普罗佩提乌斯《哀歌集·第1卷》

古罗马星期一诗社 2024-01-10

Sextus Propertius, (born 55–43 BCE, Assisi, Umbria [Italy]—died after 16 BCE, Rome), greatest elegiac poet of ancient Rome. The first of his four books of elegies, published in 29 BCE, is called Cynthia after its heroine (his mistress, whose real name was Hostia); it gained him entry into the literary circle centring on Maecenas.

Very few details of the life of Sextus Propertius are known. His father died when he was still a boy, but he was given a good education by his mother. Part of the family estate was confiscated (c. 40 BCE) to satisfy the resettlement needs of the veteran troops of Octavian, later the emperor Augustus, after the civil wars. Propertius’s income was thus severely diminished, though he was never really poor. With his mother, he left Umbria for Rome, and there (c. 34 BCE) he assumed the dress of manhood. Some of his friends were poets (including Ovid and Bassus), and he had no interest in politics, the law, or army life. His first love affair was with an older woman, Lycinna, but this was only a passing fancy when set beside his subsequent serious attachment to the famous “Cynthia” of his poems.

The first of Propertius’s four books of elegies (the second of which is divided by some editors into two) was published in 29 BCE, the year in which he first met “Cynthia,” its heroine. It was known as the Cynthia and also as the Monobiblos because it was for a long time afterward sold separately from his other three books. Complete editions of all four books were also available. Cynthia seems to have had an immediate success, for the influential literary patron Maecenas invited Propertius to his house, where he doubtless met the other prominent literary figures who formed Maecenas’s circle. These included the poets Virgil (whom Propertius admired) and Horace (whom he never mentions). The influence of both, especially that of Horace in Book III, is manifest in his work.

Cynthia’s real name, according to the 2nd-century writer Apuleius, was Hostia. It is often said that she was a courtesan, but elegy 16 in Book I seems to suggest that she belonged to a distinguished family. It is likely that she was married, though Propertius only mentions her other lovers, never her husband. From the poems she emerges as beautiful, passionate, and uninhibited. She was intensely jealous of Propertius’s own infidelities and is painted as a woman terrible in her fury, irresistible in her gentler moods. Propertius makes it clear that, even when seeking pleasures apart from his mistress, he still loved her deeply, returning to her full of remorse, and happy when she reasserted her dominion over him.

抒情与表现

抒情诗的题材往往是某种内心活动。抒情诗有其“内倾性”，它往往表现人的内心情感。就像再现与叙事紧密相连，抒情与表现的关系非常密切。

在西方，虽然也可以将“诗是情感的表现”的观念追溯到遥远的古代，但是，使它变成某种艺术准则的，无疑应是19世纪浪漫主义的诗歌观念。而其中的开创者是华兹华斯。艾布拉姆斯说：“浪漫主义者关于诗歌或一般艺术的论断，常常涉及诸如‘流溢’之类使内在的东西得以外化的比喻。‘表现’（expression）就是用得最多的术语之一。根据其使用场合来判断，这一语词重新起用了原来的词根意义ex-pressus，源自ex-premere，意即‘挤出’。”也就是说，所谓“表现”，即是情感的流溢的意思。

抒情的表现性，首先是由抒情的表现对象决定的。黑格尔认为，抒情诗的出发点“就是诗人的内心和灵魂，较具体地说，就是他的具体的情调和情境”。所谓“再现”，往往意为以较为客观的描述方式再现某种场景与行为；而所谓“表现”，往往意为用较为主观的方式表现诗人内心的情感。同时，抒情的表现性也是由抒情的表现方式决定的。就像黑格尔所言，在抒情中“占主要地位的不是对一件事进行丝毫不露主体性的（纯客观的）描述，而是主体的掌握方式和情感，即响彻全诗的欢乐或哀怨，激昂或抑郁”。因此，抒情的表现性，是以诗人的情感表现方式及其主观性作为基本特征的，特别是在浪漫主义时代，这被视为抒情诗的基础。

由于抒情自身的表现性特征，抒情与“自我”表现具有非常密切的关系。正如艾布拉姆斯所言：“浪漫主义时期大多数主要的诗篇，同几乎所有的主要批评一样，都是以诗人为圆心而画出的圆。”抒情诗中的“我”与诗人的自我表现有着极其同一的关系。惟其如此，抒情诗人与外物的关系，就很像王国维说的“有我之境”的境界：“以我观物，故物皆著我之色彩。”就这个意义而言，所有的抒情诗都不可能是“无我之境”，所谓的“无我之境”，只是指“自我”表现的成分相对不明显而已。因此，抒情诗人往往使外在事物成为诗人内心境况的写照与象征，其真正的描写对象还是诗人本人的内心境况。正是就这个意义而言，黑格尔认为：“抒情诗的中心点和特有的内容就是具体的诗创作主体，亦即诗人。但是抒情诗主体并不投身到实际动作情节中去造成事迹，也不展现于戏剧冲突的运动，他的唯一的外化（表现）和成就只是把自己心里话说出来，不管对象是什么，说出来的话表达了主体的情感，即把自我表现的主体的心情展示出来，在听众中引起同情共鸣。”这种自我表现的特征，甚至就构成了抒情诗与叙事性作品（史诗）的不同：“在史诗里诗人把自己淹没在客观世界里，让独立的现实世界的动态自生自发下去；在抒情诗里却不然，诗人把目前的世界吸收到他的内心世界里，使它成为经过他的情感和思想体验过的对象。只有在客观世界已变成内心世界之后，它才能由抒情诗用语言掌握住和表现出来。”

当然，在抒情诗中，表现自我情感的方式是不同的。后期象征主义诗人T.S.艾略特同样也主张诗要表现情感，但其提倡的表现方式却与浪漫主义有很大的不同。艾略特反对华兹华斯所说的将诗等于“宁静中回忆出来的感情”的浪漫主义诗歌观念，主张“诗不是放纵感情，而是逃避感情，不是表现个性，而是逃避个性”。当然，他并不是说诗中就断然不存在个性和感情，而是说“感情的生命是在诗中，不是在诗人的历史中”。换言之，在文学里，感情和个性的价值应该体现在诗的作品所表现出来的形象和象征中。在论叶芝的论文中，艾略特将“非个性化”解释为“用强烈的个人经验，表达一种普遍真理；并保持其经验的独特性，目的是使之成为一个普遍的象征”。与之相应，他又在讨论莎士比亚的戏剧《哈姆雷特》的文章中提出了“客观对应物”（也可译为客观关联物）的概念：“用艺术形式表现情感的唯一方法是寻找一个‘客观对应物’；换句话说，是用一系列实物、场景，一连串事件来表现某种特定的情感；要做到最终形式必然是感觉经验的外部事实一旦出现，便能立刻唤起那种情感。”当然，简单意义上的“客观对应物”概念，并不能独立地成为艾略特独特的“象征主义诗学”，任何比喻都可以说是寻找客观对应物的尝试，雪莱的抒情不也要借助于“风”“含羞草”“云雀”等形象吗？但是，艾略特的“客观对应物”概念，确实提出了关于诗歌表现方式的新见解。依据这种见解，我们甚至能够对古典主义、浪漫主义与象征主义的抒情方式加以适度地区分。

萨福有首诗叫《暮色》：

晚星带回了

　　曙光散布出去的一切，

带回了绵羊，带回了山羊，

　　带回了牧童到母亲身边。

柏拉图有一首短诗叫《星》：

我的星你在望着群星。我愿意变作

　　天空，好得千万只眼睛来望着你。

如用王国维标举的“情景”理论来分析，前一首诗是“摹拟自然风景”，即写景之作，是现实主义（古典主义）风格的，“自我”的情感在这里是以“借景抒情”的方式得以表现的；而后一首诗是“摹拟我们底心情”，是直抒胸臆地抒情的，是浪漫主义风格的作品。那么，我们再来看波德莱尔的诗作《忧郁》：

雨月，整个城市使它感到气恼，

它从瓮中把大量阴暗的寒冷

洒向附近墓地的苍白的亡魂，