文化之魂——蘭德爾·賈雷爾

Randall Jarrell， who died forty-four years ago last month， was an important post-war American poet and critic. Born in 1914， he established a reputation for himself with the publication of his second book of poetry， Little Friend， Little Friend， in 1945， when his scathing comments about other poets and writers also built his name as a hard and intelligent cultural commentator. He once wrote of the amateur poems he received that :

\"In the bad type of thin pamphlets， in hand-set lines on imported paper， people's hard lives and hopeless ambitions have expressed themselves more directly and heartbreakingly than they have ever expressed in any work of art: it is as if the writers had sent you their ripped-out arms and legs， with \"This is a poem\" scrawled on them in lipstick.\"

蘭德爾#8226;賈雷爾，于44年前的十月去世，是美國重要的戰(zhàn)后詩人和評論家。出生于1914年，他憑借1945年出版的第二本詩集《小朋友，小朋友》建立起了聲望，而他對其它詩人和作家的刻薄評論也使得他形成了冷酷睿智的文化評論家的名聲。他曾經(jīng)為他收到的業(yè)余詩篇寫道：

在這些印刷粗糙的薄冊子中，在進(jìn)口紙張上通過手工排版出的文字將人們的苦難生活及對未來的絕望比任何作品都刻畫得更加直接而催人心碎。這就有如作者將四肢從身體中撕裂，用口紅在上面附上“詩一首”呈現(xiàn)于你面前。

Jarrell’s most famous poem， The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner， meditates upon the relationship between birth， death， war， and the modern nation-state through recording the brutal killing of one young man in WW2.

賈雷爾最著名的詩作《旋轉(zhuǎn)炮塔炮手之死》，通過記錄一位年輕人在二戰(zhàn)中被無情的殺戮思索出生、死亡、戰(zhàn)爭和當(dāng)代民族國家之間的關(guān)系。

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State，

And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.

Six miles from earth， loosed from its dream of life，

I woke to black flak， and the nightmare fighters.

When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

我從我母親的睡夢中，跌落到這國土

我蜷縮在它的肚腹，直到我濕毛發(fā)凍結(jié)

在6英里的高空中，我被夢一樣的生活丟撒

我警覺到黑色高射炮及恐怖的戰(zhàn)斗機(jī)。

當(dāng)我死后， 他們用水管把我沖洗出了塔樓。

Influenced by Buddhist ideas， the poem suggests that the pilot's life on earth was dream-like and illusionary， and that he only awoke to reality in his last moments， before being torn apart by the enemy. The narrator moves from his mother's womb into the belly of the state， from the warm comfort of biology into the harsh embrace of the machinery of destruction. Jarrell， who served in the American Air Force during WW2 and frequently witnessed the disposal of dead pilots' bodies， attached a note to the poem that:

受到佛家思想的影響，詩歌所表達(dá)的是飛行員在世的生命像夢一樣，充滿了錯覺，直到生命的最后一刻，被敵人撕得粉碎之前，他才察覺到了現(xiàn)實。敘述者從母親的子宮到國土之上，離開了溫暖舒適的生理環(huán)境，進(jìn)入了殘酷無情的毀滅性機(jī)制。二戰(zhàn)期間賈雷爾曾在美國空軍服役，因此親眼見過許多傷亡飛行員的尸體是如何處理的，還為本詩加了標(biāo)注：

\"A ball turret was a Plexiglas sphere set into the belly of a B-17 or B-24 (American bombers)， and inhabited by two .50 caliber machine-guns and one man， a short small man. When this gunner tracked with his machine guns a fighter attacking his bomber from below， he revolved with the turret; hunched upside-down in his little sphere， he looked like the foetus in the womb. The fighters which attacked him were armed with cannon firing explosive shells. The hose was a steam hose.\"

球形炮塔是裝置在B-17或B-24（美式轟炸機(jī)）腹部的半球形樹脂玻璃艙，配有兩部.50口徑的機(jī)關(guān)槍，并能容納一個矮小的人。這個射擊手用機(jī)關(guān)槍緊盯著從下方攻擊轟炸機(jī)的敵方戰(zhàn)斗機(jī)，這時他便在炮塔里旋轉(zhuǎn)；他駝背縮腰，頭朝下蜷在這個小艙里，看起來像子宮里的胎兒。攻擊他的戰(zhàn)斗機(jī)配備著加農(nóng)炮。軟管是蒸氣管。

He was killed in a car accident on October 14th， 1965. Although his death was believed to be accidental， he had suffered from depression and made previous suicide attempts， and may have deliberately stepped in front of the car that hit him.

1965年10月14日詩人死于車禍。盡管他的逝世被認(rèn)為是意外，但是他長期抑郁消沉，也曾經(jīng)試圖自殺，或許是詩人自己故意撞上汽車自殺的。