威廉·布莱克诗11首
Blake was born on November 28, 1757. Unlike many well-known writers of his day, Blake was born into a family of moderate means. His father, James, was a hosier, and the family lived at 28 Broad Street in London in an unpretentious but “respectable” neighborhood. In all, seven children were born to James and Catherine Wright Blake, but only five survived infancy. Blake seems to have been closest to his youngest brother, Robert, who died young.
By all accounts Blake had a pleasant and peaceful childhood, made even more pleasant by skipping any formal schooling. As a young boy he wandered the streets of London and could easily escape to the surrounding countryside. Even at an early age, however, his unique mental powers would prove disquieting. According to Gilchrist, on one ramble he was startled to “see a tree filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars.” His parents were not amused at such a story, and only his mother’s pleadings prevented him from receiving a beating. His parents did, however, encourage his artistic talents, and the young Blake was enrolled at the age of 10 in Pars’ drawing school. The expense of continued formal training in art was a prohibitive, and the family decided that at the age of 14 William would be apprenticed to a master engraver. At first his father took him to William Ryland, a highly respected engraver. William, however, resisted the arrangement telling his father, “I do not like the man’s face: it looks as if he will live to be hanged!” The grim prophecy was to come true 12 years later. Instead of Ryland the family settled on a lesser-known engraver, James Basire. Basire seems to have been a good master, and Blake was a good student of the craft.
“父亲啊，我怎能更加爱你，
或者更爱我的兄弟？
我爱你就像小小的鸟雀，
在门前啄食面包的碎屑。”
神父坐在他旁边谛听，
激动地抓住他的头发：
他拽着小外衣揪牢这孩子，
大家都佩服他神父的心机。
他站在高高的祭坛之上：
“瞧，这儿有个恶魔！”
他说：“他竟捏造出论据
来指责我们最神圣的神秘。”
听不见哭着的孩子的声音，
哭着的双亲枉然地哭泣；
他被剥得只剩件小衬衣，
被人用一根铁链子捆起。
在一处圣地他被焚烧，
从前那儿焚烧过多人，
哭着的双亲枉然地哭泣，
这种事阿尔比恩海岸有吗？
在那黄金时代，
没有冬天的寒冷，
欢快的青年男女，
于神圣的灯下
在和煦的光中裸着游戏。
曾有对青年男女，
充满了柔情蜜意，
相会在明亮的花园，
当神圣的灯，
刚刚拉去那夜的幕帘。
升起的曙光之中
他们在草地上游戏；
父母们不在近前，
陌生人远离此地，
不久姑娘就忘记了恐惧。
亲够了甜蜜的吻，
他们约定要重逢，
在那安谧的睡梦
飘拂过深空，
而疲惫的旅人悲叹的时辰。
善意的父亲跟前，
来了欢快的少女；
但他那疼爱的神色
就像圣经一般，
她害怕得娇躯抖抖瑟瑟。
“欧娜！你脸色苍白！
快对你父亲坦白，
真让人心儿发抖！
哦，忧愁啊，
真要把我的灰发愁白！”
男女们出生于羞耻和骄傲，
在早晨开花，在黄昏死去；
但仁慈令死亡变成了安眠，
男女们复活了，激动哭泣。
你，我的凡体的母亲，
用残忍套住了我的心灵，
用那欺人又自欺的眼泪，
裹住我的鼻耳和眼睛：
用无知的泥土堵住我嘴，
使我背叛了尘世的生命；
耶稣之死使我无羁：
那我何必和你在一起？
但要在夏天的清晨上学，
唉！这把兴致都扫尽；
在那严厉昏花的眼底，
小同学们垂头丧气地
把一天苦熬过去。
唉！我有时得颓丧地坐着，
度过许多个急人的钟点，
我得不到快乐，无论从书中
或是和一帮无聊的讨厌鬼
同坐在书斋里挨时间。
为了欢乐而出世的鸟儿
怎能坐在笼中歌唱？
孩子怎能一受惊扰就
垂下他娇嫩的翅膀，
忘记了朝气蓬勃的春天？
爸爸妈妈啊，若花蕾被摘，
花儿被刮落在地，
若是嫩弱的幼苗被悲哀
和满腹的重重心事夺去
他们春天里的欢愉，
夏天怎么会高兴地露头，
夏天的果实怎么会露脸？
怎收拾悲伤所毁的一切，
如何祝福丰美的一年，
当冬天的狂风出现？
愚蠢是一条无尽的迷途，
纠结的根蔓困着她的路，
多少人在那里绊倒！
他们整夜在尸骨上跌踬，
却自认为想知道的无不知晓，
他们需要引导，却好为人师。
人的服装是锻过的铁器，
人的外形是熊熊的锻炉，
人的脸庞是封闭的熔炉，
人心是它的饥饿的胃部。
At the age of 21, Blake left Basire’s apprenticeship and enrolled for a time in the newly formed Royal Academy. He earned his living as a journeyman engraver. Booksellers employed him to engrave illustrations for publications ranging from novels such as Don Quixote to serials such as Ladies’ Magazine.
One incident at this time affected Blake deeply. In June of 1780 riots broke out in London incited by the anti-Catholic preaching of Lord George Gordon and by resistance to continued war against the American colonists. Houses, churches, and prisons were burned by uncontrollable mobs bent on destruction. On one evening, whether by design or by accident, Blake found himself at the front of the mob that burned Newgate prison. These images of violent destruction and unbridled revolution gave Blake powerful material for works such as Europe (1794) and America (1793).
Not all of the young man’s interests were confined to art and politics. After one ill-fated romance, Blake met Catherine Boucher. After a year’s courtship the couple were married on August 18, 1782. The parish registry shows that Catherine, like many women of her class, could not sign her own name. Blake soon taught her to read and to write, and under Blake’s tutoring she also became an accomplished draftsman, helping him in the execution of his designs. By all accounts the marriage was a successful one, but no children were born to the Blakes.
Blake’s friend John Flaxman introduced Blake to the bluestocking Harriet Mathew, wife of the Rev. Henry Mathew, whose drawing room was often a meeting place for artists and musicians. There Blake gained favor by reciting and even singing his early poems. Thanks to the support of Flaxman and Mrs. Mathew, a thin volume of poems was published under the title Poetical Sketches (1783). Many of these poems are imitations of classical models, much like the sketches of models of antiquity the young artist made to learn his trade. Even here, however, one sees signs of Blake’s protest against war and the tyranny of kings. Only about 50 copies of Poetical Sketches are known to have been printed. Blake’s financial enterprises also did not fare well. In 1784, after his father’s death, Blake used part of the money he inherited to set up shop as a printseller with his friend James Parker. The Blakes moved to 27 Broad Street, next door to the family home and close to Blake’s brothers. The business did not do well, however, and the Blakes soon moved out.
Of more concern to Blake was the deteriorating health of his favorite brother, Robert. Blake tended to his brother in his illness and according to Gilchrist watched the spirit of his brother escape his body in his death: “At the last solemn moment, the visionary eyes beheld the released spirit ascend heaven ward through the matter-of-fact ceiling, ‘clapping its hands for joy.’"
Blake always felt the spirit of Robert lived with him. He even announced that it was Robert who informed him how to illustrate his poems in “illuminated writing.” Blake’s technique was to produce his text and design on a copper plate with an impervious liquid. The plate was then dipped in acid so that the text and design remained in relief. That plate could be used to print on paper, and the final copy would be then hand colored.
After experimenting with this method in a series of aphorisms entitled There is No Natural Religion and All Religions are One (1788?), Blake designed the series of plates for the poems entitled Songs of Innocence and dated the title page 1789. Blake continued to experiment with the process of illuminated writing and in 1794 combined the early poems with companion poems entitled Songs of Experience. The title page of the combined set announces that the poems show “the two Contrary States of the Human Soul.”
The introductory poems to each series display Blake’s dual image of the poet as both a “piper” and a “Bard.” As man goes through various stages of innocence and experience in the poems, the poet also is in different stages of innocence and experience. The pleasant lyrical aspect of poetry is shown in the role of the “piper” while the more somber prophetic nature of poetry is displayed by the stern Bard.
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