卡夫卡与赫西俄德

Kafka and Hesiod

1917年10月,卡夫卡在写给友人韦尔奇的信中,详细报告了自己的一个梦,其中心是作为文学课堂教学内容的古希腊诗人赫西俄德。此梦可谓以梦幻形式呈现出的卡夫卡“文学梦”,对于理解卡夫卡与西方古典文学的联系具有重要意义。赫西俄德《神谱》所述与诗神缪斯相遇的“自传故事”,为卡夫卡自称“独特传记作家”及其作品的自传性提供了一个古今之间的理解背景。卡夫卡的《普罗米修斯》是对赫西俄德普罗米修斯故事的“事后思考”,《单身汉的不幸》及《致菲丽斯》则把“最初的女人”所带来的生存处境具体化了。赫西俄德诗中的“希望”是理解卡夫卡式“绝望”必要的思想背景。

In a letter of October 1917 to his friend Felix Weltsch,Franz Kafka reported in detail his dream about the poet Hesiod,who in his dream was the subject of literature classroom teaching.In a certain sense,this dream is Kafka’s“literary dream”in the form of a dream,which is of great significance for understanding Kafka’s connection with ancient Western literature.The“autobiographi-cal story”of his encounter with the Muse-goddess of poetry described in Hesiod’s Theogony provides an ancient background for understanding Kafka’s self-exclaimed identity of a“unique biographer”and the autobiographical nature of his works.Kafka’s“Prometheus”is an“afterthought”on the story of Prometheus told by Hesiod,while“The Misfortune of the Bachelor”and Letters to Felice concretize the existential situation brought about by the first woman,Hesiod’s Pandora.Hesiodian“hope”is the necessary ideological background for understanding Kafkaesque“despair”.