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亲爱的,你要永远记得我:莎士比亚的迷迭香

亲爱的,你要永远记得我:莎士比亚的迷迭香

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(五)莎士比亚的迷迭香

花园是莎士比亚戏剧中非常重要的主题。他拥有丰富的花草知识,对它们的用途和含义了如指掌。有人做了统计,莎士比亚戏剧中大约出现了29个花园场景,有的是烂漫点缀,有的烘托喜剧气氛,某些角色甚至在花园里讨论政治话题和国家的命运。有时莎翁特地把几个人物同时放在花园里,他们躲在花树下,以为对方看不见,互相窃听谈话,并产生了误解,由此引起戏剧冲突。

迷迭香是莎翁笔下的一种重要香花,出现在以下几部戏剧中:

《冬天的故事》(The Winter's Tale)第四幕第4场,女主人公珀迪塔(Perdita)对卡米洛(Camillo  ,波西米亚国王身边的臣子)说:“欢迎您,先生。多卡斯,把那些花给我。尊敬的先生,这是送给你们的迷迭香和芸香,它们的外观和颜色在整个冬季都不会消散。愿你们承蒙上天的恩典,永被世人铭记。欢迎来我们的剪羊毛盛会!”

(PERDITA

To CAMILLO

You’re welcome, sir.

Give me those flowers there, Dorcas. Reverend sirs,

For you there’s rosemary and rue; these keep

Seeming and savour all the winter long:

Grace and remembrance be to you both,

And welcome to our shearing!)

她用这两种冬天的花来衬托来宾的年纪。迷迭香的花语之一是“纪念”,芸香在中世纪象征着“恩典草药”(Herb of Grace),所以她祝愿两位来宾“承蒙上天的恩典,永被世人铭记。”

 

《泰尔亲王配力克里斯》(Pericles, Prince of Tyre)中,配力克里斯的女儿玛丽娜(Marina)被海盗抓走,卖给了一家妓院。玛丽娜决心保持自己的贞洁,聪明的她很会说话,每一个抱着不洁意图来的嫖客都被她慷慨激昂的话语“清洗”,变得“高尚”起来,粉碎了妓院老板的如意算盘。老板娘鸨妇(Bawd)恼羞成怒,命手下鲍尔特(Boult)强奸玛丽娜,并且说:“她在祈祷;带她走!但愿她从未曾走进这间房子。该死的!她要毁了我们。你不想做女人做的事吗?过来,玛丽,我的贞洁小馅饼配迷迭香和月桂叶!)

She conjures: away with her! Would she had never come within my doors! Marry, hang you! She's born to undo us. Will you not go the way of women-kind? Marry, come up, my dish of chastity with rosemary and bays!

莎士比亚在这出戏里给妓院的老板和老板娘分别起名PanderBawd, Pander的字面意思为皮条客(Pimp), Bawd的字面含义为“鸨妇”,符合两位人物的身份。他们唯利是图言谈粗鄙,为该剧增添了不少笑料。鸨妇将处女玛丽娜比作“贞洁小馅饼配迷迭香和月桂叶”,反应了当时人们把迷迭香和月桂叶放在一起调味肉食的烹饪习惯。

我在网站上查到古欧洲的圣诞节有这样一个仪式:宴席的头盘菜是一个烹制好的野猪头,摆在大盘子里,猪头上装饰着迷迭香和月桂叶。在庄严的音乐伴奏声中,这道菜被隆重地摆放在餐桌上。从15世纪以来,还有一首专门关于这个仪式的颂歌:

“我手捧着野猪头,

以月桂叶和迷迭香装饰,

我祈祷,我的主人,祝你快乐。

The boar's head in hand I bear,

Bedecked with bays and rosemary,

And I pray you, my masters, be merry

 

据我所知,野猪头

是这片土地上最稀有的一道菜

必须用开心的花环来装饰

The boar's head, as I understand,

Is the rarest dish in all this land,

Which thus bedeck'd with a gay garland

 

鸨妇眼里的处女玛丽娜奇货可居,“贞洁小馅饼配迷迭香和月桂叶”暗喻她的贞节是可以被“消费”的。但大多数的中国读者不理解这句话的文化含义,中文版翻译成“我的三贞九烈的好姑娘”,实乃绝妙。

莎士比亚通过他的诸多戏剧作品表达了一个观点:美德是女人最重要的品质。尽管其他作品中的女性角色也一直在竭尽全力地保持贞节,但坚定和机智如玛丽娜的并不常见。她成功地说服了每一个接近她的嫖客,让对方也“高尚”起来,放弃了非分之想。她的美德是如此坚不可摧,并释放出强大的能量,排除了生活中的种种障碍,终于一家人幸福地团聚。

《哈姆雷特》第四幕第五场,处于疯癫状态的奥菲莉亚(Ophelia)说:“这是迷迭香,代表纪念。请记住,爱。这是三色堇,代表思想。”(There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts.

迷迭香在婚礼和葬礼上使用,象征着纪念、友谊和忠诚(fidelity)。当奥菲莉亚拿出迷迭香时,观众们就明白她的结局是死亡。

 

《罗密欧与朱丽叶》中有两处提到了迷迭香:

第二幕第四场,朱丽叶的乳母与罗密欧之间的一段对话:

乳母:“天上的上帝保佑您!听着,先生”。

NURSE

Now God in heaven bless thee! Hark you, sir.

 

罗密欧:“你想说什么,我亲爱的奶妈?”

ROMEO

What sayst thou, my dear Nurse?

 

乳母:您那仆人可以保守秘密吗?您没听过这样的说法,‘两个人可以合谋把一个人收起来’”?

NURSE

Is your man secret? Did you ne'er hear say,

Two may keep counsel, putting one away”?

 

罗密欧:“我向您保证,我的仆人像钢铁一样牢靠”。

ROMEO

Warrant thee, my man’s as true as steel.

 

乳母:“好吧,先生,我家小姐是最可爱的姑娘。— 主啊,主啊,当她还是个小婴儿的时候,哦,这座城市里有一个贵族,一个叫帕利斯的人,很乐意娶到她。朱丽叶宁愿看着蟾蜍,也不愿看着他。有时候我会说帕利斯比您更合适,这使她生气。当我这么说时,我发誓,她的面色看起来好苍白。罗斯玛丽和罗密欧不是同样一个字开头吗?”

NURSE

Well, sir, my mistress is the sweetest lady.—Lord, Lord! when ’twas a little prating thing.—Oh, there is a nobleman in town, one Paris, that would fain lay knife aboard, but she, good soul, had as lief see a toad, a very toad, as see him. I anger her sometimes and tell her that Paris is the properer man. But, I’ll warrant you, when I say so, she looks as pale as any clout in the versal world. Doth not rosemary and Romeo begin both with a letter?

 

罗密欧:“是的,奶妈,那该怎么办?都是罗字起头的”。

ROMEO

Ay, Nurse, what of that? Both with an R.

 

乳母:“啊,您开玩笑呢,那是狗的名字。罗’代表 那个-不对,我知道它以另一个字开头。她用最美的话语来说你和罗斯玛丽,您听了一定会喜欢”。

NURSE

Ah, mocker, that’s the dog’s name. R is for the—No, I know it begins with some other letter, and she hath the prettiest sententious of it, of you and rosemary, that it would do you good to hear it.

估计朱丽叶的乳母识字不多,也不识香花,不知道如何拼读罗斯玛丽(rosemary),还以为是狗的名字。朱丽叶将罗斯玛丽(即迷迭香)与罗密欧联系在一起,说这两个词都以 “R”起头,暗示罗密欧和迷迭香一样的忠诚。

第四幕第五场,人们都以为朱丽叶已经死了,劳伦斯神甫与凯普莱特有一段对话:

劳伦斯:“安静点,太可耻了!解决混乱的方法不是大喊大叫。您和上天共同创造了这个美丽的孩子,现在天堂有了她。她在一个更好的地方。你无法阻止她有一天死去,但是天堂会给她永恒的生命。您最希望的是让她嫁的好,有一个美满的前途,这就是您的天堂。看见她已在高高的云端,和天堂一样高,您哭了?哦,这就是你们对孩子变态的爱,看到她享受幸福,你们却疯了。与其嫁的不好,长命百岁,不如早逝却嫁的好。擦干眼泪,然后将迷迭香放在这具美丽的尸体上。并且,按照习俗,把她穿着盛装抬到教堂去。虽然天性让我们悲痛,但这些天性的眼泪却是值得高兴的”。

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Peace, ho, for shame! Confusion’s cure lives not

In these confusions. Heaven and yourself

Had part in this fair maid. Now heaven hath all,

And all the better is it for the maid.

Your part in her you could not keep from death,

But heaven keeps his part in eternal life.

The most you sought was her promotion,

For ’twas your heaven she should be advanced.

And weep ye now, seeing she is advanced

Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself?

Oh, in this love, you love your child so ill

That you run mad, seeing that she is well.

She’s not well married that lives married long,

But she’s best married that dies married young.

Dry up your tears and stick your rosemary

On this fair corse, and, as the custom is,

And in her best array, bear her to church.

For though some nature bids us all lament,

Yet nature’s tears are reason’s merriment.

凯普莱特:我们为婚礼准备的所有一切,现在都将用于葬礼。我们的乐器变成了忧伤的丧钟,快乐的婚宴变成了悲哀的丧席。我们庄严的赞美诗变成沉痛的挽歌,我们的新娘花将掩埋尸体,一切都用于相反的目的”。

CAPULET

All things that we ordained festival

Turn from their office to black funeral.

Our instruments to melancholy bells,

Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast.

Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change,

Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse,

And all things change them to the contrary.

 

原本用于婚礼的迷迭香,最后用在了朱丽叶的葬礼上。

《李尔王》(Lear)的第二幕第三场,扮成乞丐并化名为汤姆·白德兰 (Tom Bedlam)的爱德伽(Edgar)(葛罗斯特伯爵的儿子)有一段独白:

“我听说他们已经发告示通缉我,我躲在空心的树干里,逃过了追捕。每一个港口和地方都戒备森严,等着抓我。 但是我会尽力而为,我已决定将自己伪装成人类有史以来最低贱,最为人轻视的,与禽兽相差无几的乞丐。我将用污垢涂抹我的脸,戴上缠腰布,头发乱蓬蓬的纠结在一起,几乎赤身裸体,对抗恶劣的天气。我曾经见过疯人院的乞丐,他们大声叫喊,将销子、木锥、钉子和迷迭香树枝扎在他们麻木的变形的手臂上。用这种可怕的形状到那些穷苦的农场、村庄、羊棚和磨坊,有时发出疯子般的怒吼,有时祈祷,乞求一点布施。可怜的疯叫化子!’可伶的汤姆!’ - 至少是这样。作为埃德加我什么都不是”。

EDGAR

I heard myself proclaimed,

And by the happy hollow of a tree

Escaped the hunt. No port is free, no place

That guard and most unusual vigilance

Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may ’scape,

I will preserve myself, and am bethought

To take the basest and most poorest shape

That ever penury in contempt of man

Brought near to beast. My face I’ll grime with filth,

Blanket my loins, elf all my hair in knots,

And with presented nakedness outface

The winds and persecutions of the sky.

The country gives me proof and precedent

Of Bedlam beggars, who with roaring voices

Strike in their numbed and mortified bare arms

Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary,

And with this horrible object from low farms,

Poor pelting villages, sheepcotes, and mills,

Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers,

Enforce their charity. “Poor Turlygod!” “Poor Tom!”—

That’s something yet. Edgar I nothing am.

(注:Turlygod 是对疯叫花子的称呼,大概是从“Turlupin”这个名字演化而来的,Turlupin指的是14世纪由一群赤裸的乞丐组成的帮会)

在古欧洲,人们认为随身携带一枝迷迭香可以辟邪,这个习俗很普遍,连叫花子都将迷迭香枝扎在胳膊上。

第二次世界大战后,《李尔王》被普遍公认为是莎士比亚最伟大的作品,其特色在于探究人类的不幸和亲属之间的关系。萧伯纳曾写道:“没有人可以写出比‘李尔’更加悲惨的戏剧了。”

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来源: 文学城-南小鹿
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