说到落叶,中国人第一时间会想到“无边落木萧萧下”,借着秋叶与落木寄托哀思。但也许是气候的缘故,也或许是性情不同,在地中海地区生活的古希腊罗马诗人笔下的落叶,与中国对秋的印象截然不同——他们对落叶的悲,似乎不管不顾,反而对密密麻麻铺满大地的盛况颇感着迷。
如罗马诗人维吉尔(70 BC-19 BC)在描写人们坠入地狱冥河阿克隆河时(Acheron),他把熙熙攘攘的亡灵跳进水里,比作秋天里噼里啪啦的掉下来的落叶:
Quam multa in silvis antumni frigore primo
Lapsa cadunt folia, aut ad terram gurgite ab alto
[As numerous as in the forest at the first chill of autumn,
the leaves fall, let loose, or on the land from the deep waves.]
[1] Virgil, Aeneid, Ahl, F. trans. Oxford University Press. Book XI, line 309-310,
同样是用落叶飘落来隐喻死亡,可在维吉尔笔下,那种步入初秋,一片枯叶从枝头飘落的感伤景象一扫而光;而是换成大把大把的树叶在一阵风纷纷脱离枝头,席卷着铺满地面,原本对死亡的恐惧和感伤,变成了热热闹闹的地狱集会。
十三个世纪后,偷师学艺的意大利诗人但丁,不仅借鉴了维吉尔的比喻描写拥挤的地狱,之后还不忘挖苦一句:
e dietro le venia si lunga tratta
di gente, ch’i’ non averei creduto
che morte tanta n’avesse disfatta.
[And after it there came so long a train of people,
that I would not have believed death had undone so many.]
[2] Dante, Inferno, Durling R. M. trans. Oxford University Press. Canto 3, 56-57
“如非目睹,我真的不肯/相信,这样的一大伙,因死亡而毁弃。”(黄国彬译)
(这句挖苦的话还在两千年后,被20世纪的大诗人T. S. 艾略特引用,写到了他的长诗《荒原》里。)
能把落叶飘入水中想象成大群大群的人跳进水里——这样的奇思妙喻或许只有肌肉发达、满口武德的罗马人才能想出来,可其实这不过是维吉尔对荷马的老套路的仿拟。维吉尔时代的七八百年前,诗人荷马的比喻,更是直接剥离了落叶意象中暗含的衰老、死亡的调调,直接拿它来比喻排兵布阵:
[So they took their stand in the flowery mead of Scamander, numberless, as are the leaves and the flowers in their season.]
[3] Homer, The Iliad, Murray A. T. trans. Harvard University Press (1978). II, 467-468
“就这样,他们在斯卡曼德洛斯多花的平原上列阵/密密麻麻,如叶子和繁花盛放。”(黄国彬译)
[for most like to the leaves or the sands are they, as they march over the plain to fight against the city.]
[4] Homer, The Iliad, Murray A. T. trans. Harvard University Press (1978). II, 800-801
“他们迈过平原攻城时/像极了密密麻麻的叶子和泥沙。”(黄国彬译)
十七世纪,博学多才的米尔顿,肯定也是在意大利游学时受到启发,也用了类似的意象,把坠落天使比作成从树枝上飘落秋天的落叶:
“His legions, angel forms, who lay entranced,
Thick as autumnal leaves that straw the brooks
[5] John Milton, Paradise Lost, Oxford University Press. Book I, line 301-303.
“他的军团——一个个天使之身——呆躺着,/密集如秋天的落叶,布满了/瓦罗姆布罗萨山谷的溪涧。”(黄国彬译)
在常年征战并以英勇为virtue的希腊和罗马,贵族们的主基调是不畏惧死亡的,如科里奥兰纳斯的母亲,就总盼着他多添几道伤疤,斯巴达人也以自己的儿子能战死疆场而感到光荣。
有了足够的文明文化积累作保证时,闲时坐在枫林里喝茶,怀古伤今的人,才慢慢多起来,人文主义兴起,于是落叶的意象才慢慢与死亡的隐喻相结合。这里的“文明文化”我指的主要是和平时期,世界不太动荡不安以后的温和的文明与文化:在欧洲大概指的是基督教经过一整个中世纪调教,把天天打架的战士驯化成看浪漫骑士小说,讲宫廷礼仪的贵族;在中国则是儒家对法家的取代。
其实维吉尔的比喻里面,就已经有死亡的隐喻了,但是维吉尔采纳的是一种毕达哥拉斯式的史诗写法:掉落的树叶会被新生代替,完成一个生与死的圆。而但丁笔下的树叶意象则充满了个体性:树上的叶子一片接一片地零落,每一片不同,而每一片都再也不会回来——这是非常有文艺复兴特色的笔法了:
Come d’autunno si levan le foglie
l’una appresso de l’altra, fin che’l ramo
vede a la terra tutte le sue spoglie
[As in autumn the leaves remove themselves one after the other,
until the branch sees all its raiment on the ground]
[6] Dante, Inferno, Durling R. M. trans. Oxford University Press. Canto 3, 112-114
When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang
Death’s second self that seals up all in rest.
(原载于《听Bunny讲英国文学》2021年4月8日)
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