莎士比亚的香脂系列(一)高处不胜寒的王

莎士比亚的作品里有19处出现了香脂。现将这些相关段落整理出来并翻译成中文:

第一处:历史剧《理查二世》(Richard II)第一幕第一场:贵族波林勃洛克(Bolingbroke)和毛勃雷(Mowbray)在理查二世面前互相指摘对方。波林勃洛克说毛勃雷贪污军饷,还设计谋害葛罗斯特公爵(理查二世的叔叔)等。毛勃雷为自己辩护,认为不存在贪污一说,因为那笔钱是国王欠他的。他摸棱两可地称自己失职,未能好好地保护葛罗斯特(事实上查理二世正是杀死亲叔叔的幕后主使)。毛勃雷只痛快地承认自己曾经密谋反对当今国王,但他早已后悔了。两人激烈争吵,甚至扔下手套(gage)准备决斗。波林勃洛克的父亲冈特的约翰(John Gaunt,查理二世的叔叔)劝儿子放弃决斗,理查二世也给毛勃雷下了同样的命令。毛勃雷义愤难平,对国王说:“尊敬的陛下,我愿意扑倒在您的脚下。您可以支配我的生命,但不能强迫我接受耻辱。为您尽忠效命是我的职责所在,可是即使死神住在我的坟墓之上,您也不能让我的美好声誉受到玷污。我在这儿遭到莫名其妙的羞辱和弹劾,诽谤者有毒的长矛刺穿了我的灵魂,没有香膏能够医治,只有他那吐着毒瘴的心头的血液才可为我疗伤。”

(THOMAS MOWBRAY

Myself I throw, dread sovereign, at thy foot.

My life thou shalt command, but not my shame:

The one my duty owes; but my fair name,

Despite of death that lives upon my grave,

To dark dishonour’s use thou shalt not have.

I am disgraced, impeach’d and baffled here,

Pierced to the soul with slander’s venom’d spear,

The which no balm can cure but his heart-blood

Which breathed this poison.)

毛勃雷告诉查理二世,只有杀死波林勃洛克,用“他那吐着毒瘴的心头的血液”才能恢复自己的名誉。

第二处:历史剧《理查二世》第三幕第二场:理查二世和他的士兵来到了威尔士海岸的哈勒奇城堡。他高兴地向大地祈祷,希望大地不要相助叛乱分子,而是用蟾蜍、蜘蛛和蝰蛇毒死他们,或让他们在刺荨麻丛中穿行。公爵奥默乐(Aumerle)担心波林勃洛克的势力正变得越来越强大,理查二世反驳道:“贤弟,你真令人沮丧!你不知道当明视一切的天眼隐藏在地球的背后,照亮着下方的世界时,盗贼们会在黑暗中四处横行,烧杀抢掠无恶不作。可是当太阳从地球的下面升起,照亮东边的松树稍,光线穿过每一个罪恶的孔洞,那些谋杀、叛国和可憎的罪恶,失去了黑夜的庇护,就会无所遁形,颤颤发抖。所以这个窃贼,这个叛徒,波林勃洛克,在黑夜中肆意狂欢,而我们在地球的另一端漫游,会看见我们从东方的宝座上升起,他的叛国之举会让他脸红羞愧,无法忍受白日的景象,只能为自己的罪恶簌簌发抖。汹涌的怒海中所有的水都不能洗掉一个受膏的君王身上的香膏,凡人的呼吸无法罢黜上帝拣选的代表。每一个在波林勃洛克的威压下举起利刃挑战我们的黄金王冠的士兵,上帝为了他的查理会在天堂派一位光荣的天使,当天使参战时,弱小的凡人必定失败,因为上天仍然捍卫正义的一方。”

(KING RICHARD II

Discomfortable cousin! know’st thou not

That when the searching eye of heaven is hid,

Behind the globe, that lights the lower world,

Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen

In murders and in outrage, boldly here;

But when from under this terrestrial ball

He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines

And darts his light through every guilty hole,

Then murders, treasons and detested sins,

The cloak of night being pluck’d from off their backs,

Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves?

So when this thief, this traitor, Bolingbroke,

Who all this while hath revell’d in the night

Whilst we were wandering with the antipodes,

Shall see us rising in our throne, the east,

His treasons will sit blushing in his face,

Not able to endure the sight of day,

But self-affrighted tremble at his sin.

Not all the water in the rough rude sea

Can wash the balm off from an anointed king;

The breath of worldly men cannot depose

The deputy elected by the Lord:

For every man that Bolingbroke hath press’d

To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown,

God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay

A glorious angel: then, if angels fight,

Weak men must fall, for heaven still guards the right.)

盲目自大的理查二世认为:上帝赋予了他统治英格兰的权利,所以上帝会保护他。

第三处:历史剧《理查二世》第三幕第二场:波林勃洛克逼迫理查二世交出王权,理查陷入了漫长的自言自语中:“是,不;不,是;因为我是一个无用的人,所以,不,不,一切悉听尊便。现在,看好了,我怎样把自己变成一个废人。从我的头上卸下这重压,从我的手中放下这粗笨的权杖,从我的心头丢弃这君王的骄傲。我用自己的眼泪洗去了我的香膏,用自己的双手放弃了我的王冠,用自己的舌头否认了我的神圣地位,用自己的呼吸免除了所有的职责仪式。我摒绝一切浮华与尊严,放弃我的庄园、租金、收入,撤销我的法令、裁定、法律,愿上帝赦免所有对我毁弃的誓言!愿上帝保佑一切对你所做的盟约永不遭背叛!让我这个一无所有的人为一无所有而悲哀,让你这个得到一切的人为享有一切而开心!愿你坐在理查的宝位上万寿无疆,愿理查早早长眠于坟坑中!上帝保佑亨利国王,失去王位的理查这样说,送给他许多年阳光灿烂的日子!还有其他的事情吗?”

(KING RICHARD II

Ay, no; no, ay; for I must nothing be;

Therefore no no, for I resign to thee.

Now mark me, how I will undo myself;

I give this heavy weight from off my head

And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand,

The pride of kingly sway from out my heart;

With mine own tears I wash away my balm,

With mine own hands I give away my crown,

With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,

With mine own breath release all duty’s rites:

All pomp and majesty I do forswear;

My manors, rents, revenues I forego;

My acts, decrees, and statutes I deny:

God pardon all oaths that are broke to me!

God keep all vows unbroke that swear to thee!

Make me, that nothing have, with nothing grieved,

And thou with all pleased, that hast all achieved!

Long mayst thou live in Richard’s seat to sit,

And soon lie Richard in an earthly pit!

God save King Harry, unking’d Richard says,

And send him many years of sunshine days!

What more remains?)

理查二世不是一个合格的君王,更像一位感伤的诗人。

第四处:《亨利五世》(Henry V)第四幕第一场,阿金库尔(Agincourt)的英军阵地。亨利五世穿着借来的披风,扮成士兵进入军营,与三位兵哥聊天。当士兵们退下后,他来了一段精彩的长篇独白:“的确,法国人可以用二十比一的法国人头(注:crown指的是法国钱币)下赌注,来打败我们,因为他们的‘人头’就长在他们的肩上。可是英国人割法国‘人头’也不算叛国,明天国王就要亲自操刀呢。(士兵们下)要国王负责!让我们把我们的生命、灵魂、我们的债务、我们细心的妻子、我们的孩子以及我们的罪恶全都交给国王负责吧。哦,伴随着尊荣而来的艰难责任听凭每个蠢人的胡说乱议,他能感受到的只有自己的痛苦。做了国王,就得放弃普通人享受的无限生活乐趣。除了排场,除了盛大的排场,国王能享受到的,还有什么是普通百姓享受不到的?你又算什么呢,你偶像式的排场?你又是什么样的神明,比你的崇拜者遭受更多的苦难?你收到什么租金?带来什么进账?哦,排场,向我显示你的价值!你为什么被人崇拜呢?除了地位、阶层和仪式之外,你还有其他能激发别人敬畏之情的东西吗?你叫人恐惧,却比那帮诚惶诚恐的人更不快乐。你经常喝的是有毒的奉承,而不是甜蜜的尊敬。喔,伟大的尊荣呀,你试着生一场病,吩咐你的排场来治愈你吧!你认为由谄媚鼓吹出来的头衔可以退去滚烫的高烧吗?鞠躬作揖会治愈病痛吗?当你命令乞丐双膝跪下时,能同时命令他把健康奉献给你吗?不,你是妄自尊大的幻梦啊,善于戏弄国王的好眠。我是一个国王,早已看穿了你,我明白不是香膏、权杖、金球,不是剑、锤矛、王冠、由金线和珍珠织成的王袍、加在王号前头的花哨头衔、他高踞的宝座,或者拍打着这个世界的陆岸的华丽盛典的浪潮,不,不是所有这些,这些无比辉煌的排场,能让你睡在御榻上,和一个卑贱的奴隶睡得一样香甜。一个奴隶用辛苦劳动挣来的面包塞饱了肚子,空着脑子,上床去睡觉,就再也看不见从地狱里产生的可怕的黑夜。他倒是像一个伺候太阳神的小厮,从日出到日落,在烈日下流着汗,整个晚上睡在至福乐土,第二天天一亮,又爬起来替太阳神把骏马套上了车。年复一年,他就干着这辛苦营生,直到进入了坟墓。除了排场,如此一个可怜虫,日出而作,日入而息,却比国王过得好。那个奴隶享受着国家的太平,愚钝的大脑从不为此操心,做君王的夙兴夜寐为了维护这和平景象,却是那乡野村夫得到了最大的好处。”

(KING HENRY

Indeed, the French may lay twenty French

crowns to one they will beat us, for they bear

them on their shoulders. But it is no English

treason to cut French crowns, and tomorrow

the king himself will be a clipper.

(Exeunt soldiers )

Upon the king! Let us our lives, our souls, our

debts, our careful wives, our children, and

our sins lay on the king!

We must bear all. O hard condition,

Twin-born with greatness, subject to the breath

Of every fool, whose sense no more can feel

But his own wringing. What infinite heart’s ease

Must kings neglect that private men enjoy?

And what have kings that privates have not too,

Save ceremony, save general ceremony?

And what art thou, thou idol ceremony?

What kind of god art thou, that suffer’st more

Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers?

What are thy rents? What are thy comings in?

O ceremony, show me but thy worth!

What is thy soul of adoration?

Art thou aught else but place, degree, and form,

Creating awe and fear in other men,

Wherein thou art less happy, being feared,

Than they in fearing?

What drink’st thou oft, instead of homage sweet,

But poisoned flattery? Oh, be sick, great greatness,

And bid thy ceremony give thee cure!

Think’st thou the fiery fever will go out

With titles blown from adulation?

Will it give place to flexure and low bending?

Canst thou, when thou command’st the beggar’s knee,

Command the health of it? No, thou proud dream,

That play’st so subtly with a king’s repose.

I am a king that find thee, and I know

'Tis not the balm, the scepter, and the ball,

The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,

The intertissued robe of gold and pearl,

The farcèd title running 'fore the king,

The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp

That beats upon the high shore of this world.

No, not all these, thrice-gorgeous ceremony,

Not all these, laid in bed majestical,

Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave,

Who, with a body filled and vacant mind,

Gets him to rest, crammed with distressful bread;

Never sees horrid night, the child of hell,

But, like a lackey, from the rise to set

Sweats in the eye of Phoebus, and all night

Sleeps in Elysium; next day after dawn, 

Doth rise and help Hyperion to his horse,

And follows so the ever-running year

With profitable labor to his grave.

And, but for ceremony, such a wretch,

Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep,

Had the forehand and vantage of a king.

The slave, a member of the country’s peace,

Enjoys it, but in gross brain little wots

What watch the king keeps to maintain the peace,

Whose hours the peasant best advantages.)

(注:Elysium,至福乐土,最初是从冥府范围分离出來,众神所挑选的人,如正直有道德的人和英雄伟人,死后可以在那里受到庇护并快乐地生活。

Hyperion:许珀里翁,希腊神话中提坦巨人之一,是大地女神盖娅和天王乌拉诺斯之子,太阳神之父,第一代太阳神)

英明的亨利五世道出了明君“高处不胜寒”的烦恼,他认为除了排场,做君王还不如普通百姓过得好。

在亨利五世的率领下,由步兵弓箭手为主力的英军击溃了由大批贵族组成的法国精锐部队,这就是英法百年战争中著名的以少胜多的阿金库尔战役。这场战役成为了英国长弓手最辉煌的胜利,也是一场在战争史有重要影响的战役 — 以弓箭手作为主力对抗重装骑士的胜利。

 

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