清寒世界里的生命热忱——论克里丝蒂娜·罗塞蒂的诗意境界

Christina Rossetti's Poetic Realm: Enthusiasm and Devotion in a World of the Cold and Clear

克里丝蒂娜·罗塞蒂是英国文学史上最有才华的女诗人之一,又是一位颇具传奇色彩与神秘气息的精神诗人,但在中国却长期以来不为人们所注意。克里丝蒂娜以17世纪的精神诗人乔治·赫伯特为师,又融入了先拉裴尔派唯美、忧郁与细腻的艺术风格,因此,她的诗作具有双重张力:宗教虔信下的爱情企盼与清寒自制里的热切奔放。哀婉的诗情,难消爱的温热;貌似平静的吟咏中,涌动着情感的激流。这种看似矛盾其实又统一的诗意境界才是她真实的精神与艺术风貌。克里丝蒂娜一生为宗教所困,诗作中的忧伤情调无疑根源于她的宗教情感,使她的诗像带着镣铐跳舞般摇摇晃晃;而她优秀的诗作、生命的热忱却能够冲决宗教的围困。

Christina Georgina Rossetti is the finest woman poet in the history of English literature. Her poetry is suffused with religious piety. She modeled herself on the Seventeenth Century spiritual poet George Herbert. She was also associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood headed by her brother D. G. Rossetti, and shared the Pre-Raphaelite taste for the beautiful but sad and languid imagery. Her diction is remarkable for its simplicity and sincerity. Like her brothers Dante Gabriel and William Michael, Christina developed an early love for art and literature. When she was an adolescent, her life changed dramatically. Her father became a permanent invalid. The family's economic situation worsened and her own health deteriorated. At this point, she, her mother and sister became intensely involved with the Anglo-Catholic movement within the Church of England. For the rest of her life, Christina governed herself by strict religious principles and refused twice her suitors for marriage. Then she lived a quiet life, occupying herself with charity work, with caring her family and with writing poetry. She started to write poetry early in life but did not publish her first collection of poetry, Goblin Market and Other Poems, till 1862. She wrote with intensity as her brother, though in a simpler style. The long narrative poem ″Goblin Market ″, primarily meant for children and written in sing-song short-lined couplets, is about two sisters Lizzie and Laure who were tempted by goblins to taste of the forbidden fruit in their childhood and about the lessons they thereby learned. It is nothing more than a charming nursery rhyme, though the poet herself probably tried to insert much religious significance into the tale.Christina's poetry is not all piety, self-abnegation and gloom. As an important woman poet in England in the late 19th Century, Christina Rossetti is chiefly celebrated for her short lyrics, several of which are truly gems in the English language. ″When I am dead, my dearest ″ contains two poignant stanzas of haunting rhythm, ending on a note of lingering sadness: ″Haply I may remember, /And haply may forget. ″ Another elegy, ″Remember me when I am gone away ″, is yet another sad song in anticipation of one's own death that has an equally effective ending: ″ Better by far you should forget and smile /Than that you should remember and be sad.″ Yet another celebrated lyric which speaks of the loved one's joy upon love's fruition is ″A Birthday ″. Here the joyous heart is compared to a singing bird, an apple tree, a rainbow shell, and successive acts of celebration of the happy event are suggested, ″Because the birthday of my life /Is come, my love is come to me. ″ All these lyrics were outpourings, as it were, from the poet's innermost recesses of mind and served as priceless expressions of her genuine emotions on the occasions of their composition. And these poems, no less than those of Emily Dickinson, have had their influence upon a number of English and American woman poets in the 20th Century.