叶芝心/眼里的中国

China in the Eyes of Yeats

叶芝对于中国的知识有限,且大部分是源于阅读或耳闻的关于古代事物的二手信息。本文基于文本分析和相关取证,尝试解说叶芝三首抒情诗《他的不死鸟》《踌躇》(之六)和《天青石雕》中有关中国的部分:指出其一疑似取材于有关杨玉环或王媳的传说故事;其二或许与《诗经》中《采薇》一篇有关;其三则不仅确实得灵感于中国文物实物,而且涉嫌借鉴白居易诗作。通过详细考证各诗本事来源,仔细比较其中所涉中国元素的本义与叶芝的再现表述,说明叶芝的想象发挥其实是基于误读臆解,同时对某些叶芝学者运用不当论据得出的不正确的说法也有所驳正。

W.B.Yeats has limited knowledge of China,of which most is secondhand information about things of old times,mainly from reading or hearsay.Based on textual analysis and reference to relevant sources,this paper tries to deal with the Chinese elements in the three poems by Yeats,namely,"His Phoenix,"Vacillation IX,"and"Lapis Lazuli,"pointing out that the first one seems to use a legend about Yang Yu-huan or Wang Qiang,that the second one may have something to do with the poem"Cai Wei"from the Book of Songs,and that the third one not only surely draws inspiration from a Chinese carving but also seemingly borrows something from a poem by Bai Ju-yi.By digging deeply into the sources and drawing a detailed comparison between the original meanings of the Chinese elements and Yeats's representations in his poems,it shows that Yeats's creative imagination actually comes side by side with ignorant misreading and therefore refutes some Yeats scholars'interpretations based on irrelevant references and misunderstandings.