叶之和他的《当你老了》

Yeats and his｀ When You Are Old'

叶之是现代英国和现代爱尔兰的著名诗人，享有“永恒的爱尔兰诗魂”的美称。《当你老了》是叶之为其初恋女友、爱尔兰民族解放志士莫德 龚因所写的诸多抒情诗中最脍灸人口的一首。这首诗的特点之一是诗人把对莫德的爱同对爱尔兰民族之爱融合在一起，因而具有独特的艺术魅力。

W.B.Yeats(1865－ 1939)enjoys the reputation of being“ the eternal soul of lrish poetry.”“ When You Are Old” is an oft－ guoted lyric Yeats wrote for his first girlfriend Maud Gonne,a noble－ minded fighter for the cause of national liberation in modern Ireland.The poem is unigue in that the poet blends his tender feelings for maud gonne into his deep love for lrveland,his motherland.