Cattle roamed around the grassland, roaring up and down,
The tired plowman went home and stumbled,
Leave the whole world to dusk and me.
The vast scenery gradually disappeared from sight,
A solemn silence enveloped the whole world,
I only heard buzzing beetles circling,
Groggy * * * hypnotized the sheepfold in the distance.
I can only hear the ivy-covered tower bottom.
A gloomy owl complained to the moon,
Blame people for approaching its secret residence for no reason,
Disturb its long and hidden territory.
Under the majestic elms, under the shade of cypress trees,
The turf swelled up many scattered mounds,
Everyone keeps his body in the cave forever,
The vulgar elders in the small village sleep there.
The fragrant morning breeze is easy to summon,
The chirping of swallows in thatched cottages,
The cock's sharp horn is called mountain crying and valley crying.
We can't wake them up underground.
In them, the fire will never burn again.
The busy housekeeper will no longer catch her night work;
Children will no longer report their father's arrival with fangs.
Climb on his knee and kiss.
As usual, they are invincible as soon as they open the sickle.
Stubborn clay tablets let them plow out of the furrow;
How happy they are to drive the cows to the fields!
As soon as they cut it, the trees bowed their heads one by one!
Ambition, don't laugh at their actual work,
Happy at home, unknown fate;
Luxury needs no contemptuous sneer.
Let's listen to the short and simple life of the poor.
Show off your family, be powerful,
All the benefits that beauty and wealth can bring,
Waiting for the inevitable moment ahead:
The glorious road is nothing more than the grave.
Proud people, don't blame these people for not doing it.
I miss not building a memorial hall for these graves,
No long corridors, carved vaults
Full of loud hymns, celebrating.
A lifelike bust, an urn tablet engraved with a story,
Is it possible to bring the dead back to life and promote resurrection?
Can the voice of honor inspire the ashes of silence?
Can flattery soften the ears of death?
Maybe this place is barren,
Buried is a heart that was once full of spiritual flame;
A pair of hands could have been in charge of waterbending.
Or play the lyre in a superb way.
But never developed knowledge for them.
It has accumulated a dazzling array of books from generation to generation;
Poverty suppressed their noble hearts,
Freezing their spring water from Fu Ling.
How many sparkling jewels are there in the world?
Buried in the dark and unfathomable sea floor:
No one knows how many flowers are in full bloom in the world.
Sending fragrance to the desolate air in vain.
……
A conspiracy to stay away from different worlds,
They have sober wishes and never learn to be confused.
Along the cool and quiet valley of life,
They kept on walking straight without saying a word.
……
As for you, you care about these old people,
Tell their simple stories with these poems,
If, under the guidance of meditation, there is an accidental fate,
A traveling companion came to ask about your life-
Maybe a white-haired countryman will say to him:
"We often see him before dawn.
I knocked off the dew with my quick steps,
Go to the tall grass over there to meet the sunrise;
"There is a whirling old beech tree over there.
The old roots under the tree are staggered,
He used to lie there for a noon,
Take a good look at a trickle next to it.
"He walks in the forest, sometimes laughing.
Read aloud, say his strange words,
Sometimes I feel depressed and helpless,
For example, worry or frustration in love.
"One morning, on the mountain where he used to go,
Bush, his love tree, I can't see him;
The next morning, although I walked along the stream,
On the grass, through the Woods, he still disappeared.
"On the third day, we saw the funeral procession.
Sing an elegy and take him to the cemetery-
Please come forward and look at the stone tablet under the old thorns.
(You can read) Please read these lines:
epitaph
Here, kneeling is a young man.
I have never been famous for wealth and fame in my life;
Knowledge will not despise his humbleness,
Qing dynasty regarded him as a favor.
He is sincere in nature and most willing to give generously.
God also gave him the same generous return:
He gave all the ups and downs, a tear;
I got everything I wanted from God, a friend.
Don't try to praise his achievements,
Don't dig out his weakness from the dark cellar again.
(They also rest in trembling hope),
It was the embrace of his heavenly father and God.
(Translated by Bian Zhilin)
Precautions:
"Trembling hope" is because Christianity believes that the end of the world is the last judgment day, and all the dead have to get up from the grave to be tried.
Make an appreciative comment
Thomas gray was an important "graveyard" poet in England in the18th century. Gray wrote a few poems, but they were of good quality. His best poems often show the characteristics of emphasizing meditation rather than action, personal meditation rather than collective carnival. The language is elegant and less polished, fluent and not loose, clear and full of charm. Elegy in the Cemetery is such a poem. The motive of this elegy is to mourn his good friend Richard West at Eton College. Although after graduating from high school, Gray went to Cambridge University and West went to Oxford University, they did not break contact because of this, but kept writing to each other. 1642, West died unfortunately, and Gray was deeply hit. He was going to write an elegy to mourn. This was written for many years until 1650.
Throughout the poem, its content obviously goes beyond the specific personal grief, but through the description of the rural cemetery, it expresses its love for the countryside, sympathy for the lower class, and contempt for the dignitaries and vanity. There is a sentimental feeling in poetic language, which echoes the emotional experience of British society to the industrial revolution at that time and reflects the mood of a generation. /kloc-swinburne, a writer in the 0/9th century, once said that in terms of mourning poems, this poem of Gray will undoubtedly occupy the first place in later generations, and even Johnson, who is biased against Gray, praised it. It can be said that Elegy in the Cemetery is one of the most attractive and enduring masterpieces in English poetry.
In the first three verses of the poem, Gray first sets the scene: at dusk, the shepherd drives the cattle slowly into the village, the farmer trudges home, and the poet stands alone in the cemetery. In this "boundless" and "solemn" background, the midnight bell resounds deeply and forcefully, the distant sound of * * * rings, unknown beetles fly around, and gloomy owls "complain to the moon" ... This scene, this sound and this sound are all sad. Especially in the first sentence, "When the night bell rings, there are waves of mourning for the day", Gray skillfully compares the arrival of the night with the death during the day, and points out his meditation in the cemetery.
In the next four poems, Gray spreads the wings of imagination and depicts ordinary farmers sleeping in the cemetery. When they were alive, although they were "vulgar" and poor, they also lived an idyllic simple living and enjoyed family happiness. Nowadays, the call of "fragrant morning breeze", the whisper of "thatched cottage spits swallow", the sharp horn of rooster, making mountains sing, and the hunting horn echoed by the valley can't wake them up from the wasteland and caves. They were buried here, silent.
In the next four poems, Gray put forward the idea of equality between the rich and the poor before his death. Although the dignitaries were prominent during their lifetime, "the road to glory is nothing more than the grave", and power and wealth cannot change the will to die. Even if they want to boast of their identity with "lifelike busts" and "urn engraved with stories", it is impossible to bring any meaning, because these external decorations can't make them "restore the dead and promote resurrection". Death belongs to all beings. In the face of death, rich and powerful people no longer have arrogant capital. They accept the fate of ending their lives with hardworking people who are frugal and simple at birth and have simple cemeteries after death.
After denouncing and mocking the powerful and vain, Gray turned his sympathetic eyes to the unknown farmers. They were not reincarnated in a well-off family, and were deprived of the opportunity to learn and raise by "poverty", so they could not give full play to their talents and ambitions. Perhaps, among these "vulgar" farmers, there are no less poetic talents than Milton, and there are also leaders who are stronger than Hampton and Cromwell, but the reality has suppressed their possibility of going to the "glorious road". They are like "sparkling jewels" buried deep in the sea, or flowers blooming alone in the wilderness, which are ruthlessly buried by fate. From this point of view, they are quite unfortunate. However, it is this misfortune that helps them "stay away from the intrigue of different worlds" and "stick to the right path without saying a word". They have no ambition, luxury, honor, flattery and knowledge, but they have maintained their innocent nature in poverty. As the saying goes, neither power nor guilt, nor low status, are blessings.
In the last nine verses, Gray thinks of the scene after his death. One day, accidental fate may bring a "thoughtful" person who also has feelings for the past to the grave. This interested person may be interested in him and ask the passing "white-headed farmer" about his life. Therefore, through the description of the "white-headed countryman", we can see what Gray usually does: he used to walk in the dew to "greet the sunrise", he used to "lie lazily" under a beech tree with a wrong old root in the afternoon, and he used to "wander in the forest" to dispel his emotions. As summarized in the following epitaph, he stayed away from worldly vanity, was "sincere in nature" and "willing to give generously", and finally threw himself into the arms of God the Father. Among them, "he gave all the ups and downs, a drop of tears; /I got everything I wanted from God, a friend ",which just reflected Gray's sentimental feelings and friendship with West.
The whole poem consists of thirty-two sections, and each section consists of four iambic pentameter poems. Abab has a well-proportioned body rhyme, neat rhythm and strict rhyme, showing the elegance of classicism. Individualized abstract nouns such as ambition, luxury, honor and knowledge, which appear from time to time in poetry, also reflect the intention of classical writers to expand specific things into universal qualities and express "eternal truth". However, under the cloak of classical art, Elegy in the Cemetery conveys romantic feelings. Between the lines, there is an aversion to the chaotic state of the times, a longing for nature, and a yearning for a harmonious relationship between people. It was from Elegy in the Cemetery that English poetry gradually got rid of the shackles of classicism, and the dominant position of reason was replaced by feelings or feelings.
(Cai Haiyan)