这节课我们继续讲 We turn our attention then again to
莎士比亚的伟大喜剧 Shakespeare's great comedy,
《仲夏夜之梦》 A Midsummer Night's Dream.
上次我讲到绿色世界 Last time I talked about the green world,
在莎评中 这个词通常是指 the term that Shakespeare criticism often uses to talk about
浪漫喜剧中的人物 that world of nature to which
逃往的自然世界 characters escape in romantic comedy,
那是一个可以享受爱情自由 a world of romantic freedom that allows them to
逃离传统束缚 get away from the conventions,
逃离城市 文明权威的地方 and the authoritative structures of the city, of civilization.
今天我想从另一个方面 I want to focus on a rather different aspect of this play,
探讨这部戏剧 this time around.
我想从大家的一个普遍经历谈起 I'll start from a fairly common human experience
至少是那些参加过 at least for those of us who have to attend
大学委员会会议的人的普遍经历 a lot of committee meetings in the university
当大学或者院系 when a university, when a department is
聘请新教师的时候 deciding what faculty members to hire.
你可能以为我们看重的是 You might think the main thing we focus on is
求职者本身的才智 the mind of that person him- or herself.
不过那样你就错了 But you'd be wrong if that were what you thought
如果录下我们和求职者间的谈话 because if one were to simply tape record our conversations
看看多少时间被真正用于 and see how much time is devoted to
谈论他们的思想 an actual discussion of the mind
或者他们的思想产物 or the products of the mind
也就是他们的论文 著作 that is the writings of this or that candidate,
你会发现 you'd find that's
只有很少的时间花在这种讨论上 a relatively small, not to say trivial part of the discussion.
更多的时间 A much larger part of the discussion,
不管是正式谈话还是非正式的 both formal discussion but especially informal discussion,
那些决定最终聘用谁的谈话 the sort of discussion that makes somebody into a candidate
焦点并不在求职者本人 is not focused on the candidate in himself or in herself,
而在于可能聘用求职者的其他大学 it focuses instead on the perception of that candidate
会怎么看待他 by other potential hirers.
所以至少我们可能 So that we at least is likely,
其实我们确实很可能 and indeed we're very much more likely to
把时间用于谈论 spend time in conversation or in gossip about
其他学校 机构 what other institutions
是怎样争取这名求职者的 might be trying to hire that candidate.
所以 一种使你成为 One way to make yourself
被著名学府青睐的求职者的方法是 an attractive job candidate to one important institution
向对方透露 is to somehow get the news to leak that
你还是另外的一流学府的候选人 you're also a candidate at another elite institution.
通常一个人不会轻易成为候选人 Often we don't even consider somebody a candidate,
我们甚至不一定知道其存在 they're not even on our radar screen
除非我们听说 until the moment we hear
有别的什么学校在考虑这个人 they're being considered by somebody else.
我们对于候选人的青睐 Our desire for the candidate then,
似乎跟他本人的素质关系不大 seems to have less to do with the candidate in itself
而跟这个候选人 than it does with the candidate
在这个圈子中的声望和认可度更相关 considered within a network of prestige, of recognition.
应聘成功与否取决于 It's in so far as a candidate
我们眼中的对手或比我们更好的学校 is attractive to another department we consider a rival,
是怎么看待他的 at least being equal and maybe better than us.
正是在那个竞争的圈子里的名望 It's within that network of competitive prestige
使候选人脱颖而出 that a job candidate takes on salience,
变得令人感兴趣和重要 becomes interesting and important to us.
所以成为有竞争力的候选人的途径之一是 So that one way to become a strong job candidate
使你的面试官觉得 is to control the ways that your rivals
他们的竞争对手对你感兴趣 see you as an object of interest by their rivals.
这种使对方产生兴趣的方法 Now this way of generating interest in somebody
并不是完全刻意的 is not all calculated.
我在这里完全没有愤世嫉俗的意思 It's not all cynical, not by any means.
我们对许多东西的兴趣和渴望 A lot of what we find interesting or attractive
来自对他人欲望的模仿 comes through our imitation of desires,
来自我们对那些我们仰慕的 imitation of desires that other people have,
或者视为对手的人的欲望的模仿 whom we admire or whom we consider our rivals.
当然我们仰慕的人 And of course often enough those we admire
常常就是我们视为对手的的人 are exactly the same as those we consider our rivals.
神圣的爱情宝典之一就是 One hallowed romantic strategy:
如果你去一个派对 if you're going to be going to a party
而一个让你产生情爱兴趣的人 where someone who's attracted your romantic interest
恰好也要去 is going to be
那么一定不要单独前往 is never to arrive alone.
而要跟一个可能作为那个人对手的人 Arrive with an attractive person who'll appear to be a rival
一块去参加 to the person you're trying to attract.
这样你就可能吸引到他 You become more attractive
因为他发现你成了另一个人的情爱对象 in so far as you are seen as the object of romantic interest
而那人是他所仰慕的 by somebody who excites the admiration
或者是他的竞争对手 or the competition of other people.
这是不是意味着对方爱的不是你本人呢 Does this mean that you wouldn't be loved for yourself?
答案取决于什么是你"本人" Well that depends on what yourself is.
如果你觉得本人这个概念是完全个体化的 If you think yourself is some wholly individualized thing
完全脱离你和别人的关系 that has nothing to do with your relationships to anybody else,
即你和你的爱慕者的关系 with anybody who finds you attractive
或你和你竞争对手的关系 or anybody who finds you a rival or anything else.
如果你以这样一种极端的个人主义观念 If you have a radically individualist conception
认识你自己 of who you are,
那你有可能觉得我这样说很无礼 then you're likely to be a bit insulted,
甚至可能被激怒 not to say outraged.
如果别人对你感兴趣 If the main causal factor
的主要原因 that draws you to the attention of somebody,
是他仰慕的人 is that you're the object of romantic interest
或视为竞争对手的人 to somebody that this other person finds admirable,
对你感兴趣 worth competing with
可你却希望别人的感情是针对你自己的 You want their affection to attach directly to you,
而不是经由一些媒介 so to speak, without any mediation.
你不希望他们对你的欲望 You don't want their desire for you to be the product of
只是他们模仿他人欲望的产物 their desires imitating somebody else's desires.
很早就有人认为 So that one hackneyed version
爱情的悸动像是传染病一样 of this structure of romantic desire as being something
是我们从别人那里得来的 that we catch like a contagion by imitating others.
一个比较典型的例子是 One example of this is the way that we can see that
一个人要么一个舞伴都没有 one has either zero dates to the prom
要么邀请他的人太多 or too many dates to the prom,
判断这个人是否值得邀请 the way that somehow some people become datable
显得不是那么个人化 in a way that seems impersonal
在那个社交圈子之外的人直接不予考虑 and other people are somehow left out of that social network,
而一旦你进入了那个社交圈子 but that once you're in that social network,
你的选择就不那么个人化而受到他人影响 there's a kind of impersonal aspect to it.
人们游走于各种关系中 People move around in their partnerships.
而那些关系 And those partnerships can change
可能一眨眼就发生变化 magically in a twinkling of an eye.
从这个角度看 《仲夏夜之梦》 A Midsummer Night's Dream is
是对浪漫爱情 a particularly focused investigation
对性欲之爱的集中考察 of this aspect of romantic interest, of erotic desire.
我们对自己说 The way that we tell ourselves
希望别人的爱是彻底的个人行为 that we want to be loved in a radically individualist way,
我们对爱的人说 and that we tell those we love
我们的爱也是彻底的个人行为 we love them in a radically individualist way.
但是如果我们 But yet when we look at what happens
从旁观者的角度来看 from an outsider point of view,
这些爱似乎只是巧合 it can often appear that it's a matter of accident,
不管浪漫爱情是否 whether romantic desire
指向这个或那个个人 attaches to this or that particular person
而感情对象的易变 and the changeability of that attachment
使我们的欲望和爱情 can make it look like our desires, our romantic desires,
看起来只是模仿 are imitative rather than
而不是指向个体的 being primarily attached to individuals.
这一点在 The way that this comes out
《仲夏夜之梦》中最直接的体现 in A Midsummer Night's Dream most directly, I suppose,
是在绿色世界 在森林里 is out in the green world, in the forest,
由于魔汁的作用 under the influence of the magic potion, of the love juice.
拉山德和狄米特律斯 When suddenly two men, Lysander and Demetrius,
前一刻还深爱着赫米娅 who take themselves to be utterly devoted to Hermia,
下一刻就对海伦娜大献殷勤 arise and find them utterly devoted to Helena.
他们醒来之后 The extravagant language
用来赞美海伦娜的华丽辞藻 they use to praise Helena upon awakening
正是他们之前用来赞美赫米娅的 is precisely the same language that they use to praise Hermia.
特别地 在这部戏剧的语言中 In particularly, in a language that the play moves to,
对于心上人的宠溺的表达 there's a kind of doting on the beloved,
有种偶像崇拜的意味 a kind of idolatry,
把神圣感投射到心上人身上 a projection onto the beloved of something divine or sacred.
有了这种将爱情对象的 Now, by making of the object of your romantic attention
神圣化 something divine or sacred,
你是否真的出于彻底的个人行为 do you in fact respond in a radically individualist way
去爱那个凡人呢 to something in that human being?
你是否将那个人 Or do you in fact strip that human being
所有个人化的东西都抹去了 of everything individual to him or to her
取而代之的是非常泛泛的关于偶像崇拜 and make use of an utterly general rhetoric of idolatry,
关于神圣和美的修辞 of divinity, of beauty?
我们在戏剧一开头就得知 When Lysander and Demetrius, Demetrius and Lysander,
拉山德和狄米特律斯两个人 two men we are told at the beginning of this play
实际上是难以区分的 are virtually indistinguishable from each other.
当这两个人 When those two men
将爱情从赫米娅转向海伦娜的时候 change their romantic allegiance from Hermia to Helena,
他们并没有改变求爱的语言 they don't change their romantic rhetoric.
如果爱情是彻底的个人行为 Why do all lovers sound so much alike
为什么天下的情话都如此类似呢 if erotic love is radically individualist?
一种可能就是所谓真正的自我 One possibility is that the true self,
那个引起情人兴趣的自我 that erotic self that the lover attaches to
并非是个人化的 is not individualized.
我们被爱的那个自我 That the true self for which we would be loved
实际上是理想化的 类似于偶像的 is in fact something ideal, something of an idol.
因此情人投射出的我们 So that the lover's projection onto us of what
终究只是一些修辞上的表达罢了 is after all a fairly stark set of rhetorical gestures.
这些投射不是愤世嫉俗的 错误的 That projection is not cynical or mistaken,
却向我们展示了一个令人不安的事实 but reveals to us a rather uncomfortable fact,
那就是 我们那些吸引人的地方 a fact that what makes us lovable
是宽泛的 通用的 is something general or universal
而不是个人的 特别的 rather than something particular.
从这个角度来说 《仲夏夜之梦》 In this respect, A Midsummer Night's Dream
再一次探讨了我们已经在 replays some of the issues we have already seen
两个柏拉图对话 in both Platonic dialogues,
也就是《斐德罗篇》和《会饮篇》中谈到的话题 both in the Phaedrus and in the Symposium.
在讨论狄奥提玛演说中的情书的时候 You remember that in the letter of love in Diotima's speech,
我们曾经提出问题 one of the questions we ask is
爱情是最终针对个人的 whether love ultimately attaches to an individual
还是依附于与个体无关的一些特质 or whether it attaches to impersonal properties
而那个个体恰巧有这些特质 that an individual might happen to have.
在《斐德罗篇》中 In the Phaedrus,
情人几近疯狂 when the lover is driven to erotic madness
因为通过爱人的感官之美 by the remembrance of the truly divine things
回忆起真正神圣的事物 through the sensuous beauty of the beloved.
那种爱可以算作是对情人这个个体的爱吗 Is that well described as love of that particular beloved?
还是说情人的感官之美 Or is the beloved's sensuous beauty only the occasion
将他引向了与个体无关的美 for the lover's return to a depersonalized beauty,
通过回忆重新创造出并非针对个体的体验 a depersonalized experience recreated through remembering.
所以 《仲夏夜之梦》 So A Midsummer Night's Dream
提出了关于偶像崇拜和爱的问题 presents us with a problem about idolatry, about doting,
为什么爱情是 a problem about why it is that romantic attachment
易变的 seems voluble, changeable,
为什么爱情的语言 and that the rhetoric of that kind of romantic attachment
看起来总是关于个人的 always presents itself as a true discovery of something
一些真正特别的发现 unique to that individual,
却又可以从一个对象转换到另一个对象 a rhetoric transferable from erotic object to erotic object.
你们中间也许有人足够幸运 Those of you who've been fortunate enough
曾经爱过不止一个人 to fall in love with more than one person so far,
不知道你们有没有把自己对对方说的话录下来 I don't know that you kept tapes of what you said.
如果有的话 那些话相差有多大呢 But if you had, how different would they sound?
你给男朋友或女朋友的昵称有多少个呢 How many different pet names have you had for your beloved?
他们是不是都是"宝贝" Are they all honey?
都是"甜心" Are they all sweet heart?
都是"韦小宝" Are they all stud man?
喜欢的话可以免费领走 You can have that one for free.
在你的情话里 How much repetition have you noticed
有多少重复的部分 been embedded in your erotic rhetoric?
这些情话的主语又是怎样轻易地 How transferable has the language of love been
从一个换到下一个 from one accidental object to the next?
当然我们有许多辩解的借口 Now, there're many excuses we can offer.
你可能只是不够有创造力 It might just be that you're not very creative,
或者你洞察力不够 or it might just be you're not very perceptive
那些男朋友或女朋友在你眼中就是一个样 and all the objects of your love look exactly the same to you.
但考虑到我们心上人变换之迅速 But does the static character of our language,
我们语言的一成不变 given the mobile character of our beloved
令我们不禁停下来想想 give us pause to thought
我们的恋爱对象有多少个人化的东西呢 How radically individualist are the objects of our love?
从浪漫主义的观点来看 Another aspect of A Midsummer Night's Dream
《仲夏夜之梦》的另一个令人不安的方面 that is not wholly comforting from a romantic point of view
是我们很难区分其中的角色 is how hard it is to keep the characters apart.
狄米特律斯还是拉山德 管他呢 Demetrius and Lysander, Lysander and Demetrius, who cares?
你只需要一个舞伴 You only need one date to the prom
到底是谁并不重要 对吧 and it doesn't much matter which one, does it?
这些角色出场的时候 We're introduced to these characters exactly
就难以区分 because they're indistinguishable.
当拉山德为自己辩护的时候 Lysander, when he defends himself,
赫米娅的父亲伊吉斯大谈 so Hermia's dad Egeus talks about
狄米特律斯是多么优秀 what a great guy Demetrius is.
拉山德并没有说 我比他还优秀 And does Lysander say "I'm even better"?
他说的是 我也一样优秀 No, he says "I'm just the same."
我的财产跟他一样多 I have as much money.
我的家庭一样显赫 My family background is just as noble.
另外 你女儿爱我 And besides, that your daughter loves me.
当然了 她曾经爱过狄米特律斯 Yeah, well, she used to love Demetrius.
狄米特律斯和拉山德是如此相像 Demetrius and Lysander are so much alike.
为什么拉山德会爱上赫米娅呢 Why do you think Lysander got interested in Hermia?
你想过有可能他是在模仿 You don't suppose he might have been imitating
狄米特律斯对于赫米娅的欲望么 Demetrius's desire for Hermia, do you?
那狄米特律斯又是为什么爱上赫米娅 Why did Demetrius get interested in Hermia?
我上次读过的那段话 有另外一个问题 Or here's another question to ask in a passage
在第三幕 第二场 that I read last time from Act 3, Scene 2.
海伦娜发表了一番长篇大论 Helena gave a big speech
讨论了她和赫米娅的相似性 about how much alike she and Hermia are.
恰如并蒂樱桃共享一枝 太妙了 "Two cherries, one stem." Great.
你有没有很吃惊 Does it surprise you?
两个男主角居然可以如此相似 That the two men are identified as so much alike
以至于我们很难把他们区分开 we can hardly tell them apart.
而在海伦娜口中 And that Helena identifies the two women
两个女主角关系又是如此亲密 as so intimately attached
她们像是连生在一起 that they're really one made out of two.
无怪乎他们之间的爱情 No wonder their erotic attachments
是如此易变了 are subject to such mobility.
这种爱情怎么可能不易变呢 Why shouldn't they be?
在这个由四个年轻人组成的圈子里 It's not just the relationships between the men and the women
不仅男女之间的关系 in this group of four young people
值得关注 that call for some analysis.
两个男主角之间和两个女主角之间 It's also the relations between the two men
的关系也需要探究 and between the two women.
有没有可能正是拉山德和狄米特律斯之间的 Could it be that it's the relationship of
这种亦敌亦友的关系 rivalry and of closeness between Lysander and Demetrius
解释了为什么他们中的一个 that accounts for why as soon as
对女主角之一感兴趣 one gets erotically interested in one of the women,
另一个也立即萌生爱意 so does the other one?
赫米娅和海伦娜之间的亲密关系 Could it be that it's the closeness of Hermia to Helena
是不是很好地解释了 that accounts for the otherwise awkward coincidence
她们对于另一半的尴尬的共同兴趣 of their erotic interests?
会不会正是这两对同性组合间的 Is it possible that the bounds of competitive intimacy
相互竞争的亲密关系 between the same sex couples
根本上诱发了他们的爱情 are a deeper engine of erotic interest
而不是表面上的异性间的 than the purportedly individualist erotic bonds
偏向于个人的相互吸引 of the heterosexual couples?
这部戏剧有没有向我们暗示 Dose this play say anything that indicates that
竞争和敌对关系是 competition and rivalry is
爱情占有欲的强大动因? a potent engine of erotic possessiveness,
有没有说是出于竞争 that desire to have that beloved as yours
你才希望将心上人占为己有? in competition with your rival who wants it as his or as hers?
答案当然是"是" The answer, of course, is yes.
这个答案 The answer is yes,
还在另外两对情侣那里得到了佐证 and it's illustrated by the two other main couples,
也就是两对国王和王后 the two king and queen couples,
忒修斯和希波吕忒 奥布朗和提泰妮娅 both Theseus and Hippolyta, and Oberon and Titania.
忒修斯告诉我们的第一件事就是 About the first thing that Theseus tells us,
他对希波吕忒说 我曾用我的剑向你求婚 he says it to Hippolyta is that "I won you with my sword."
当然了 这句话中剑这个意象 Now of course there's a certain amount of sexual byplay
有些性暗示 on what might count as a sword.
但是剑还说明了是在竞争的环境下 But the notion that it was in a competitive situation
他和希波吕忒缔结了关系 that he and Hippolyta first formed a bond
后来发展成了婚约 that's then transformed into an erotic bond
这就是这部戏剧的开头 is where the play begins. It's the front door to this play.
后来 当我们看到关于神仙的部分时 Later on, when we meet the fairies,
我们发现奥布朗和提泰妮娅 it turns out that Oberon and Titania
正在发生情侣间的争吵 are having a lover's quarrel.
他们的争吵内容是 And they're having a lover's quarrel
对一个喜欢的人的所有权 over possession of a beloved,
他们都希望让那个小男孩做侍从 a boy who they both want to be their page.
奥布朗为什么想得到这个男孩呢 Why does Oberon want this boy?
因为提泰妮娅拥有这个男孩 He wants this boy because Titania has this boy.
奥布朗的欲望是完全模仿性质的 Oberon's desires are utterly imitative.
从这两对皇家情侣身上 So that in the two royal couples,
我们可以看到爱情的竞争性 what we see is both the competitive engine of erotic desire
和爱情的模仿特质 and its imitative character.
我们不大可能把这个结论应用到两对年轻人身上 We're much less likely to apply this to the young people
因为就像拉山德和赫米娅一样 because after all we're just like Lysander and Hermia,
我们关于爱情的大部分知识 most of what we know about love
都来源于爱情故事 we've learned from love stories.
拉山德曾对赫米娅说过 Now Lysander says to Hermia,
或者他几乎想要表达这个意思 or he almost says to her,
当他说"真爱来得永远都不顺利"时 when he says, "The path of true love never did run smooth."
他几乎是对她说 He almost says to her,
赫米娅 我们只是 "Hermia, we're just acting out on
按照为恋人写好的剧本表演 established script about how lovers go.
如果一路上没有 And if there weren't any
任何阻碍和艰难 interesting obstacles and impediments to our love,
我们就不会相爱 we wouldn't be in love.
正是那些冒险和困难 It's the adventure and the difficulty
使得我们感到坠入爱河 that actually makes us feel in love.
所以不要难过 So don't feel so bad.
我们甚至可能需要创造点障碍 In fact, maybe we should scatter a few obstacles around
来使我们爱得更深 to get our love charged up. "
还记得在《汉娜姐妹》中 Remember in Hannah and Her Sisters,
汉娜的父母 the scene where her parents,
有一次爆发了争吵 where Hannah's parents have fallen into an argument
那种争吵之前已经发生了无数次了 they obviously had many, many dozens of times before.
汉娜这个大女儿 调解人 And Hannah is the big sister, fixer,
过来劝解他们 comes over to calm them down.
他们又互相指责对方 And so they're making a set of charges against each other
那些指责都是陈词滥调 that they've always made.
丈夫指责妻子说她不知羞耻卖弄风骚 Hannah's dad accuses Hannah's mom of being a shameless flirt.
妻子指责丈夫说 Hannah's mom accuses Hannah's dad of
他跟演艺人员协会里的每个新人上床 sleeping with every ingénue in Actor's Equity.
这种争吵和敌对 That bickering, that rivalry,
让他们可以互相之间更有欲望 allows them both to recharge their own erotic energy,
他们的爱情建立在 their own romantic interest in their spouse through imitating
对想象中对手的欲望的模仿的基础上 what's probably a more or less fictional rival.
所以汉娜的母亲说 So Hannah's mother says,
啊 你在女人眼中总是那么有魅力 "Eh, you've always been so attractive to the ladies."
然后她就可以模仿想象中的对手的欲望了 But then she has somebody to catch her desire from.
她从嫉妒中汲取对丈夫的爱意 She can feel her husband's attraction by feeling jealous.
而她的丈夫 And her husband
用同样的方式增强她的吸引力 performs exactly the same projection onto her.
当然 这种交锋不是身体上的暴力 Of course, this leads to not an actually physically violent,
而是一种激烈的言语较量 certainly to a verbally violent exchange.
然而正是那种竞争感 But it's that sense of competition
那种从别人那里感受到欲望 and that ability to catch one's desire
并加以模仿的能力 mimetically from somebody else
保持了他们之间的吸引力 that keeps erotic energy in their relationship.
在安德鲁·德布斯的《罪恶倒计时》中 In Andre Dubus's story "The Timing of Sin",
当卢安开始跟朋友玛莎交谈 when LuAnn starts to talk to her friend Marsha,
她对玛莎说的第一件就是 one of the first things she says to Marsha is that
她最近跟特德如胶似漆 she's really been burning it up with Ted lately.
是什么诱发了她对丈夫的 What was the provocation to this sudden flare-up
突然而强烈的性欲呢 of sexual energy she has for her husband?
是她跟罗杰的小插曲 Her little incident with Roger.
她把对罗杰的兴趣模仿性地转移到丈夫身上 She responds mimetically to her husband.
她对罗杰燃起的欲望 She channels the erotic energy
那种差点使她出轨的欲望 that she gets from almost committing adultery with Roger
就这样被转移到了她丈夫身上 into her sexual life with her husband.
《仲夏夜之梦》提出了一个观点 A Midsummer Night's Dream raises the prospect that
那就是 所有的性爱欲望都包含了 virtually all erotic energy has within it this mimetic,
模仿的成分 this imitative component.
那些我们以为完全基于并且 And that the desire we think of as so basic
集中于某个个体的欲望 and so focused on an individual as that particular individual,
实际上几乎是一种社会欲望 that it's almost all a social desire,
只是模仿和竞争的大网中的一个部分 a placement within a network of imitation and competition.
这种观点可以这样表达 One way to put this point would be to say
《仲夏夜之梦》的情节中 you could write A Midsummer Night's Dream
可以不包含任何魔法 with no magic at all
因为那两个几乎无法区分的男主角 because the sudden shift of
狄米特律斯和拉山德 these two almost indistinguishable men,
他们的心上人 Demetrius and Lysander,
突然从一个变到另一个 from one object of romantic interest
其实不需要魔法的帮助 to the other object of romantic interest.
那完全可以通过自然的原因来解释 It's completely explicable on the most natural of causes.
但是我们希望最好不存在那个自然原因 But this natural cause is one we prefer not to have exist.
那个原因就是 The cause is that when we see one person love somebody
当我们看到一个人被他人所爱 or fall in love with somebody,
我们很可能觉得这人更有魅力 we're much more likely also to find that person attractive.
《仲夏夜之梦》的一部分喜剧效果 Part of the comedy,
而且是贯穿全剧的喜剧效果 but it's a fairly biding comedy of A Midsummer Night's Dream,
如果我们从这个角度来看的话 when considered from this point of view,
来源于剧中贵族的优越感 comes in the superior attitude that the aristocrats all adopt
对于下层人 那些表演皮拉摩斯和提斯柏的 to the lower class guys, the rude mechanicals
粗鲁的手艺人的优越感 who are putting on the play of Pyramus and Thisbe.
那些粗鲁的手艺人都担心 The rude mechanicals are all worried that
他们的戏剧会太真实 their play might be too vivid,
吓到贵族小姐和太太 and it might scare the aristocratic ladies
而给他们惹上麻烦 which would get them all in trouble.
他们担心 They are afraid that
那些贵族不能 the aristocrats won't be able to
区分现实和戏剧表演 make the distinction between reality and theatre.
所以他们觉得 So they think,
可能他们应该加上一个开场白 well maybe we should have a prologue that says
说 别担心 这只是部戏剧 "don't worry. It's just a play."
或者演员应该 Or maybe in the lion suit
从狮子戏服中探出头来 you should be able to see the guy's face out of there,
那样他就可以说 别害怕 so you can say "don't worry.
是我 细工木匠斯纳格 我只是扮演狮子 It's just me, Snug the joiner, playing the lion.
而不是真的狮子 I'm not a real lion.
别从戏院逃出去 Don't run from the theatre."
当然了 Now of course,
这些都是在我们观看的戏剧中表现出来的 this is presented to us in a play that we're watching.
所以 莎翁在这里通过剧中剧 So there's a rather dizzy inset of issues
提出了一些令人迷惑的关于戏剧本身的话题 about theatricality here that Shakespeare's playing on.
我们正在看着剧中人表演一个戏剧 We're watching people putting on a play inside a play.
那我们应该做出怎样的反应呢 What's our own response to them?
莎翁又通过对剧中贵族观剧反应的展示 Well, Shakespeare tells us something fairly uncomfortable again
透露了关于我们自己观剧反应 about our response to the play
的一些令人不安的事实 by showing the response of the aristocrats to the play.
那些贵族之所以嘲笑粗鲁的手艺人 The aristocrats make fun of the rude mechanicals in their play
是因为他们 because the aristocrats can
看穿了手艺人想要表达的戏剧错觉 see right through the theatrical illusion.
你可以这样说 You might say that
贵族们之所以觉得 what the aristocrats find funny
这些下层人的戏剧好笑是因为 about the lower-class people's play is that
这个戏剧设计得不够精心 the lower-class people's play isn't finely enough constructed
不能够制造出戏剧错觉 to produce a theatrical illusion.
这些贵族看到的是 The aristocrats, what they see is
一群粗鲁的手艺人 a bunch of rude mechanicals
企图表演一出戏剧却失败了 trying to put on a play unsuccessfully.
所以他们笑不是因为戏剧本身的喜剧效果 And so they laugh at them not because it's funny
而是对手艺人的轻蔑性的嘲笑 but they really laugh at them with a kind of contempt.
他们笑手艺人 They laugh at them
没有能力制造出戏剧错觉 for the incompetence of their theatrical illusion.
当我们看着这群贵族嘲笑 When we look at the aristocrats laughing at the incompetence of
手艺人制造戏剧错觉的失败的时候 the theatrical illusion of the lower-class people,
我们是不是与他们的位置相同 do we take up the same position to the aristocrats
正如他们对于手艺人居高临下的地位 that they're taking up to the lower-class people?
我们观察他们的恋情时 When we look at their love affairs,
可以看出那是人为构造的 and we can see that this is a structure that's artificial.
我们知道他们并不是爱心上人本人 We can see that they don't love anybody in themselves,
而只是被束缚在一个情欲的社会网络中 they're just caught up in a social network of erotic energies
而那些情欲不断被再分配 that are continually redistributed.
如果我们从这个视角看问题 When we take up that perspective,
我们可以看到这些贵族身陷这个戏剧中 we see the aristocrats too as enmeshed in a play,
或像拉山德说的那样 深陷在故事中 in a story as Lysander always says.
但是我们能不能把这种身不由己 But that enmeshing,
套用到自己身上呢 do we apply to ourselves?
我们自己是不是也应该 Do we think of ourselves as
经受道德评价 deserving the same kind of moral critique
正如贵族应该为他们的居高临下的观剧态度 that the aristocrats deserve
而经受这样的评价一样? for taking up their position of superiority?
我们能不能确定自己 Are we so sure that we ourselves
在爱情中就超脱于戏剧表演的成分呢 have escaped from theatricality in our love affairs?
下次你觉得自己恋爱的时候 The next time you're sure you're in love,
莎翁的戏剧似乎在建议 Shakespeare's play seems to suggest,
想想你说的话 check out how much you sound like
与你上次恋爱时相似度有多高 the last time you're sure you're in love.
情话可以替代 A possibility of the substitution
这种可能性其实是一种威胁 of the rhetoric of love is a threat
并非对爱情本身的威胁 not to love itself
而是对一种爱情观的威胁 but to a certain view of love,
即认为爱情是彻底的个人行为 to a radically individualistic view of love.
剧中唯一一个 The one character in this play,
不因为这种戏剧性而焦虑的 who seems to have no anxieties
角色就是波顿 whatsoever about theatricality is Bottom.
在第一幕 第二场 You remember in I-2,
粗鲁的手艺人初次登场 when the rude mechanicals first come onto the stage
当他们分配角色的时候 and they're getting their parts,
波顿想要表演所有角色 Bottom wants to play every part.
每次有一个新角色 他总是说 Every time a new part's introduced to us,
等等 我也想演那个 "Oh, wait! I can do that one too!
皮拉摩斯 是的 我能演 我也能演提斯柏 Pyramus? Yes, I can do that. I can do Thisbe.
我还能演狮子 我可以大声咆哮 I can do the lion. I'm a great roarer."
他完全入了戏 He enters utterly into the play.
我们后来见到的波顿 In what we see of Bottom later on
不管他是被施法变形 is that when he is translated, transfigured,
还是顶着个驴脑袋 and has the ass head put on him,
他有哪一次紧张过么 Does he seem nervous?
没有 他坐下来心想 No. He sits down and thinks,
啊 这真是妙极了 能给我来点干草么 "Oh, that's wonderful. Could you bring me some hay?"
他只是进入了这个新角色 He simply inhabits the new role.
他完全进入其中了 He moves right on into it.
对于他在表演这一事实 He doesn't have any sense of falseness
他并没有感受到任何虚假性 in the fact that he is playing.
他觉得角色就是他本人 That's how he is who he is.
波顿因为角色扮演而成为波顿 Bottom becomes Bottom by playing a part.
不管有没有驴脑袋 Ass head, no ass head.
不管是狮子 男主角还是女主角 Lion, hero, heroine.
他每次都万分热情地进入新角色 He enters into each of them with an incredible exuberance.
这让我想起 There's something about him that reminds me
卢安也是以这种方式生活的 of the way that LuAnn tries to live her life,
就如同波顿在每一时刻都是完全的自我存在 as if he's fully present all the time.
每一刻对他来说都是生命的狂欢 Every moment is the moment of rapture for him.
对他来说 戏剧并不是 For him, theatre is not to be
与现实世界对立的 contrasted with some other real thing.
戏剧本身就是最真实的 Theatre is the most real thing there is.
表演本身也是最真实的 Playing is the most real thing that there is.
莎翁在戏剧的结尾 Shakespeare set us an interesting choice
给我们出了一道有趣的选择题 toward the end of this play.
在第五幕开头 At the beginning of Act V is
有可能是整个场景中最著名的一段话 what's probably the most famous speech in the entire scene.
是忒修斯的话 And this is Theseus.
注意忒修斯觉得 Notice too that Theseus thinks that
这些年轻陷入恋爱的方式 the young people are really quite funny
是很可笑的 in the way they fall in love,
他们的欲望都看起来像是 their desires all seem to be
出于模仿和竞争 matters of imitation and competition.
但他从没想过把这一结论用在自己身上 He never thinks to apply this to himself.
他从没想过要从第三人称视角 Never occurs to him to take up the third-person perspective
来看待自己的爱情 on his first-person love.
这就是忒修斯在 So here was what Theseus said
第五幕 第一场开头说的 at the beginning of Act V Scene 1.
忒修斯就像一些我认识的其他男人那样 Theseus is like some other men
他们有时候知道自省 that I've known sometimes with self-knowledge in that
但这次他没有好好听他颇有见地的新娘的问题 he doesn't really listen to his perspective bride's question.
他只是给出了一个答案 He just gave an answer
而没有认真思考她到底想说什么 without trying to figure out what she in fact asked.
希波吕忒说 Hippolyta says,
忒修斯 这些恋人们所说的事真是稀奇 "Tis strange my Theseus, that these lovers speak of."
她试图抓住这件事的奇怪之处 She's trying to capture what's strange about it.
但是忒修斯直接给出了一个解决办法 And Theseus, he gives the solution.
在这儿 我要给那些 Now this is advice to all of you
未来的丈夫们一个忠告 who somedays would be husband.
当你的妻子说 When your wife says,
"我觉得斧子有点问题"的时候 "I think there's a problem about ax."
不要急着回答 Don't be in such a rush to say
我知道怎么修斧子 "Oh I know how to solve ax.
给我个锤子 I can fix that. Give me a hammer.
我来敲打两下就好了 I'll pound on for a while."
忒修斯说 Theseus says,
太稀奇 不像会是真的 "More strange than true: I never may believe
我从不相信这种古怪的传说和胡扯的神话 These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.
情人们和疯子们都有 Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
发热的头脑 Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
和有声有色的幻想 More than cool reason ever comprehends.
疯子 情人和诗人 The lunatic, the lover and the poet
都活在幻想中 Are of imagination all compact:
疯子眼中所见的鬼 比地狱里的还多 One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,
情人 同样是那么疯狂 That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
能从埃及人的黑脸上看见海伦 Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:
诗人的眼睛在神奇狂放的一转中 The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling,
便能从天上看到地下 从地下看到天上 Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
想象会把虚无的东西 And as imagination bodies forth
用一种形式呈现出来 The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
诗人的妙笔再使它们具有如实的形象 Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
虚无缥缈也会有了住处和名字 A local habitation and a name."
注意他说 Notice when he says
疯子眼中所见的鬼 比地狱里的还多 "One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,
情人 同样是那么疯狂 That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
能从埃及人的黑脸上看见海伦 Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt"
注意这里对于"地狱"的重复 Notice the repetition of hell there.
不仅海伦娜提到过地狱 Not only is there the character Helena,
在第一幕 第一场 there's also back in Act I, Scene1,
赫米娅也说过 in Hermia's own mouth,
这里就有两次对于"地狱"的重复 a twofold repetition of the word "hell"
跟忒修斯在这里的话呼应 that bears comparison with Theseus's own language here.
忒修斯说 So Theseus says,
啊 你知道的 那些人 他们编造出这些故事 "Ah, yeah, you know, individuals, they made the stuff up.
那全是他们的想象 They got big imaginations."
他完全没有注意到 He doesn't pay any attention
情爱和爱情的社会属性 to the social character of erotic desire and romantic interest.
就好像在森林的那些人 It's as if each and every one of those people
每一个都编造了自己版本的故事一样 out in the woods had made up their own story.
希波吕忒静静地 And Hippolyta quietly,
但是非常精准地 but with great precision,
指出了忒修斯观点里的错误 puts her finger on what's wrong with Theseus's view.
她说 但他们所说的夜晚的经历 She says, "But all the story of the night told over,
以及他们大家心理上都受到影响的事实 And all their minds transfigured so together,
可以证明那不会是幻想 More witnesseth than fancy's images
虽然那事故怪异而惊人 却并不令人不能置信 And grows to something of great constancy."
忒修斯觉得他可以 Theseus thinks that he can explain away
把情欲之爱的流动性轻巧地解释过去 the mobility of erotic interest by just saying that,
你知道的 他们像诗人那样胡编乱造 "Ah you know, they're all like poets that make it up.
一切都是幻象 It's just an idol fancy."
但是希波吕忒回答说 But Hippolyta says,
不 不是这样的 "No, that's not true.
肯定有什么更深的原因 There's something deeper here.
这个故事揭示了关于我们的社会性 There's something about our sociality,
关于我们归属感的一些东西 about our togetherness that this story reveals."
下面的话是对 In a speech that's clearly the competitor speech
忒修斯的话的反击 to Theseus's speech here,
这番话中不涉及诗歌 this speech that's rather reductive of poetry,
或是表象 特别没有提到戏剧 and appearance, and particularly of theatre.
波顿说了这番话 Bottom gives his great speech.
我的版本在69页 This is on p.69 of this edition.
第四幕 第一场 So this is Act IV, Scene 1,
就在忒修斯的话前面一些 not very many lines before Theseus's.
波顿刚刚从魔法中醒来 So Bottom has just come out of the enchantment,
他发现自己仍然在舞台上 and he wakes up, and he's still on stage.
这是在第四幕 第一场 第199行 So this is at line 199 of Act IV, Scene 1.
波顿醒过来 说 Bottom wakes, he says,
轮到我说尾白的时候 请你们叫我一声 "When my cue comes, call me,
我就会答应 and I will answer."
所以他正在等其他跟他一起排练的人 So he is waiting for the other guys he was practicing with,
说 我在等我的尾白 practicing a play, says "I'm waiting for my cue."
我该接的一句是 最美丽的皮拉摩斯 He says, "my next is, ‘Most fair Pyramus.'"
然后他注意到周围一个人都没有 And he then notices nobody is around.
他喊道 喂 喂 彼得·昆斯 He says, "Heigh-ho! Peter Quince!
弗鲁特 修风箱的 Flute, the bellows-mender!
斯诺特 补锅子的 斯塔佛林 Snout, the tinker! Starveling!"
忽然他开始回忆起 And then it starts to come back to him,
他变成驴的经历 his experience of being translated.
他妈的 悄悄地溜走了 "God's my life, stolen hence,
把我撇下在这儿一个人睡觉吗 and left me asleep!"
注意他用的是散文体 Notice he speaks in prose,
就跟莎翁笔下的大部分下层角色一样 as Shakespeare's low-class characters usually do
而忒修斯用的是诗歌体 whereas Theseus spoke in verse.
波顿说 我看见了一个奇怪得了不得的幻象 And he says, " I have had a most rare vision.
我做了一个梦 I have had a dream,
没有人说得出那是怎样的一个梦 past the wit of man to say what dream it was:
要是谁想把这个梦解释一下 man is but an ass,
那他一定是一头驴子 if he go about to expound this dream.
我好像是没有人说得出那是什么东西 Methought I was—there is no man can tell what.
我好像是... 我好像有... Methought I was, —and methought I had," the thing.
他想说"驴嘴" Try to speak "snout".
但是谁要是说出来我好像有什么东西 "but man is but a patched fool,
那他一定是一个蠢材 if he will offer to say what methought I had.
我那个梦 人们的眼睛从来没有听见过 The eye of man hath not heard,
人们的耳朵从来也没有看见过 the ear of man hath not seen,
人们的手也尝不出来是什么味道 man's hand is not able to taste,
人们的舌头也想不出来是什么道理 his tongue to conceive,
人们的心也说不出来究竟那是怎样一个梦 nor his heart to report,
这就是我那个梦 what my dream was."
他开始喜欢上 He starts to really like
变形的那种难以言喻的感觉 the ineffability of the experience of being transformed.
他说 He says,
咱要叫彼得·昆斯给咱写一首歌儿唱一唱这个梦 "I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream:
题目就叫《好波顿的梦》 it shall be called Bottom's Dream,
因为这个梦可没有个底儿 because it hath no bottom."
波顿的话中没有一丝紧张 Bottom in his speech displays no anxiety
不管他的梦 about whether his dream,
或他由于魔汁的变形 his transfiguration by the magic of love,
是真还是假 whether it was real or not.
对他来说 现实就是他表演现实的能力 For him, its reality is his ability to play it.
他把这比作... 准确地说莎翁把这比作 He compares this, or rather, Shakespeare compares it,
从人间生活中发现神圣性的现实 to the reality of finding what's divine in human life.
我用的这个版本的脚注注明了 The footnote in this edition identifies for you
圣保罗的一段话 the very specific passage from Saint Paul
与莎翁的一贯做法不同 that Shakespeare most uncharacteristically
波顿的话与圣保罗的话十分相似 has been staying very close to in this speech of Bottom.
忒修斯是个哲学家 Theseus is a kind of philosopher.
他不谈论戏剧 He's reductive about theatre,
也不谈论表演 he's reductive about playing.
对于他 如果爱情有戏剧性的一面的话 And so for him, love, if it has a theatrical dimension to it,
那它就是不真实的 虚幻的 is something that's not real, something that's only fancy.
而对于波顿来说 事情恰恰相反 For Bottom things are exactly the opposite way.
正因为爱情是可以表演出来的 It's exactly because the world of love can be played,
是可以找到剧本的 because we can find their script that
所以爱情不仅是真实的 it seems to him not merely real,
而且值得他用上帝的语言去描述 but something that he uses the very words of God to describe.
谁才是《仲夏夜之梦》的灵魂人物 Who is at the bottom of A Midsummer Night's Dream?
是国王忒修斯和他的哲学权威 Is it King Theseus and his philosophical authority?
还是波顿 Or is it Bottom?
这个完全沉浸于戏剧中的人 Is it this man who is all theatre
这个不会因为爱情而焦虑的人 and for whom love presents no anxieties?
如果我们能给出这个问题的答案 If we had an answer to that,
那么我们就会知道莎翁的真实意图 we would know Shakespeare's true mind.
但是那是无法言传的 But that seems to me is unstateable
正如我们的所听常常难以捉摸那样 as what it is the ear might have felt.
下周见 See you next week.