Preface of Cromwell
Hugo translated Liu Mingjiu
Cleaning of Erlitou school
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We start from the fact that the world is not always dominated and ruled by the same civilization, that is, it is always dominated and ruled by the same social form (more precisely, although it has a broader meaning). The whole mankind, like each of us, has gone through the stages of growth, development and maturity. He spent his childhood and adulthood; Now I am old. Before the historical period called "ancient" in modern society, there was another century, which was called "myth era" by the ancients, and its correct name may be "primitive era". This is the three continuous processes that civilization has experienced from the initial source to today. Because poetry is always based on society, then we will analyze the three stages of human development according to the form of social development: primitive period, ancient and modern, and what are the characteristics of poetry.
In primitive times, when people woke up in a newly formed world, poetry also woke up. Facing the natural miracle that dazzled and intoxicated him, his first sentence was just a hymn. At that time, he was still close to God, so all his meditations were superb, and all his reverie became the revelation of God. He expresses his inner feelings, he sings like breathing, and his harp has only three strings, God, mind and creation. But these three mysteries contain everything, and this trinity idea contains everything. This land is almost barren. There is already a family, but there is no nation; There are elders, but no king. Every race lives freely; No private property, no law, no conflict, no war. Everything belongs to everyone and to the collective. The whole society is a public organization. Nothing can bind people. People live an idyllic and nomadic life, which is the starting point of all civilizations, and how conducive to lonely meditation and unrestrained dreams. He works and acts willingly. His thoughts, like his life, are like clouds in the sky, changing with the wind and drifting. This is the primitive man, and this is the primitive poet. He is young and poetic. Prayer is all his religion, and folk songs are all his poems.
This kind of poem, this kind of ballad of primitive times, is Genesis.
However, this youth gradually passed. The scope of everything has expanded; Religion becomes tribes, and tribes become countries. ...... These ethnic groups began to become too crowded on the earth. They interfere with each other and rub each other; As a result, conflicts and wars between countries have emerged. They violated each other; As a result, ethnic migration and vagrancy have emerged. Poetry reflects these great events; It transits from expressing ideas to describing things. It sings about these centuries, people and countries. It became an epic and produced Homer.
We have to point out repeatedly that only epics can express this culture. Epic has several forms, but it will never lose its characteristics. Pindar is an epic rather than a lyric poem. It will be in vain for an indispensable chronicler in the second stage of human development to collect all kinds of legends and start to chronicle the century, and chroniclers cannot exclude poetry; History is still epic. Herodotus is Homer.
The era of epic is fading away. Similarly, the society it represents is facing the end, and this kind of poem is out of date because of its long self-circulation. Rome imitated Greece and Virgil imitated Homer. It seems that in order to end in dignity, the epic died in this last childbirth.
It is time. Another era of the world and poetry is about to begin.
A spiritual religion, instead of material and superficial idolatry, sneaked into the center of ancient society and destroyed it, and at the same time planted the seeds of modern culture on the body of this aging culture. This religion is complete because it is true; It is deeply maintained by the morality between teachings and ordinances. First of all, the most important truth is to show people that there are two kinds of life, one is temporary and the other is immortal; One is on the ground and the other is in the sky. It also points out that, like his fate, man is binary. In him, there is animality, spirituality, soul and body. In a word, it is like the intersection of two lines, like the connecting link between the chains containing two entities of the world. These two chains, one is a system of material entities, and the other is an invisible system. The former is from stone to man, and the latter is from man to god.
Nothing is more practical than the ancient divine spectrum. Unlike Christianity, it does not separate spirit from flesh at all, but gives everything form and appearance, even for spirit and spirituality. Here, everything is visible, tangible and emotional. Those gods all need clouds to cover themselves. They also eat, drink and sleep. Hurt them, they will bleed; If you cripple them, they will be crippled forever. This religion has some gods and some demigods. Its thunder is tempered on the anvil, and among other components, there are three curved rain lines. Its god Cupid hung the world on a gold chain. Its sun rides on a carriage; Its hell is an abyss, which geographically marks its exit; Its sacred world is on a mountain.
In this way, polytheism uses the same kind of clay to shape all kinds of creations, thus narrowing the gods and expanding mankind. Homer's heroes are almost as tall as God, Ajax (4) offends Jupiter, and Achilles is comparable to Mars (5). As we just said, on the other hand, Christianity completely separates reiki from matter. It draws an abyss between soul and body, and an abyss between man and God.
Christianity leads poetry to truth. Modern poetry will also look at things from a far-sighted perspective like Christianity. I feel that everything in all things is not human beauty, ugliness is next to beauty, deformity is close to beauty, vulgarity is hidden behind sublimity, evil and good coexist, and darkness and light * * *. Will discuss whether the artist's narrow and relative rationality should be better than the creator's infinite and absolute spiritual wisdom; Whether anyone needs to correct God; Whether nature is more beautiful once it is affected; Whether art has the right to divide people, life and creation into two aspects, and whether everything will be better if the tendons and elasticity are removed; Also, whether "any way is harmonious" is incomplete. It is at this time that poetry focuses on absurd and terrible events. Under the influence of the melancholy spirit and philosophical criticism spirit of Christianity that we have just inspected, it will take a decisive step and change the face of the whole spiritual world like an earthquake. It will start to act like nature. In creation, it will mix shadows with light, and combine vulgarity with sublimity instead of mixing them. In other words, it will give the body to the soul. Give the beast to the soul, because the starting point of religion is always the starting point of poetry. The two are interrelated.
This is a principle that never existed in ancient times, and it is a new type of poetry. As a condition, it changed the whole thing, so it developed a new form in art, which is "funny" and comedy.
Please allow us to study this problem in detail; Because we just pointed out that different characteristics, fundamental differences. In our opinion, this difference distinguishes modern art from ancient art, the form of existence and the form of death, or in vague but popular terms, it distinguishes "romantic" literature from "classical" literature.
On the contrary, in modern people's minds, absurdity and ugliness have a wide range of functions. It is everywhere; On the one hand, it creates deformity and terror; On the other hand, it creates absurdity and absurdity. It gathers all kinds of strange superstitions around religion and gives poetry all kinds of wonderful imagination. That's it, it has been planted in air, water, fire and soil, and we still think it is a living and countless intermediary in medieval legends; It is it that makes the magician dance a terrible round dance in the dark midnight; It gave Satan two horns, a Shuang Shan sheep's hoof and a pair of bat wings. That's it. That's it in short. Sometimes it is thrown into the ugly images summoned by the stern geniuses of Dante and Milton, and sometimes it is thrown into the funny Michelangelo Gallori who amuses himself. From the ideal world to the real world, there are countless funny changes of human beings. Scarborough Hammerhill, Chris Pet-name ruby, Forrest Gump, these characters are all the creations of his whimsy, the silhouette of people's strange images, and the typical completely unfamiliar and serious ancient times produced from Italian classicism. Finally, it alternately depicts the imagination of the north and the south in the same drama, which makes Scana Heller jump ⑾ around Don Juan and Mephistopheles move around Faust.
And how free and clear its behavior is! What a bold act it is to let those strange images that were so shy in the previous era jump out. Ancient poetry had to arrange some companions for the lame Vulcan, but they tried their best to cover up their deformity by expanding their gigantic bodies. Modern spirit retains the legend of those extraordinary blacksmiths, but suddenly adds a completely opposite feature to it, making it more prominent; It turned the giant into a dwarf and the cyclops into an underground god. With the same originality, it replaced the not-so-strange seven-headed snakes with our legendary local monsters, such as Garguye in Rouen, Keira-Wu in Mace, Char-Chanet in Troy, Teke in Mondeleri and Tahaske in Tahagon. The shapes of these monsters are so changeable that their strange names add a kind of strangeness. These creations can get a deep and powerful tone from their own nature, and before this tone, ancient times sometimes seem to shrink back. Indeed, Greek monsters are far less terrible than witches in Macbeth, so they lack authenticity, and proudhon in Greek mythology is not a devil.
In our opinion, how to use the funny and ugly in art is enough to write a novel. People can list how strongly modern people have learned from this rich model, but today there is still a narrow criticism that strongly opposes it. Our theme may soon lead us to point out some features of this vast picture. But here, we just want to say that in our opinion, as a noble and beautiful supporting role and contrast, the funny and ugly monster should be regarded as the richest artistic source endowed by nature. There is no doubt that Rubens [13] knows this, because he proudly mixed in the ugly images of several court clowns at royal ceremonies, coronation ceremonies and glory ceremonies. The universal beauty spread solemnly over all things in ancient times has a monotonous feeling; The same impression is always repeated, which will make people tired after a long time. It is difficult to compare the sublime with the sublime, so people need to rest for everything, even for beauty. On the contrary, the funny ugliness seems to be a rest time, a comparative object and a starting point, from which we rise to beauty with a fresher and sharper feeling. The giant fish sets off the daffodils; The fairy in the underground makes the fairy look more beautiful.
In addition, we can say that the contact with funny ugliness endows modern sublimity with something purer, greater and nobler than ancient beauty; Besides, it should be like this. When art itself is reasonable, it is more sure to let all kinds of things achieve the ultimate goal. If the taste of Homeric fairyland and paradise is far from the beauty of immortals in Milton's Paradise, it is because there is a terrible hell under the Garden of Eden, which is different from the bottom of polytheism. If Francesca da Rimini and Beat Lee were not written by Dante, would it be so attractive to lock readers in the tower of hunger and force them to share their disgusting meals in Corino? Dante could not have been so moving if he had not written so forcefully. Rich river gods, strong mermaids and dissolute Shen Feng, do they have the transparent fluidity of our daffodils and gods? Isn't it because modern people can imagine vampires, cannibals, goblins, service basilisks, big bats, zombies and skeletons wandering in our graves, and this imagination can give its goblins that illusory shape, that kind of purity that polytheistic fairies rarely achieve? The ancient Venus was beautiful and charming, which undoubtedly attracted people's love. However, what exudes that exquisite, wonderful and ethereal charm in all the photos of jean goujon? What gives them that kind of life and greatness? If it is not close to the vigorous sculpture of the Middle Ages, what is it?
If our ideological clues are not interrupted in the reader's thoughts in these necessary discussions, he will certainly understand that ugliness and antics, the seeds of comedy inherited by modern poets, will grow and develop with great vitality once transplanted into more favorable soil than idolatry and epic. In fact, in the new poetry, the sublime and beautiful will show the true state of the soul purified by Christian morality, and the funny and ugly will show the animal nature of human beings. The first type will be freed from the impure mixture and have all the charm, charm and beauty; One day it should be able to create Juliet, Desdemona and Ophelia. Second, it contains all the ridiculous deformities and ugliness. In this division of people and things, all desires, shortcomings and sins will be attributed to it; Will be extravagant, humble, greedy, stingy, treacherous, chaotic and hypocritical; Will take turns to fight Argo, answer Diefu and basire, Polloni, Abagon, Bartholomek; Falstaff, historian Ben, le figaro. There is only one typical beauty; Ugly but ever-changing, because intellectually speaking, beauty is just a form, the simplest relationship, the strictest symmetry and the harmonious form closest to our structure. Therefore, it is always presented to us completely, but it is as formal as us. On the other hand, what we call ugly is a detail of a huge whole that we don't know. It is in harmony with the whole, not with people. This is also the reason why it constantly presents new but incomplete faces.
It is interesting to study the application and development of funny and ugly monsters in modern times. First of all, it invades, floods, floods, like a torrent breaking through a dike. When it was born, it ran through the dying Latin literature ... and then it spread in the imagination of emerging countries that changed Europe. It is full of the imagination of story writers, historians and novelists. It spreads from south to north. It plays in the dream of the Germanic nation, and at the same time evokes those commendable Spanish poems and songs with its aura. It is the Iliad of true chivalry. For example, it describes a solemn ceremony and the election of a king in the Legend of the Rose (2 1):
So they chose a big civil servant.
This is the biggest guy among them.
……
There is no need to highlight the influence of funny and ugly monsters in the third civilization. In the so-called romantic era, everything shows its close and creative combination with "beauty". As far as the simplest folklore is concerned, they all show the mystery of modern art with lovely nature. It was impossible to create beauty and beast in ancient times.
Indeed, in the era we just visited, it is very obvious that the absurdity and ugliness in literature have more advantages than the sublimity and beauty. However, this is a kind of reaction fanaticism, a fleeting enthusiasm for novelty; This is an initial wave and will gradually flatten out. The model of beauty will soon regain its status and rights. It does not exclude another principle, but it will surpass it. Now it's time for funny and ugly monsters to occupy only a corner of the picture in the huge murals of murillo (22) and Veronica (23); Let the funny and ugly monsters only penetrate into the two "last judgments" that the art society is proud of, into the pleasing and terrible picture that Michelangelo will use to decorate the Vatican (24), and into the terrible pattern of human depravity that Rubens will paint on the dome of Angwells Cathedral. It is time to strike a balance between these two principles. Soon there will be a man, a poet king (called Homer by Dante), to decide it. These two hostile geniuses gathered the brilliance of both sides, and Shakespeare was born in this brilliance.
In this way, we reached the peak of modern poetry. Shakespeare, this is drama; On the other hand, drama combines funny, ugly, sublime, terrible and absurd, tragedy and comedy. Drama is the third stage of poetry, which is an inherent feature of current literature.
Let's briefly summarize the facts discussed above, and we can see that poetry has three periods, and each period corresponds to a social period. These three periods are lyric short songs, epics and dramas. Primitive times are lyrical, ancient times are epic and modern times are dramatic. Lyric short songs praise eternity, epic poems praise history, and drama depicts life. The first kind of poetry is characterized by simplicity, the second is simplicity, and the third is truth. A poet is a transition from a lyric poet to an epic poet, just as a novelist is a transition from an epic poet to a dramatic poet. Historians came with the second period, while chroniclers and critics came with the third period. The characters of lyric short songs are great men: Adam, Cain and Noah (25); The characters in the epic are all giants: Achilles, arturo and Ortiz (26); The characters in the play are all mortal: Hamlet, Macbeth and Othello. Lyric short songs live by ideals, epic poems exist by grandeur, and drama is maintained by reality. In a word, these three kinds of poems come from three sources, namely Bible, Homer and Shakespeare.
..... In order to prove that new ideas (referring to romantic literary thoughts-translators) are far from destroying art but only transforming art into more stable art, let us try to point out, according to our own opinions, what is the insurmountable boundary between truth from art and truth from nature. Like some slow-growing romantics, it is rash to confuse the two. Truth in art cannot be absolutely true as some people say. Art cannot provide originality. Let's just imagine how a person who advocates imitating absolute nature and nature outside the artistic vision will behave when he sees a romantic drama (such as Sid's bar). The first thing he would say was, "What? The characters in Sid also speak in poetry! It is unnatural to speak with poetry. " "Then how do you want the characters to talk?" "In prose." "Good, just use prose." If he sticks to his principles, he will say later, "Why, all the characters in Sid speak French!" " "So what should I do?" "Nature requires the playwright to speak his own language, and he can only speak Spanish." "Then we don't understand; But it's up to you. " You think being picky is over? No; Before he said ten sentences in Spanish, it was time for him to stand up again. He asked Sid who was speaking was really the original Sid. What right does this actor named Peter or Jacques have to use Sid's name? This is all hypocrisy. He has no reason not to insist on replacing the desk lamp with the sun and replacing the fake stage scenery with the "real" trees and houses. Because if we start like this, logic will push us down and we can't stop.
Therefore, people should admit that there is a great difference between art and nature, otherwise it will become absurd. Nature and art are two things that complement each other and are indispensable. Besides its ideal part, art also has secular and realistic parts. No matter what you create, it is always between grammar and rhythm, between Uzira (27) and Li Xilai (28). For the freest creation, it has various forms, creative methods and a lot of materials that can be molded. For geniuses, these are ingenious means, but for mediocrities, they are cumbersome tools.
In our opinion, it has been said that drama is a mirror reflecting nature. However, if this mirror is an ordinary mirror and a rigid plane mirror, then it can only reflect the dim, flat, loyal but disgraceful image of things; As we all know, such a simple reflection will make things lose much color. Drama should be a concentrated mirror, which not only does not weaken the original color and luster, but also condenses and condenses them, turning dim light into light and light into fire. Therefore, only drama is recognized by art.
The stage is the visual focus. Everything in the world, everything in history, everything in life and everything in human beings should and can be reflected in it, but this can only be achieved with the help of the magic wand of art, which focuses on the century and nature, studies history and tries its best to reproduce the truth of things, especially the truth of customs and characters that are more certain and less contradictory than things. It uses the abridged materials of chroniclers to reconcile what they stripped, find what they missed and repair it, fill their loopholes with the imagination of the times, collect what they left behind, and reconnect the artificial thread under the human puppet. Putting everything in a poetic and natural coat and giving them life that produces fantasy, truth and vitality, that is, the magic of reality, can arouse the enthusiasm of the audience, and most importantly, arouse the enthusiasm of the poet himself, because the poet has a conscience. Therefore, the purpose of art is almost sacred. If it writes history, it is coming back to life. If it writes poetry, it is creation.
If we see the extensive development of drama, it is really a great and magnificent thing: in this kind of drama, art develops strongly and naturally, and the plot develops firmly and lightly to the ending, which is neither complicated nor stingy. The poet has fully accomplished the complex purpose of art, that is, to show the audience two artistic conceptions, illuminate the external and internal feelings of the characters at the same time, express their external appearances through words and deeds, and describe their internal psychology through narration and monologues. In a word, yes.
In our opinion, if a poet wants to choose between these things, he should choose not beauty, but characteristics. This is not to say that some local colors are exaggerated as people say now, that is to say, it is not appropriate to add some striking colors to this work after completing a work that is hypocritical and generalized in the final analysis. The local color should not be on the surface of the drama, but inside the work, even in the center of the work. The local color flows vividly, naturally and evenly from here, or it can be said that it flows to all parts of the drama, as if the sap is transported from the roots to the most cutting-edge leaves. Drama should be completely saturated with the color of this era; The drama of this color is just like in the air, which makes people feel that the century and atmosphere have changed as soon as they enter and leave. To achieve this situation, we need some research and efforts; It's better this way. The avenue of art is blocked by thorns. In front of it, everything is discouraged except the strong-willed people, which is also a good thing. It is this kind of research supported by passion and inspiration that will save drama from a fatal defect, namely generalization. Generalization is the fault of short-sighted talented poets. In the field of vision of the stage, all images should be distinctive, full of personality, accurate and appropriate. No matter how vulgar and ordinary things are, they should also have their own characteristics. Nothing should be given up. A true poet, like God, appears everywhere in his works at the same time. Genius, like a coin machine, can carve the king's head on gold coins and copper coins.
We don't hesitate, this is to prove to people with sincerity how much we don't want art to go out of shape. We don't hesitate to regard poetry as the most appropriate way to prevent art from suffering the disaster we just pointed out, and as the strongest dam to prevent the flood of "generalization", which is as common as "democracy" in the spiritual field. Here, please allow young literature with so many writers and works to point out a mistake we think it has fallen into, which is worth defending compared with the incredible fallacies of the old school. The new century is a period of vigorous development, during which people can easily correct their mistakes.
If we have the right to say what the style of drama should be in terms of our own happiness, then what we want is a free, clear and honest poem, which dares to say everything without affectation and express everything without elegance; It changes from comedy to tragedy and from sublime to funny at a natural pace; It is sometimes practical and sometimes poetic, and its whole is both artistic and inspirational, both profound and sudden, both broad and true; It is good at properly breaking sentences and shifting pauses to cover up the monotony of Alexandria; It prefers to use cross-line sentences that extend sentences to inverted sentences that confuse meaning; It is loyal to the introverted queen of rhythm, the most elegant charm of our poetry, and the mother of our meter; The expression of this poem is endless, and the secret of its beauty and structure cannot be mastered; Like Proteus (29), it is ever-changing in form, but it does not change its typicality and characteristics. It avoids long queues and has a carefree conversation. It is always hidden behind the characters; It pays attention to propriety first, and when it becomes "beauty", it seems to be just an accident, not decided by it, and it does not consciously realize this; Whether it becomes lyrical, epic or dramatic depends on needs; It can skim all the scales of poetry, from high notes to low notes, from the noblest thoughts to the most mediocre thoughts, from the funniest to the most solemn, from the most superficial to the most abstract, and never go beyond the boundaries of Daobai scenes; In a word, this poem is so beautiful, just like it was written by a man who got Gao Naiyi's heart and Moliere's mind from a fairy. We think this kind of poem will be "as beautiful as prose"
In particular, it should be reiterated that poetry on the stage should exclude all self-pity, all excessive demands and all flattering displays. It is just a form, a form that should carry everything. This has no effect on the drama. On the contrary, it should accept all dramas: French, Latin, legal provisions, insults from princes and nobles, folk proverbs, comedies, tragedies, smiles, tears, essays and poems, and convey them to the audience. If the poet's poems are filled with arrogance, it is really unfortunate! However, this form is bronze, which embeds ideas in its instrument. In this form, drama is indestructible. This poetic trick is deeply imprinted in the spirit of the actor, showing him what it adds or subtracts, forbidding him to tamper with its role, forbidding him to usurp the author's original intention, sanctifying every word, and making what the poet said stand in the audience's memory for a long time. Thought, melted in poetry, immediately has something deeper and more brilliant.
(Excerpted from Selected Western Literary Theories, Volume II, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 1979)
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Pay attention to and release:
(1) from Hugo's draft, this refers to Homer's epic Iliad.
(2) from Hugo's draft, this refers to Homer's epic "Odyssey".
(3) Virgil's Enit, Volume VIII, line 426, originally meant "three colorful lights".
④ Ajax: a hero in ancient Greek mythology.
Mars: The god of war in ancient Roman mythology, equivalent to Ares in Greek mythology.
⑥ Refer to Dante's Divine Comedy, the first chapter of Hell, and Milton's Paradise Lost.
⑦ Gallo: French bronze sculpture artist, a bold and whimsical genius.
⑧, ⑨ and ⑩ are common humorous and clever characters in Italian comedies.
⑾ Don Juan and Scana Heller are a pair of servants in Moliere's famous play Don Juan.
Proudhon: The God of Hell in Greek mythology.
Rubens: A famous Dutch painter.
[14] Darimini fell in love with his brother Paul and was killed by her husband. For the story, see the fifth "Hell" in the Divine Comedy.
⒂ For the story about Corino, see Article 33 of The Divine Comedy, Hell.
[14] Jean-Gurion: a famous French sculptor and architect.
Juliet, Desdemona and Ophelia: the three heroines in Shakespeare's famous plays Romeo and Juliet, Othello and Hamlet.
⒅ Diego is a character in Shakespeare's Othello, Diouf is the protagonist in Moliere's hypocrite, and Basire is a character in Pierre Augustine Caron de Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais's Marriage of Figaro. These three characters are insidious, hypocritical and greedy.
Polonius is a likable figure in Hamlet, Bowie is a miser in Moliere's The Miser, and Baltero is a lecherous old man in Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais's comedy The Barber of Sylvie.
Falstaff is a character in Shakespeare's historical play Henry IV, and scarborough is a clever servant in Moliere's comedy The Trick of scarborough. Figaro is the protagonist of Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais's comedy The Wedding of Figaro. He is also a clever servant.
(2 1) Poetic novels in medieval France.
(22) murillo: Spanish painter.
(23) Veronica: Italian painter.
(24) The Last Judgment is a mural by Michelangelo.
(25) These three figures are all in the Bible.
(26) arturo and Ortiz are both characters with strong hatred in Greek stories.
(27) Uzla: a famous French grammarian.
(28) Richelie: French grammarian.
(29) Proteus: Poseidon in Greek mythology.