戏剧人生,不朽艺术——浅析《驶向拜占庭》

Dramatizing Life and Eternal Artistry-Appreciation of Sailing to Byzantium

《驶向拜占庭》系叶芝晚年诗作,阐述了诗人对生命和艺术的思考和冥想。诗人运用诗剧的形式来描写一位古稀老人对生命的哀叹:戏剧人生,短暂而悲凉;与此同时,诗人把写实、象征、玄思的方法有机结合在一起,勾勒出一个象征不朽艺术并带有神秘色彩的拜占庭形象,表达了要把脱离肉体的灵魂附着在代表永恒的艺术品之上的愿望,用艺术去升华戏剧人生,以获得不朽和永生。这种生命观和艺术观是诗人久被压制的情欲获得一种"替代性"满足的表现。

The poem Sailing to Byzantium, composed by Yeats in his late years, conveyed his innermost thoughts about life and arts. The poem described an old man in his sixties who depressedly sighed about life in a dramatizing way. Life is like a short play which is momentary and brief, cold and miserable. In the meantime, the author delineated an eternal Byzantium image which represented immortality, had a color of mysticism through the organic combination of realism, symbolism and conceits. He also expressed the strong desire that his soul would be divorced from flesh and be attached to arts crafts in pursuit of eternity; namely, sublimating the dramatizing life via eternal artistry. The outlook about life and artistry illustrated in the poem is the manifestation of ＂substituting＂ satisfaction of his long-repressed feeling and desire.