罗宾·海蒂诗选
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罗宾·海蒂(Robin Hyde,1906-1939)新西兰女诗人,生于南非,幼年随父母移迁新西兰,定居于威灵顿,在学生时代,就作为“中学生女诗人”而受到地方报刊的一片赞扬。她的主要诗集有《孤寂的星》(1929)、《征服者》(1935)、《冬天里朗普西芬尼》(1937)等。
集聚诗人、小说家、记者等头衔於一身的罗宾‧海德(1906-1939)是纽西兰(即新西兰)最重要的女作家之一。海德出生於南非的开普敦(Cape Town, South Africa),未满週岁时被双亲带到纽西兰(New Zealand)生活。本名艾莉丝‧威尔金森的海德,以多种笔名出版作品;罗宾取自她早夭的长子克里斯多福‧罗宾(Christopher Robin)。
海德在学时(威灵顿女子学校 Wellington Girl's College) 即於校刊发表超过二十首诗和短篇小说;她也曾在依次皇家殖民地学院(Royal Colonel Institute)举办的作文比赛拿下第二名(得奖文章:The Lives of Drake and Raleigh as Empire Builders)。
海德的生活经验常见於她的作品中:1924年海德动了一个膝盖手术手术──致使疼痛和跛足伴她终身──可见於她的文学作品和报章杂誌;和她拥有短暂情缘的哈利‧史威曼(Harry Sweetman)离开她后动身前往英国,却在抵达该地不久即去世,海德和史威曼的非婚生儿子罗宾早夭──接连的不幸事件化成了The Godwits Fly(1938)裡Eliza Hannay的故事。
1929年海德出版了第一本诗集The Desolate Star and Other Poems;1935至1937年间又出版了五本小说,她的写作主题广泛,包括讲述纽西兰歷史的Check To Your King(1936),描写战争的Passport to Hell(1936),承载海德的女人不须结婚也能成為母亲、作家和情人的理想的作品Wednesday's Children(1937),描写一次世界大战后纽西兰社会景况的Nor the Years Condemn(1938),以及具自传色彩的The Godwits Fly。
1938年初,本来计画前往英国的海德在抵达香港后改变心意,转向当时处於抗日战争的中国。她在上海结识了Rewi Alley并亲上前线,见证了战场上的残酷现实,原先她在创作Passport to Hell时想像的画面,现在一一化為现实呈现在她面前。
Two words from China: 'Ku li' – bitter strength.
'This coolies' war!' tinkle the sweet-belled idle.
His face and Hundred Names sweep on below,
Child-like, he plays at horse without the bridle:
And carts a world along, and carts a war,
Tugging perhaps to mountain heights at length:
The new vernacular chronicles exhort him,
Half the fixed meanings of the flags he saw:
He had a happy childhood: then time caught him,
Broadened his shoulders, but forbore his head.
Eight years his life between the shafts: eight hours
(With luck), between Changsha and Hsuchowfu,
Picks swinging like pendulums in a noon of flowers:
Shining their freedom, bombers spot his blue,
But cease to count. Too poor for marriage-bed
He looks for dreaming in the big dim shed,
Rolled in the quilt where other warmth has dossed:
Turns to Yunnan, hacks the next strategy through,
Cheerful; and often killed; and always bossed.
And not on Tiger Head or Purple Mountain
His grave-mound rises: worlds live on, to slake
Their ashy gullets at his bitter fountain
Of blood and vigour. Enemy armies break
Somehow on this, as somehow cracks the stone
Under his pick: but now he rots alone
(Not claiming to have died for something's sake,)
Only the earth makes ready for his bone,
The green rice sees him with unflattering eyes:
Too cheap a partisan for man to prize,
Men seldom know him for their broadest river,
And burnt in the immortal tiles forever.