面对“垂死之人”的讯问与反思:从梅特林克到谢阁兰

Interrogation of Reflections in Front of the “Dying Man”: From Maeterlinck to Segalen

在十九、二十世纪之交这个科学大发展的时代,西欧文人往往致力于追问理性的极限。由于"垂死之人"处于生与死、可知与不可知的临界状态,比利时剧作家梅特林克在《佩雷阿斯与梅利桑德》中构造了"讯问垂死之人"的场景,催人反思理性的局限,并暗示了一重更高的超越理性的神秘之真实的存在。其后,法国诗人、作家谢阁兰既熟悉梅氏的剧作,专业医生的特殊身份又令其对理性思维更加熟悉,且更具有护理垂死之人的现实体验,从而在长篇小说《勒内·莱斯》中赋予了"讯问垂死之人"以新的意义。

At the turn of the 20th century when science enjoyed an unprecedented development, writers in Western Europe often enquired about the bounds of rational thinking. The Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck, for one, created the scene of ＂interrogating the dying man＂ in Pelleas and Melisande, as a ＂dying man＂ is at a critical juncture between life and death, the known and the unknown. He thus urged people to reflect about the limits of rational thinking and implied the real presence of Mystere, which is superior to, and beyond the reach of rational thinking. Acquainted with such works, the French poet and writer Victor Segalen, who, thanks to his profession as a doctor, was accustomed to rational thinking and had first-hand experience of nursing dying men, imbued the scene of ＂interrogating the dying man＂ with novel meanings in his novel Rene Leys.