APP下载

来自异域的知音:宇文所安对杜甫《旅夜书怀》一诗的解读

2017-01-27

国际汉学 2017年3期
关键词:华兹华斯宇文杜甫

《文心雕龙·知音》篇把理想中的读者称为作者的“知音”。他能够通过“六观”,即“一观位体,二观置辞,三观通变,四观奇正,五观事义,六观宫商”,达到对作品的“圆照”或全面理解。①周振甫:《文心雕龙今译》,北京:中华书局,1986年,第432页。刘勰(465—520)在本篇开头便感叹“ 知音其难哉”!但是他也坚信,既然诗人(“缀文者”)作诗是“情动而辞发”,那么读者(“观文者”)便一定可以“披文以入情”,也就是通过阅读诗人的作品进入到他的感情世界,并且“沿波讨源,虽幽必显;世远莫见其面,觇文辄见其心”。②同上。千百年来,无数中国读者便是怀着这种态度和信念去“尚友”古人及其作品。③上述《文心雕龙·知音》篇中对读者—作者关系的描述及其相应的阅读态度和策略可追溯到孟子所提出的“尚友”说:“颂其诗,读其书,不知其人,可乎? 是以论其世也,是尚友也。”(《孟子·万章下》),载于郭绍虞主编《中国历代文论选》,第一册,上海:上海古籍出版社,1979,第81页。美国汉学家宇文所安 (Stephen Owen)虽然来自语言文化背景相差甚远的异域,但却对杜甫(712—770)情有独钟,堪称其知音;他对《旅夜书怀》一诗的解读,亦堪称对该诗的圆照。

上面提到的解读载于宇文氏所著《传统中国诗歌与诗学:世界的征兆》(Traditional Chinese Poetry and Poetics: Omen of the World,1985) 一书。在“序言”(Prologue) 中,宇文所安对本书的宗旨做了简要介绍。一般来说,人们都认为诗歌依赖语言而存在,因此它是一种语言艺术。宇文所安则声言:“诗歌……不是一种语言艺术:它‘在语言中发生’,但不‘属于语言’。语言对诗歌是必要的,但只是一个必要的条件。”④Stephen Owen, Traditional Chinese Poetry and Poetics: Omen of the World.Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1985,p.6.原文:“Poetry…is not an art of language: it occurs ‘in language,’ but it is not ‘of language.’ Language is necessary to poetry, but only as a necessary condition.”之所以如此,是因为当我们在解读一首诗时,诗中的语言总是“试图要变得透明,不再‘仅仅是文字’”。⑤同上。原文:“This language aspires to transparency, to disappear as ‘merely words’.”诗歌语言虽然千变万化,但它们都是要把我们带到语言以外的境界。因此,宇文所安指出:“简而言之,诗歌是一个事件,而不是一个实体。”⑥Ibid., p.7.原文:“Simply stated, poetry is an event, not an entity.”亦即是说,作为实体的语言必须要引导读者进入诗歌所记录的事件中;前者只是一个媒介,后者才是诗歌本身。这本是个极为传统的定义,令人想起中、西传统中“言志” “抒情”的诗歌理念。但是,当代西方文论的一个重要倾向便是强调语言的作用与功能。语言不仅仅是个媒介,因为它可直接影响甚至制约我们的思想和表达。因此,在诗歌研究中,从新批评到结构主义、后结构主义等一般都强调语言的作用。宇文所安对诗歌的上述定义,颇有反其道而行之的味道。难怪本书序言的副标题是“让你[读者]从当前这个世界的关注中脱身出来”。①Owen, op.cit., p.6.原文:“to persuade you away from the concerns of this late world.” 在本书中,宇文所安假设了一位质询者 (interlocutor),不时与他辩论。上文中的 “you” (你)便是指这位质询者或是本书的读者。他甚至指出,我们只有在停止解读一首诗时,才会注意到其语言的构成与功能。对这些语言现象进行研究固然无可厚非,但那毕竟是舍本求末,“与诗歌无关”。②Ibid., p.7.相关的原文:“To concern ourselves with these mechanics of the received word is an interesting, even perversely satisfying occupation; but it has nothing to do with poetry.”

既然诗歌是一个事件,而且在传统诗歌中这一事件早已成为历史,那么要解读一首诗首先便要“重新建构”(reconstruct) 当时历史境况下的解读规则。这无疑是一项艰巨的任务,在跨文化、跨语言的比较文学中尤其如此。但是,宇文所安认为,我们必须坚信,通过解读我们能够让一首古诗“用它自己的声音说话”(speak with its own voice),③Ibid., p.10.成为某种“征兆”(omen),并通过它去解读其中的“世界”(world)。这不禁令我们想到上面引用过的《文心雕龙·知音》篇中的文字。宇文所安便是带着这种理念和信念来解读杜甫的《旅夜书怀》一诗的。下面让我们先看此诗的原文:

细草微风岸,危樯独夜舟。

星垂平野阔,月涌大江流。

名岂文章著,官因老病休。

飘飘何所似,天地一沙鸥。④Ibid., p.12; 原诗见聂石樵、邓魁英选注:《杜甫选集》,上海:上海古籍出版社,1983年,第257页。

在中国文学中,杜甫的诗歌一向有“诗史”之称;用它来说明汉诗乃是“世界的征兆”,确是再恰当不过了。历代注家对此诗的年代背景皆有详细的注释。⑤如聂、邓对此诗的题注:“此诗为永泰元年五月,携家离成都后,乘舟下乐山、渝州(今重庆市)、忠州(今四川省忠县)途中所作。”宇文所安评论说:

杜甫的文字或许是一种特殊的日记,但比一般日记更加强烈和直接,它们表现一个在当时发生的经验。同日记一样,这首诗承诺一个历史经验的记录:虽然确切时间、确切地点、确切情形之间的关联已经永远失去,无法挽回,但是读者相信它们的历史真实性,并且依赖这一真实性。此诗的伟大之处并不在于其在诗歌上的发明创造,而在于诗人与此时此境的惬然邂逅。

Tu Fu’s words might be a special kind of diary entry, differing from common diary in their intensity and immediacy, in their presentation of an experience as occurring at that very moment.Like diary, the poem promises a record of historical experience:the exact time, the exact place, the exact conjunction of circumstances may be lost beyond recovery, but the reader trusts their historical reality and depends on it.The greatness of the poem emerges not through poetic invention but through the happy chance of this poet meeting this moment at this scene.⑥Owen, Traditional Chinese Poetry and Poetics, p.13.宇文所安还特别指出,此诗题目中的“怀”说明诗中所描写的是诗人的切身感受。为此,尾联“飘飘何所似”一行中的“似”字虽然在修辞上是个明喻 (simile),但它表现的也只是诗人的感受,或是他那“活生生的心灵为自我发现对应物的一种行为,而不是一种写作诗歌的手法”。⑦同上。引号中的原文:“…not as a device of poetry but as the act of a living mind—discovering an analogue for the self.”应该指出,杜甫本人颇以自己在诗歌艺术上的努力和成就感到自豪。“为人性僻耽佳句,语不惊人死不休”便是著名一例。⑧“江上值水如海势,聊短述”;参见《杜甫选集》,第190页。在中国诗歌诗中,杜甫被誉为“诗圣”,在很大程度上也是因为他的诗歌除了真实反映与表现社会自然之外,还是诗歌艺术的集大成者。①如清代吴汝纶便说过:“古诗自齐、梁渐重声病,遂流为律,去古日远,其格卑甚,莫能亢之。至杜公一以浩气行之,开合阴阳,千变万化,乃与六经杨、马同风,所以为诗圣也。”引自高步瀛,《唐宋诗举要》,下册,上海:上海古籍出版社,1959年,第464页。对此,宇文所安当然清楚。此处,他之所以要极力淡化甚至消解杜诗在艺术上的成就,②他此处的文字令人想起中国论者对陶渊明诗歌的评论,尤其是元好问“此翁岂作诗,直写胸中天”那两句。参见北京大学中文系,《陶渊明研究资料汇编》,北京:中华书局,1959年,第121页。是要将中国诗歌与西方诗歌区别开来,因为他要强调,中国诗歌注重内心表现,而西方诗歌则追求艺术创造;前者基于历史真实,后者则来自发明与虚构。为了说明这一点,他特意征引了英国浪漫主义诗人华兹华斯 (William Wordsworth,1770—1850)一首十四行诗中的前八行:

Earth has not anything to show more fair:

大地拿不出更美的景色:

Dull would he be of soul who could pass by

只有迟钝者才能经过此地

A sight so touching in its majesty:

却对它的恢宏无动于衷:

This City now doth, like a garment, wear

此刻,这座城市如着外衣,披上

The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,

清晨的美景;静默,朴素,

Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie

船只、楼塔、圆顶、剧院、寺宇

Open unto the fields, and to the sky;

面对着田野、天空开怀而卧,

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.

在无烟的空气中熠熠闪烁。③Owen, op.cit., p.13; 原诗见 William Wordsworth: The Poems, Vol.I.New York: Penguin, 1977, pp.574—575.

此诗的标题为《作于威斯敏特桥上,1802年9月2日》(“Composed Upon Westminster Bridge,Sept.2, 1802”)。一般来说,诗歌题目的作用便是通过点明某一诗篇的主题或情境,为读者提供一个解读的框架和语境。这首诗便是如此,诗人在标题中明确向读者交代了此诗创作的地点与时间。但是,宇文所安认为,“即使在那些最热情、好古的读者眼中”,所有这些,包括诗中所描写的细节,“对这首诗都并非必要”,因为:

华兹华斯究竟是亲眼看到、隐约地记起,还是从想象中构造了这一景色都不重要。诗中的文字并不指向历史中的伦敦和其无限的细节;这些文字把你带向另外的东西,其意义与泰晤士河上有多少船只没有任何关联。

But the most passionate antiquarian will know that this interest in circumstance is not essential to the poem.It does not matter whether Wordsworth saw the scene, vaguely remembered it, or constructed it from his imagination.The words of the poem are not directed to historical London in its infinite particularity; the words lead you to something else, to some significance in which the number of vessels on the Thames is utterly unimportant.④Owen, op.cit., pp.13—14.

之所以如此,乃是因为在西方诗歌传统中,读者的视野与期待基于一种与中国诗歌传统截然不同的观念与阅读规则。为了说明这一点,宇文所安特别征引了韦勒克 (René Wellek, 1903—1995)与瓦伦 (Austin Warren, 1899—1986)合著的《文学理论》(The Theory of Literature, 1956)一书中的如下文字:

……文学的性质在其所指方面最清楚地显现出来。文学艺术的中心明显体现在抒情诗、史诗、戏剧这些传统文类中。在它们当中,所指的都是虚构、想象世界。一部小说、一首诗或一部戏剧中的言论都并非确切真实;它们不是逻辑性的陈述…… 甚至在强调主体性的抒情诗中,诗人[所使用]的“我”也只是一个虚构、戏剧性的“我”。

…the nature of literature emerges most clearly under the referential aspects.The center of the literary art is obviously found in the traditional genres of lyric, the epic, the drama.In all of them the reference is to a world of fiction,of imagination.The statements in a novel, in a poem, or in a drama are not literally true;they are not logical propositions… Even in the subjective lyric, the “I” of the poet is a fictional,dramatic “I”.①Ibid., p.14.René Wellek and Austin Warren, Theory of Literature.New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World, Inc., 1956, p.25.

具体到上面华兹华斯这首诗,宇文所安进一步指出:

至于华兹华斯是否曾于1802年9月3日站在威斯敏特桥上凝望伦敦城,这一点根本不重要。那只是一个虚构—这个佯装报告所见所闻的抒情之“我”。读者会认为,诗人的历史之“我”在利用抒情之“我”;他的视像,或真或假,只是为了其他目的才成为诗歌。

It matters not at all whether Wordsworth ever actually stood on Westminster Bridge on September 3, 1802, and gazed at the city of London.It is only a fiction—this lyric “I” which pretends to report what it perceives.The reader assumes that the poet’s historical “I” makes use of the lyric “I,” and that his visions, real or pretended, become poetry only for the sake of some other ends.②Owen, op.cit., p.15.

既然如此,对华氏诗中的语言现象当然也要不同对待。宇文所安认为,与杜甫在《旅夜书怀》中所使用的明喻,即“飘飘何所似,天地一沙鸥”不同,华氏诗中的明喻,即“This City now doth,like a garment, wear/ The beauty of the morning(此刻,这座城市如着外衣,穿上/ 清晨的美景)只是“一种具有许多神秘动机的诗歌艺术;其中的比较并非是历史中曾站在桥上的诗人心中的行为”,因为“对华兹华斯的读者来说,[诗中的]一切都是隐喻和虚构”。③Ibid., p.15.原文:“the comparison occurs on the level of the poetic art with its many mysterious motives; the comparison is not taken as an action in the mind of the historical poet, standing on the bridge… For the reader of Wordsworth, all is metaphor and fiction.”

必须指出,华兹华斯是英国诗歌史上自传性最强的诗人之一。他的诗歌大部分都以其个人生平为素材,为此,“传记批评”(biographical criticism),即以诗人生平为基础的文学批评,始终是华兹华斯研究中的一个重要部分。西方读者在阅读华兹华斯诗歌时,并非如宇文所安所声称的那样,把诗中的描写都看作“隐喻与虚构”,而是尽可能将它们与诗人的生平及历史经验结合起来,其详细程度甚至不亚于中国传统文学批评中为诗人编纂年谱。例如,在注释上面这首诗时,各家都注意到诗题中的年月与华氏生平以及其妹多丽丝·华兹华斯 (Dorothy Wordsworth, 1771—1855)的日记所记载的略有出入,而且1836年之前这首诗所标明的都是1803年9月3日。华氏本人还曾说过,此诗“于1802年9月作于马车顶上,在我去法国的途中”,但根据他的生平记载,华兹华斯与多丽丝是在那一年7月31日离开伦敦前往法国的。多丽丝几乎一生都与华兹华斯生活在一起,她的日记是研究华兹华斯的必读物,因为它们为读者提供了大量华兹华斯本人生平的资料。正是为此,许多注本在注释这首诗时都引用了她1802年7月31日日记中的下面这一段,以便为解读这首华诗提供一个历史的语境:

我们星期六7月31日早上五点半或六点(我忘了是哪个时间)离开了伦敦。我们在Charing Cross 登上了多佛马车。那是个美丽的早晨。[伦敦]市,圣保罗教堂,[泰晤士]河及其众多小船在我们穿过威斯敏特桥时显得异常美丽。房屋上面并没挂着云烟,它们一望无际,但是太阳在明亮地照耀,阳光是如此纯净,甚至带有大自然本身辉煌景致中的那种纯净。

…We left London on Saturday morning at half past five or six on the 31st of July (I have forgot which).We mounted the Dover Coach at Charing Crossing.It was a beautiful morning.The city, St Paul’s, with the River and a multitude of little Boats, made a most beautiful sight as we crossed Westminster Bridge.The houses were not overhung by their cloud of smoke, and they were spread out endlessly, yet the sun shone so brightly, with such a pure light,that there was even something like the purity of one of nature’s own gran spectacles.①William Wordsworth: The Major Poems.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, p.710; William Wordsworth: The Poems.New York: Penguin Books, Vol.I, 1977, p.994.

据此,一位注释者推测说:“可能华兹华斯在离开时草拟了这首诗,9月3日才完成。”②The Major Poems, p.710.原文:“It seems likely that W drafted the poem on the outward journey and completed it on 3 September.”不难看出,上述这些注释与评语都试图重新建构这首诗所产生的历史语境,并以此为基础对其做历史性的解读。至少对这些读者而言,华兹华斯这首诗并不都是“隐喻与虚构”,而是诗人生平片段的记录和真实感受。这样的解读,实际上与中国古代知人论世的传统并无大异。

总体来讲,与中国文学相比,西方文学更加倾向于艺术与虚构,这是毋庸置疑的。从中西文学的整体视野上强调这一区别,也的确有利于我们了解中西文学各自的独特风格。但是,任何一个文学传统都不是一个千篇一律的整体,其中的复杂与多样性往往也无法用一个整体框架来概括和形容。因此,虽然虚构与想象是西方诗歌的主要特征,但这并不意味着西方诗歌中的表现都不具有历史性,正如在中国传统中,虽然“诗言志”这一经典论述把诗歌与诗人的内心感受与历史经验联系起来,但它也未能阻止不少诗歌含有虚构的成分。③有关这一点,参见钱钟书:《谈艺录》,北京:中华书局,1984年,第388页。在列举了大量中国诗歌中虚构的实例后,钱氏指出,正如孟子曾经说过“尽信书,则不如无书”,“诗而尽信,则诗不如无耳”。

宇文所安对上述杜甫与华兹华斯两首诗的解读,基本便是在他所构建出的理论框架之下进行,即中国诗歌表现历史,西方诗歌表现艺术;前者真实,后者虚构。让我们看下面的文字:

一位诗人感受到“船只、楼塔、圆顶、剧院、寺宇”;另一位诗人[感受到]“细草微风岸”。我们假设华兹华斯并不只是提到了他所见到的景物,景色中的那些物象被一一列出肯定会有某些目的,[因此],我们便在作为中介的景色之上去寻找那些我们必须直觉或猜测的目标或艺术动机……虽然具体的目的永远无法确定,但是我们可以肯定,意义与文字景色之间的交融发生在艺术的层次。但是对于另外那位诗人,我们则假定“细草微风岸”的确是他亲眼所见,或者更确切地说,引起了他的注意:诗中[景物]的罗列提示了某种具有意义的模式,它既存在于彼时的世界之中,也特别引起了诗人的兴趣。对于华兹华斯的读者来说,那首诗(甚至有时世界本身)是一组被创造出来的神秘符号。对于杜甫的读者来说,意义被微妙地浸透在世界的各种具体形式当中,它们[这些形式]被感受到,但似乎并不确定,甚至对诗人也是如此;这首诗举出了预兆性的形式,通过这一行为,它向你讲述了世界以及诗人的内心思虑。

One poet perceives ‘ships, towers, domes,theaters, and temples”; the other poet, ‘slender grasses, breeze faint on the shore.” We assume that Wordsworth is not simply naming what he saw; the items of the scene are listed for some purpose; we look beyond the mediating scenes for ends and artistic motives which we must intuit or guess… Though the precise purpose must remain forever uncertain, we accept with certainty that the fusion of significance and word-scene occurs on the level of art.But for the other poet, we presume instead that the ‘slender grasses, breeze faint on the shore’ is indeed simply what he has seen, or more precisely, what has drawn his attention: the enumeration in the poem indicates some meaningful pattern which is both present in the world at that moment and of special interest to the poet’s mind.For Wordsworth’s reader, the poem (and sometimes even the world itself) is a created set of hermetic signs.For Tu Fu’s reader, meaning is subtly infused in the particular forms of the world perceived and uncertain, perhaps, even to the poet; the poem raises up portentous forms, and in doing so, it tells you about both the world and the inner concerns of the poet.①Owen, Traditional Chinese Poetry and Poetics, pp.15—16.

真是泾渭分明的两种解读方式。前面已经说过,宇文所安对华兹华斯这首诗的解读刻意夸大了西方文学的艺术与虚构特征,因此并不代表西方华兹华斯研究中的全部观点与方法。的确,宇文所安在众多西方诗人中用华兹华斯的作品来说明他此处的观点,不能不说是个不幸的选择。但是,这一比较和对比的视角却令他更加关注中国诗歌的基本特色,使得他对杜甫诗歌的解读剀切中理。不仅如此,他对《旅夜书怀》的解读还充分显示出他学者兼诗人的气质,集文本鉴赏和批评分析于一体,颇能启迪人。让我们先看他对首联“细草微风岸,危樯独夜舟”的解析:

那个夜晚他乘舟而行;月光约略地映出景中物体的轮廓,但那些更加细微的形体则隐藏在夜色当中。我们不禁要问,他如何能够辨认出那些在岸上摇曳的细草?还有水上他所感受到的微风?这一行[第一行]中的两部分彼此依赖:它们根据经验世界的法则在彼此作用,在它们的相互作用中一种关系显现出来—细草在风中低垂的隐藏意象。细草、只是细草的运动,显示出一缕风,只是一缕最轻微的风。或者他知道,黑暗中岸上的微风会吹动草木,但只是那些细草。

桅杆在他上面隐现(危),其形状既“高”又“险”,摇摇欲坠。它随着船来回摆动,由于不稳而传达出一种不安。他的双眼在物体之间移动,伴随着形体的变化:弯曲的细草经过转变后重新出现于在他头上危险摇曳的桅杆。观察者的视角决定了他的大小:当他向外看,并想到黑暗中的微小形体时,便感到巨大和安全,然后突然又感到渺小,因为那个形体重新出现,在他头上摇晃。

在形体重现当中,产生了一种对差异和对比的本能感觉:在那边是众多,在此处是单一。那边是稳定的河岸,此处则是水流的世界。那边是柔软、弯曲但却扎根深处的[细草],此处僵直、危危摇动的[桅杆]。那边是渺小与无谓,此处则是真正的宏伟。这些对比都具有启示意义,它们在对应的参照框架中相互呼应:流动与不尽的运动对应稳定和根深蒂固,孤独的游子对应其他安居的人们,危险中的正直、伟大和高尚对应那些委曲求全的芸芸众生。没有什么声言,没有什么矛盾被排除;一个模式从中出现。

这便是一位优秀读者在那一刻的内心感受。他充分把握到这些对比,感觉到它们对杜甫的重要,并看到它们的意义范围在向外延伸。在这一简要景色的模式中,其对应物与如下范畴产生了共鸣:诗人生平、宇宙秩序、道德秩序、社会秩序,以及文学秩序(在文学中“风”即“歌”,“风”还是一个人的道德力量,其“影响”,即“风”,能够使“众多”[人]对之躬身接受)。

He travels on by boat that night; the moonlight outlines roughly the shapes of scene,but the finer forms in the night landscape are hidden in darkness.How then, we wonder, can he make out those slender blades of grass and thin tendrils of plants(细草), swaying on the shore? And this faint breeze he may feel on the water—how can he know its effects on the bank? The two parts of the line need one another: they act upon each other according to the laws of the empirical universe, and in their interaction a relation is known—the hidden image of thin grasses bending in the breeze.The movement of the slender blades, of only the slender blades, shows a breeze and only the faintest breeze.Or the faint breeze on the shore will, he knows, move the grasses, but only the slender blades, unseen.

The mast looms, above him,wei(危),its shape “high” and “precarious,” threatening fall.There is an instability in it that conveys uneasiness, as it sways with the rocking movement of the boat.His eyes, moving from thing to thing, follow a mutation of forms: the tiny, bending blades of grass recur transformed in the mast that sways menacingly above him.And the watcher’s perspective defines his size—immense and secure as he looked out to guess about the tiniest shapes in the darkness, then suddenly small as the shape reappears, rocking above him.

In the recurrence of forms comes an intuitive sense of differences and oppositions:out there, the many; here, the one.There, the stable shore; here, the world of water and flux.There, the supple, the blending but firmly rooted; here, the rigid and precariously swaying.There, tininess and insignificance; here, true magnitude.The oppositions are portentous;they echo in correlative frames of reference:flux and endless movement, set against stability and rootedness; one who travels on alone, set against others living in security; endangered uprightness, great stature, and nobility, set against the pliant, the lesser, the common.No assertions are made; no contradictions are excluded; a pattern is rising up.

This is a moment’s work in the good reader’s mind.He grasps the fullness of the oppositions, senses their importance to Tu Fu,and sees their horizon of significance extend outward.In the pattern of this brief scene correlatives echo in the poet’s life, in the order of the universe, in the moral order, in the social order, in the order of literature where the“breeze,”feng(风),is “song,” feng, the moral power of one whose “influence,”feng, make the“many” bow to it.①Owen, op.cit., pp.16—17.

《旅夜书怀》是首律诗。按照律诗的格律,一般首联不必采用对仗。杜甫此处采用对仗,当然是有意为之。宇文所安敏锐地体会到了这一点。他按照律诗中对仗的规则和意义,对此诗的首联做出了详尽入微、令人叹服的解读。

在《文心雕龙·丽辞》一章中,刘勰把文章与诗歌中的对偶现象归结为自然规律在人类文化中的反应,即“造化赋形,支体必双,神理为用,事不孤立”。②《文心雕龙今译》,第314页。在后来的律诗中,通过对仗来体现人与自然的关系,或通过并列和对比自然与人类现象来抒情达意,更是一种普遍现象。不难看出,宇文所安的上述解读便是遵循了这一传统思路,因为他所重复使用的 “correlative” (对应)一词,在西方学术界便被用来形容古代中国天人相应的宇宙观。③宇文所安在此处的注释中提到了这方面的两本重要著作,即 Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China, Vol.2,History of Scientific Thought.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1956; Hellmut Wilhem, Heaven, Earth, and Man in the Book of Changes.Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1977.刘勰还说过,对偶有正对、反对之分,相比之下“反对为优,正对为劣”。④同上,第315页。这是因为“正对”容易流于重复,因而单调(“事异义同”);“反对”则可通过差异和对比来丰富诗中的意义(“理殊趣合”)。《旅夜书怀》中的首联便是个“反对”的例子,因为其中对仗的成分共有三个,其中两个,即细草—危樯,岸—舟分别取自陆、水两个不同的范畴。在宇文所安的解读下,这一语言现象的文化意义和诗歌表现功能都表现得淋漓尽致,令我们对杜诗的深刻与细腻刮目相看。不仅如此,宇文所安还注意到了诗中一些为中国学者所忽略的地方。例如“危”字,各家或是不注,或是只注“高”意。⑤前者如《四库全书》所收的《九家集注杜诗》《集千家注杜工部诗集》,后者如《唐诗选》,北京:人民文学出版社,1978年;《杜甫选集》,见《唐诗鉴赏辞典》,上海:上海辞书出版社,1983年,其中有关此诗的内容,作者也没有提及“危”的作用。但是,根据《说文解字》,“危”的本义是“在高而惧也”。宇文所安此处的解读便顾及了这一点;他指出,此处的“危”字还有“险”意,因而既是描写外物,也是诗人内心的自况。杜甫彼时携家颠沛流离,自然会有朝不保夕的自危之感,故将此情移至“危樯”这一情景交融的意象。显然,这样的解读更能令读者感受杜甫当时的境遇,也凸显了杜诗在艺术表现上的卓越成就。

此处,宇文所安还从天人对应之宇宙观的角度,对中国古代“文”的意义与作用进行了评述。他先是勾勒了“文”这一字的本义与意义,然后便征引了《文心雕龙·原道》篇中的如下段落:

文之为德也大矣,与天地并生者何哉?夫玄黄色杂,方圆体分;日月迭璧,以垂丽天之象;山川焕绮,以铺理地之形,此盖道之文也。仰观吐曜,俯察含章,髙卑定位,故两仪既生矣。惟人参之,性灵所钟,是谓三才。为五行之秀,实天地之心。心生而言立,言立而文明,自然之道也。

傍及万品,动植皆文。龙凤以藻绘呈瑞,虎豹以炳蔚凝姿。云霞雕色,有踰画工之妙;草木贲华,无待锦匠之奇。夫岂外饰,盖自然耳。至于林籁结响,调如竽瑟;泉石激韵,和若球锽。故形立则章成矣,声发则文生矣。夫以无识之物,郁然有彩,有心之器,其无文欤?①Traditional Chinese Poetry and Poetics, pp.18—19; 原文见《文心雕龙今译》,第9—10页。

宇文所安指出,与西方文学传统中的模仿论不同,在上述文学理论中,作为“天地之心”的“文”或文学乃是“一个体现(manifestation)过程的最后阶段;作者不是要再现 (re-presenting) 外部世界,而实际上只是为世界形成的这一最后阶段提供一个媒介。”换言之,“文学是宇宙体现过程的一个目的实现,或是这一过程完全实现了的形式”。②Owen, op.cit., p.20.引号中的原文:“But this formulation of literature is not truly mimetic: rather it is the final stage in a process of manifestation; and the writer, instead of ‘re-presenting’ the outer world, is in fact only the medium for this last phase of the world’s coming-to-be.” “Literature thus stands as the entelechy, the fully realized form, of a universal process of manifestation.”此处,宇文所安还从《文心雕龙》中有关“文”的理论出发,对西方传统中的模仿说提出了批评。他说:

模仿、再现甚至表现的概念永远不会把文学从其附属或比“原本”更晚、更差的地位中解放出来(在表现中,“原本”乃是一种心境)。西方文学理论是柏拉图批评的产儿,虽然它们也反抗,或与那些相对较少受此影响的立场结合,但毕竟逃脱不出其祖先。如果“原本”属于这个感官世界,那么模仿的缺陷和偏差便显而易见。为了逃避这一注定的失败,人们想出了巧妙的修正方法:“原本”被从这个世界中移出,变成了一个隐藏着的其他东西,只有通过诗歌才能达到。通过这一离奇的倒置,“原本”的意义在认识上便依赖于附属性的再现。西方文学思想史便是在决定性再现与决定性、但却隐藏着的“原本”内容之间的忧郁竞争中发展,各有其占上风的时期,我们的解读艺术便是建立在文字力量与“言外之真”之间的变化比例上。

Concepts of imitation, representation, or even expression can never entirely free literature from its status as a secondary phenomenon,later and less than some “original” (in the case of expression, the “original” is a state of mind).Western theories of literature are the children of the Platonic critique, and though they rebel and marry into less tainted lines, they cannot escape their ancestry.If the “originals” belong to this sensible world, the deficiencies and deviations of the imitation are all too apparent.To escape the foredoomed failure, a most ingenious revision was devised: the “original” was displaced out of this world and became a hidden Something Else to which the poem gives unique access.By this strange inversion, the “original” significance becomes epistemologically contingent on the secondary representation.The history of Western literary thought develops in a melancholy competition between determining representation and a determining but “hidden” content.Each lineage takes its turn in partial dominance.And our art of reading is founded upon these shifting ratios in the power of word versus the “truth”beyond language.①Ibid., p.21.

这一评述为我们概括了解西方文学思想史的基本特点。宇文所安没有提供具体事例来做进一步说明,但是我们可据此推知,当重点放在“文字力量”上时,便会有所谓形式主义文学;古典主义、新古典主义和现代派及后现代派的文学理论便属于此类。反之,当人们强调“言外之真”②应该指出,宇文所安此处的措辞,“truth beyond language”,显然取自中国传统中的“言外之意”(meaning beyond language)。时,便会出现那些以再现现实或是抒发情感为己任的现实主义和浪漫主义文学。上述这些不同流派虽然表面不同,但却都是基于模仿说,因而可谓是殊途同归。相比之下,在中国文学理论中:

由于文学(文)是某种尚未实现模式的目的实现,并且文字(文)不是一个符号,而是一个形式化过程,因此不会有高下之争。“文”的每一层次,亦即世界之文和诗歌之文,只是在其对应的领域内才有效;作为最终的外部形式,一首诗乃是一个完满的阶段。

But if literature (wen) is the entelechy of a previously unrealized pattern, and if the written word (wen) is not a sign but a schematization,then there can be no competition for dominance.Each level of wen, that of the world and that of the poem, is valid only in its own correlative realm; and the poem, the final outward form, is a stage of fullness.③Owen, op.cit., p.21.

上面这段评论中有两点需要解释,因为宇文所安没有对其做出说明。首先,把“文”称为“形式化过程”(schematization),以区别于作为“符号”(sign) 的西方字母文字,似乎是指那些早期中国文字的象形特征,以及它与自然世界之间的“对应”关系。反之,西方文字只是个抽象的符号,它与外部世界的关系是人为或任意的(arbitrary)。其次,由于某个具体的“文”是指与某一同“类”的具体现象所构成的对应关系,因此,其成功与否便只取决于它是否充分体现了那个现象,与其他“文”无关。同样,一首诗是否为好诗,也只要看它是否体现了某种特殊的情境,无须将其与一种超验的“理念”或模式以及其他模仿这一理念或模式的作品进行比较。

依照“文”的逻辑,某种潜在的模式经由世界、人心和文学而得以显现;因此,文学体现的过程必须从外部世界开始。宇文所安将此称为“同情感发的理论”(a theory of sympathetic resonance),并引用《文心雕龙·物色》一章中的如下段落加以说明:

春秋代序,阴阳惨舒。物色之动,心亦揺焉。盖阳气萌而玄驹步,阴律凝而丹鸟羞。微虫犹或入感,四时之动物深矣……人谁获安?是以献岁发春,悦豫之情畅;滔滔孟夏,郁陶之心凝。天高气清,阴沈之志远;霰雪无垠,矜肃之虑深。岁有其物,物有其容;情以物迁,辞以情发。一叶且或迎意,虫声有足引心,况清风与明月同夜,白日与春林共朝哉。是以诗人感物,联类不穷。流连万象之际,沈吟视听之区。写气图貌,既随物以宛转;属采附声,亦与心而徘徊。④Ibid.,pp.21—22.原文见《文心雕龙今译》,第409页。

“情以物迁,辞以情发”,道出了中国传统诗学的精髓,是对“诗言志”这一纲领的又一经典阐述。刘勰还提出,由此产生的诗歌倘若能够“物色尽而情有余”,那便达到了“晓会通”的境界,在读者中引起不尽的联想。⑤Ibid.,p.23, 412.宇文所安指出,这样的诗歌文本,“作为一个过程的目的实现,乃是读者心中另一生动过程的开始”。⑥Owen, op.cit., p.23.原文:“The text, the entelechy of one process, is only the beginning of another living process in the mind of the reader.”杜甫的《旅夜书怀》便是这方面的一首杰作。前面我们已经看到,此诗的首联在宇文所安心中引起了丰富的联想。他对其他部分的解读继续按照同一轨迹进行。颔联“星垂平野阔,月涌大江流”继续描写感发诗人的“物色”。对此,宇文所安评论说:

空间在扩展,随着它的增长,观者的规模缩小。眼睛沿看不见的细草而上,经过隐隐而现的桅杆,然后再往上走,来到夜色中的全景。在那里,眼睛再次遇到了已经在地上观察到的模式:众草深深扎根,群星牢牢悬挂,如草叶低垂那样下倾。许多星星被牢牢系住;一个月亮落下,作为河中的倒影落下,月光被水波摇曳击打。扎根于下面的微小实体、挂在上面的[实体],与在水上摇摇欲坠的一根桅杆形成对照,这时一个月亮落下,掉入水中。一个巨大的光亮被水面上流动的形态所左右,并被击碎;许多更小的光亮则安全完整。

这一联中的第一行由两个并列部分构成,它们一起相互作用,并闯入诗人和读者的心中。首联中的两行形成了对偶和对比,不断地生出更多的联想和愈加复杂的关系。现在我们有两联,用一组对比匹配另一组相应的对比,从而说明变化,并进入一个更加宽泛的参照框架。

这些对比体现在世界当中,并在水上独自漂泊的诗人心中引起了感发与共鸣;它们吸引他的注意,并且反映他自己的险境、无休止的奔波、与世隔离的感觉,以及因卓尔不群而引起的骄傲。但是,他同时也受到水面上那些处于险境的巨大之“物”的感发,其本身的规模在他不断扩大的视野中开始缩小,直到他在这无限的夜景中成为一个越来越小的斑点。

Space grows, and with its increase, the viewer’s dimensions shrink; the eye runs from the slender blades of grass, unseen, up to the looming mast, then out and up further, to the full breadth and height of the night scene.There the eye meets repetition of the pattern observed on earth: grasses firmly rooted and stars securely hung, tending downward as the blades of grass are bent down.Many stars securely tied; one moon fallen, fallen as a reflection in the river where its light is cast about and shattered by the waves.The tiny entities rooted below and those strung above are set against one mast waving precariously over the water, then one moon fallen down, into the water.One great light is at the mercy of the fluid shapings of the river’s surface, shattered; many lesser lights remain secure and whole.

The first line of the couplet is composed of two unsubordinated segments; set together, the segments act upon one another and intrude upon the poet’s and reader’s mind.The two lines of the first couplet form parallels and oppositions,generating ever more associations, increasingly complex relations.Then we have two couplets,matching one set of oppositions by a correlative set of oppositions, defining change and entering a wider frame of reference.

The oppositions becoming manifest in the world find resonance in the mind of the solidary boat, traveling by nigh on the river; they fix his attention and echo his insecurity, his constant movement, his sense of isolation, his pride in his uniqueness and superiority.But at the same time that he feels the resonance with the great, endangered “ones” of the riverscape, his own dimensions are shrinking in the widening scope of his vision, and he becomes a smaller and smaller point in the immensity of the night scene.①Owen, op.cit., pp.23—24.

这真是与“同情感发”式诗歌理论相对应的“同情感发”式解读了。此处的世界、诗人、诗歌、读者形成了一种循环圈,即世界感发诗人作诗来体现诗人所经验的世界,读者则通过诗歌对自己的感发去重新体验诗人对世界的感受,也就是“缀文者情动而辞发,观文者披文以入情”。《旅夜书怀》的后半部,即颈联和尾联,转而描写诗人的境遇。宇文所安对这一过渡做了如下描述:

我们从“物”开始,它们被并列起来,相互作用;其中某些对比模式通过重复得以体现出来,呈现在诗人和读者眼前。我们可把这一过程视为外部世界所提供的征兆,我们也可把它理解成诗人不由自主的观察,因而是他个人隐痛的伤痕。无论如何,“伊兹文之为用,故众理之所因”。①这两行引自陆机《文赋》。参见萧统:《文选》,上海:上海古籍出版社,1986,第2册,第17卷,第773页。文学是潜在、未现之物得以体现的门户。一首诗不仅仅是世界内在秩序的体现状态;其运作乃是那个秩序成为体现的过程。

We begin with “things” set side by side to act upon one another; the repetition of certain patterns of opposition makes those patterns manifest, visible to both the poet and the reader.We may read this process as an omen which the outer world offers; we may understand it as the poet’s compulsion to notice, the scar of his private pain.In either case,

伊兹文之为用,固众理之所因。

The true function of literature/wenis to be the means by

Which all inherent order may come through.

Literature is a gate for the latent and inarticulate to become manifest.The poem is not simply the manifest state of the world’s inherent order; its movement is the process of that orderbecomingmanifest.②Owen, Traditional Chinese Poetry and Poetics, pp.24—25.

在上文中,宇文所安之所以要强调“成为”(becoming) 一字,旨在说明一首诗不仅仅是一个已经完成了的静态“状况”(state),而是一个正在进行中的动态过程。因此,一首诗的意义只有通过感发式的解读,对其意义产生过程进行“重演”(re-enactment),才能得以体现和实现。

下面让我们继续关注宇文所安对颈联“名岂文章著,官应老病休”的解读。他先是指出,前两联中景物的对比在诗人心中引起了对个人身世的感发,然后说:

同前面一样,一个在面对众多;此处它寻求认可;分离无法克服,一种更大的衰退在发出威胁。此时不理解我,将来也不会记住我,我甚至必须放弃我的微职。无论是文学还是历史中都不会有我的位置,而正是它们一起构成了文明的集体认可和记忆。一个摇摇欲坠的桅杆,一个落下的月亮,一个被遗忘的诗人—他们都栖于河水之上,都逃不脱其流动与变化。

As before, one confronts many; here it seeks recognition; the separation cannot be overcome and a greater falling away threatens.The present does not know me; the future will not remember me; I must yield even my minor post.There will be no place for me either in literature or in history, which together are the collective recognition and memory of our civilization.A precariously swaying mast, a fallen moon, a forgotten poet—all are things that rest upon the river and are subject to its flux.③Ibid., p.25.

也就是说,诗人此时的感受已经不仅仅是一种孤独,而且是一种生命与存在的危机。如此下去,我们所面对的便极可能是另一首无可奈何的哀叹之文了。但是杜甫之所以伟大,便在于他能够通过拥抱国家、历史、自然等更大的实体来超越个人的失意,净化个人的感情。这首诗的尾联“飘飘何所似,天地一沙鸥”便是这一特质的成功体现。宇文所安对这一联的解读还将此与中国传统诗歌观念联系起来。他说:

但是,一首诗便是一个令被忽略、被遗失、被隐藏的人得以体现的行为。通过这首诗,诗人意识到他的孤独和离群索居,并将这一真实体现给其他人。文学作品“恢万里而无阂,通亿载而为津;俯贻则于来叶,仰观象乎古人”。④这段引文引自陆机《文赋》。一首诗是内心活动的体现形式,这一体现依次又指向其他人的内心。杜甫的这首诗便在击打那个把别人和他本人之孤独自我隔离开来的障碍:从根源上讲,这首诗努力要克服它所感受的世界秩序。它从个人和具体之物出发,走向那些体现出来的公共之物。

But a poem is an act of making manifest what is overlooked, lost, hidden; and this poem,through which the poet becomes aware of his isolation and a falling away from others, makes that very truth manifest to others.The literary work:

Passes thousands of miles, no impediment,

恢万里而无阂,

Spans a million years, a way cross them;

通亿载而为津,

Hands down models to coming generations,

俯贻则于来叶,

Gives us images to consider from men past.

仰观象乎古人。

A poem is the manifest form of the mind’s activities, and this manifestation is, in its turn,directed to other minds.Tu Fu’s poem strikes out at the barrier between others and the self which is falling away from them: in its genesis the poem strives to overcome the very order of the world it perceives.The poem begins with the private and particular and moves to things manifest and shared.①Owen, op.cit., p.26.

把《旅夜书怀》描绘成杜甫经由自我认识而达到自我超越的行为与过程,这的确是个令人耳目一新的洞见。对于“飘飘何所似,天地一沙鸥”这一联中所使用的明喻及其意义,宇文所安更做出了贴切入理的分析:

在观察了一系列自我的对应物之后,诗人通过沙鸥这一明喻做了一个真实的类比。对于一位描述自己亲身所见、所思、所感的诗人来说,隐喻(或明喻)并非必要,因为隐喻不过是内心众多行为中的一种。但是,在这首诗中,一个明喻的形成却是对一种在感官世界中无所不在、并反复重复的压抑模式—即离群索居这一现象的解决与逃避。明喻这一形式本身便承认不同事物中可能存在相同之处:即某些特征可穿越本质的障碍为大家所共有。明喻能够生出亲属关系,在沙鸥身上诗人发现了真正的亲属。

此处之鸟既是也不是此处之人。正如人是处于天地之间的第三实体,这个生灵也处于第三的位置,既不属于群星稳挂的天空,也不属于草木扎根的大地。它是个水上的生灵,从一种要素转移到另一种要素,永远介乎二者之间。正如细草,它随风飘摇,但却不曲身;沙鸥顺风或逆风翱翔,虽然纤弱无靠,但却柔韧有余。天地那宏大的视野令[沙鸥]这一渺小生灵微不足道,但是它对苍空的孤独掌控(天、地、一只鸟)则赋予其以独特的意义和重要性。诗人已经停止向外面的世界张望,以便去解读个人离群索居的征兆。群体已经消失,所余下的只有诗人在面对他的对应属性。

After observing a series ofcorrelativesfor the self, the poet makes a trueanalogyin the simile of the gull.Metaphor (or simile) is not essential to a poetry that write what the poet sees, thinks, and feels; the metaphor is no more than one action of the minds among others.But in this particular poem the formation of a simile is a resolution and escape from the oppressive repetition of the pattern noticed everywhere in the visible world—one separated from many.The very form of a simile admits the possibility of essential likeness in things which are different: there is something that may be shared across the barriers of identity.Simile makes kinship possible, and in the gull the poet finds true kin.

Here is the bird which both is and is not the man.As a human is the third term joined with Heaven and Earth in the Great Triad, so this creature is also the third, belonging neither to the heavens, where the stars hang securely,nor to the earth, where the grasses are firmly rooted; it is a creature of the river, a creature moving from element to element, forever inbetween.Like the slender blades of grass, the bird is tossed by the winds; yet it does not bend; it soars with or against the wind, frail and unattached but somehow resilient.The immensity of the perspective—Heaven and Earth—diminishes the small creature to a tininess, but its solitary dominion over the vast emptiness (Heaven, Earth, and one bird) grants it a unique interest and importance.The poet has stopped his outward gaze into the world to read the omens of one separated from the many; the many have disappeared, and all that remains is the poet confronting his parallel identity.①Owen, op.cit., pp.26—27.

也就是说,诗人在天地之间翱翔的沙鸥身上反观到了自己的命运和属性,并在此瞬间达到了自我认识与自我超越。

在上文第一段中,宇文所安再次提到隐喻或明喻在杜诗中的作用。它们之所以对这位中国诗人来讲“并非必要”(not essential),因为诗人所描述的乃是其亲身经历。隐喻或明喻所体现的,也不过是诗人与所感受到的外部世界之间已经形成的“类比”。言外之意,便是在西方文学中,隐喻或明喻是诗人赖以创造其虚构世界的艺术手段,因而是必不可少的。宇文所安之所以反复强调这一点,乃是因为他认为这不仅是中西文学之间的根本区别,而且还是解读中国诗歌的关键切入点。

也正是这一比较诗学的视野,使得宇文所安对中国诗歌的认识有时要比中国传统诗学更为复杂甚至深刻。他对《旅夜书怀》一诗的解读之所以鞭辟入里,在很大程度上便是借助对中西诗歌传统的全面把握。我们不妨把它们比作刘勰所说的“六观”,正是它们使得宇文所安在千载之后,于异域之地成为了杜甫的“知音”,并为他的一首杰作献上了一个难得的“圆照”。

著名的“中文世界”文学研究者——史书美教授

史书美(Shu–Mei Shih)教授现执教于美国加州大学洛杉矶分校,身跨比较文学、亚洲语言与文化、亚裔美国人研究三个系,同时与同事联合主持梅伦人文学科博士后项目(Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship Program)。主要从事以中文世界为中心的跨国别视野中的文化研究,尤其关注作为文化生产区域的中文世界(Sinophone)文学、港台文学、流散写作、女性主义、后殖民批评等。著有《现代的诱惑:1917—1937半殖民地中国的现代主义书写》(The Lure of Modern: Writing Modernism in Semicolonial China, 1917—1937, 2001。本著被列入跨学科中国研究伯克利系列丛书。中文版于2007年由江苏人民出版社出版,何恬译)、《可视性与身份:跨越太平洋的中文表达》(Visuality and Identity: Sinophone Articulations across the Pacific, 2007)等,并与其他学者合作编辑了《少数族裔的跨国主义》(Minor Transnationalism, 2005.译文选编曾在2007年6月号的《中外文学》月刊刊登)、《理论的混血化》(The Creolization of Theory, 2011)和《中文世界研究读本》(Sinophone Studies: A Critical Reader, 2013)。(秋叶)

猜你喜欢

华兹华斯宇文杜甫
植物批评视域下的华兹华斯诗歌研究
圆上的点
古惑仔
华兹华斯对郭沫若早期诗歌创作的影响
华兹华斯田园诗歌的圈地叙事
杜甫改诗
宇文老师
修电脑
绝句
The Study of “The Daffodil” from Cognitive Perspective