The Survey of the Study of Yeats and Eliot in Our Country

田明

摘要：叶芝和艾略特都是诺贝尔文学奖的获得者，都是象征主义文学流派的领军人物。在过去的一百年中，他们一直都处于世界文学的中心。西方对他们的研究持续不断且资料和成果可以装满一个大图书馆。我国对他们的研究也有近百年，但研究之路坎坷不平。本文将我国对两位诗坛巨人的研究进行概述。

1. The Survey of the Study of Yeats in Our Country

Yeats was the leading person of the Irish Literary Revival Movement. He was the soul of the modern Ireland. In 1885， he began to publish poems. But very little translation of his poems was done in our country. His poems first appeared in our papers in 1921. Only after Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature， did we pay attention to him. Because of the continued civil wars， almost no translation or introduction of Yeats could be found before 1949. In 1954， Yeats The Folklores of Ireland was published. But the translation and introduction of Yeats ware stopped for our domestic reasons. The translation of Yeats did begin in the middle of the 1980s. Soon many Yeats poems were introduced to the Chinese readers through translation and a big stir was made. Qiu Xiaolon translated some of Yeats lyric poems， the most representative being Leda and the Swan. Fu Hao translated three volumes of Yeats poems. Wang Jiaxin edited A Collection of Yeats Poems. Xi Meng translated A Vision by Yeats. Many research papers studying Yeats and his poems followed the translations. Li Xiaojuns paper made a study of the theme of Yeats. He Shu wrote a monograph studying the Irish Literary Revival Movement， in which he made an analysis and study of Yeats， the leading artist of the movement. The Biography of Yeats written by Fu Hao was the first monograph about Yeats. The book introduced Yeats life and discussed Yeats ideas and his creations， providing rich detailed background materials about Yeats. Pu Dujie wrote a paper researching the symbols in Yeats poems. Wu Yaosu devoted a whole chapter to discuss Yeats pursuit for his ideal society. The book written by Li Jing is the only one that covers every aspect of Yeats. Her work introduces Yeats life， divides the stages of his creation， analyzes his creative passion and makes a study of his poems， ideas and Yeats personal and social backgrounds.

All these papers are limited to a certain aspect of Yeats. The paper written by He Shu studied Yeats Anglo-Irish identity. His study provided facts to understand Yeats idea and themes of poetry. Many papers aimed at the study of Yeats love poems that are most touching. The papers confirmed that without the love poems， Yeats could not be called a poet. Some papers made a study about Yeats poetic themes. Ling Jing thinks that the most important theme in Yeats poems is Ireland. Because Ireland is Yeats root， Ireland is where Yeats feelings lie， Ireland is the fountain for Yeats creation and Ireland is Yeats final resting place. Some papers studied Yeats attitude to life and death. Many more papers explored the symbols used in Yeats poems. This study is attractive and endless. Why Yeats and Eliot are in the centre of literature is that their poems are full of symbols. With symbols， their poems are mysterious. The more mysterious they are， the more people read， guess and review.

In general， the research papers and monographs mentioned above all aim at a certain aspect of Yeats. It is impossible to make a whole-sided study of Yeats and his poems in one paper or in one book.

2. The Survey of the Study of Eliot in China

Chinas study of Eliot began in the thirties of the last century. Ye Gongchao was the first researcher who opened the door to study Eliot in China. In 1934， He published his paper entitled Eliots Poetry in about seven thousand words. The paper is seen as the first specialized paper studying Eliot in our country. In the paper， Ye Gongchao introduced Eliots poems， theory and creative skills. He also discussed the similarities between the Chinese poems and Eliots poems.

Zhao Luorui， a student of Ye Gongchao， was the first translator of Eliots poems. The Waste Land translated by her was the first Chinese version in our country. After studying Eliots poems carefully， she wrote out a research paper entitled Eliot and The Waste Land. Published in 1940， the paper made a whole analysis of the art features of Eliots poems and was seen as one of the pioneer papers and one of the masterpieces studying Eliot in the thirties and forties of the last century in China. She stressed that only with a modest study， reading and analysis， could we comment on Eliot correctly. If we wanted to review Eliot accurately， we must understand his time. From this viewpoint， she penetrated her analysis into Eliots society and culture from the writing techniques.

Because of the social turmoils， the study of Eliot in our country was fragmentary and unsystematic. From the fifties to the end of “the Cultural Revolution，” the study of Eliot in our country paused. Owing to our political extremity， Eliot was seen by us as the lord of the reactionary literature. Eliot was severely criticized in the fifties and sixties in our country. Yuan Kejia and Wang Zuoliang wrote articles criticizing Eliots political stand and wholly negating Eliots art theory and his achievement in poetry. It was unfair for Eliot. Many years later， the two scholars revised their viewpoints.

After “the Cultural Revolution，” the study of Eliot began again and went on a right way. Many researchers published papers on Eliot. Among the researchers， Zhao Yihen， Ling Lu and Zhong Guangguan made an exploration of the symbols in Eliots poems and gave some explanations to some allusions in Eliots poems， providing a big help for the Chinese readers in their understanding of Eliots poems.

A great development was made in the study of Eliot in the nineties. A large number of researchers published their research papers. Xiang Xiaomin and Gao Chuanxiang made a study of Eliots symbolic poems respectively and brought about many convincing results.

In the later part of the nineties and the beginning of this century， the study of Eliot became prosperous in our country. Many well-known scholars published their research papers of high quality， pushing this study to a climax and shortening the distance between China and the world in this realm. T. S. Eliot and the English Romantic Tradition written by Zhang Jiang is the first monograph on Eliot in our country. The work written by Jiang Hongxin is the first monograph making a whole-sided study of Eliots poetic art. Hong Zongying published the first biography of Eliot in China.

A great contribution was made to the study of the western modern literature through a collection of research papers edited by Li Guicang， a professor of Zhejiang Normal University. This collection contains scores of research papers studying the modern literature including Eliot from different perspectives and different angles. Prof. Li Guicang has made a deep study of Eliot from the levels of philosophy， comparative literature， sociology and aesthetics and brought about many authoritative conclusions and instructive viewpoints.

3. The Conclusion of the Study of Yeats and Eliot in Our Country

The study of Yeats and Eliot in our country began only thirty years ago， but great achievements have been made and the distance between our country and Europe in this study has been shortened. Despite of the large number of researchers and research papers， we cant find any researcher or a paper that once made a comparative study of the two leading poets of symbolism. So a comparative study of any aspect of the two poets is to be of world significance and the comparative study of the symbols in the poems of the two poets is and will be infinitely attractive.

参考书目：

（1）李静 《 叶芝诗歌：灵魂之舞》， 上海： 东方出版社， 2010。

（2）江玉娇 《 诗化哲学：艾略特研究，》 上海：复旦大学出版社，2010.