“我对着美看得太久”——读希腊诗人康斯坦丁诺斯·卡瓦菲斯

"Too Long I Looked at the Beautiful" — A Reading of the Greek Poet Constantine Cavafy

隐喻绝非仅是一种修辞手段,它在很大程度上还意味着人对自己存在的诗性发现,既是人对世界加以符号化的过程,又是人超越自然、超越自身的精神努力。可是,19世纪末踏入诗坛的康斯坦丁诺斯.卡瓦菲斯却自觉走上了一条放弃修辞隐喻和语法隐喻的书写道路。这位被诺贝尔文学奖得主埃利蒂斯认为堪与艾略特“并驾齐驱”的希腊现代诗人在诗中基本不使用隐喻和意象,而是遵循最基本的语言表达方式,自觉地挖掘词与句在沟通和交流过程中的原生态,也很少使用形容词和感叹词,力求回到语言的原初意义上从事创作。诗人之所以作出这样的选择,实际根源于他本身浓厚的抒情气质,他这种有意识的压抑令情感在反弹中产生了更大的能量,从而获得了理性与激情相互交融、相互提升的美学效果。

Metaphor is more than a rhetorical device. It is also, to a great extent, a poetic discovery of human existence, as both a process of signifying the world and spiritual transcendence over nature and man himself. Constantine Cavafy, however, began in the end of the 19 th century to reject rhetorical and grammatical metaphors. This modern Greek poet, who matches T. S. Eliot as is regarded by the Nobel literature prize winner Odysseus Elytis, barely uses metaphor or image. He clings to the most basic in language, conscious to uncover the very natural of the word and wording in communication. He seldom uses adjectives and exclamations, but tries to go back to the original of language. He makes such choice for his own lyrical traits. In fact, his deliberate repression empowers emotion in the rebounding and realizes an aesthetic effect in the fuse and mutual promotion of reason and passion.