaps) its own arrogance. Kelvin Everest and Geoffrey Matthews suggest that line 8 ends with an ellipsis: "and the heart that fed [them]" (that is, those same passions that are the referent of the pronoun "them" governed by "mocked" (The Poems of Shelley, II: 1817-1819 [London: Pearson, 2000]: 311).
9] these words appear: 1819; this legend clear Bodl. Shelley MS e.4.
10] Ozymandias: Osymandias, Greek name for the Egyptian king Rameses II (1304-1237 BC). Diodorus Siculus, in his Library of History (trans. C. H. Oldfather, Loeb Classical Library, vol. 303 [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1961]: I, 47), records the inscription on the pedestal of his statue (at the Ramesseum, on the other side of the Nile river from Luxor) as "King of Kings am I, Osymandias. If anyone would know how great I am and where I lie, let him surpass one of my works."
12] Nothing beside remains: 1819; No thing remains beside. Bodl. Shelley MS. e.4.
Composition date: 26 December 1817 - 28 December 1817
Form: Sonnet
Rhyme: ababacdcedefef
参考资料：
http://i-view.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!285174C23D9AC89E!1332.entry