Once again, oh, laurel, once again,
Oh, brown myrtle and green ivy branches,
I will pick your immature green fruit,
With rough fingers, before the mature season,
Sprinkle leaves against your will!
Painful obligations, sadness, misfortune.
Force me to disturb your season;
Lysadas died in the prime of life,
Young Lisdas did not leave his companions.
…………
Let's go, it's coming out from under the throne of Zhu Fu.
Muse sisters in the holy spring,
Let's begin, please play the string loudly.
Don't refuse, don't avoid:
I hope the gentle muse can do the same.
Good words bless me to hit the predetermined urn,
Send him away, please turn to me,
Please give me a quiet shroud!
…………
Alas! Worried
A despised shepherd's song, meditation
What's the advantage of scrutinizing useless poems?
…………
But once we want a fair return,
Want to burst into a dazzling glorious fire,
The blind nemesis is coming soon,
Cut off the slender life with hateful scissors.
Phobos's answer is still ringing in our ears:
"Don't boast! Honor is not a flower of the world,
Or show off in the world with gold and silver,
Not widely circulated by word of mouth,
Spread to the sky, thanks to Zhu Fu.
Clear eyes, authoritative proof and judgment;
Please look forward to the sacred honor you deserve,
Just wait for him to make a final judgment on everything "
Artus spring, water of glory,
Reed sings on the long Qiu Ming River,
The tunes of that year had higher emotions;
But now, let my shepherd flute continue.
Please listen to the marine ambassador,
He was sent by Neptune, the god of the sea.
He asked Haitao the evil wind on the sea:
What kind of disaster is tender youth doomed?
…………
The wise Shen Feng gave them an answer:
No wind came out of his dungeon,
The atmosphere was quiet that day, and the waves were as flat as a mirror.
The beautiful Pannope is playing with her sisters.
What is fatal is the unfaithful three-masted ship-
Built during the eclipse, sailing in ominous signs—
Sink your sacred head into the sea.
The venerable God of Jianhe came slowly,
He wore a fur cloak and a reed hat.
Woven with dim patterns, the edge seems to be
Blood-red flowers, engraved with sadness.
He asked, "Who took my dearest offspring?"
The last person to come and leave.
Is a guide on Lake Galilee;
He is carrying two heavy and different keys.
(When the golden key is turned on, the iron key is turned off immediately)
He shook the curly hair under the crown and said seriously:
"Young man, I really hate to part with you. I really want to.
With a large number of greedy people, for a you,
They broke into and climbed into the shepherd's place,
They don't care about anything else,
Only keen on competing for the shepherd's party,
Unexpectedly, all the invited VIPs were pushed aside.
They just talk nonsense, but they have no idea.
Besides, I didn't learn anything about how to hold a staff.
As a loyal shepherd, the minimum skills!
What does it matter? Why study? They have a successful career;
When they are happy, they blow the flute.
Harsh tones play poverty and glitz;
The hungry sheep looked up, but they couldn't eat.
Drink only cold wind and poisonous fog,
Make them sick into the viscera and spread the plague;
Fierce wolves, hidden claws,
Swallow sheep every day, but keep silent;
But the weapon with the handle in both hands has been guarding the door.
Get ready for a devastating blow. "
Come back, alfons; Scary running water
The sound has stopped; Come back, Muse of Sicily
Wake up the deep mountain canyon and pick from it.
1000 colors of Kobanawa Lily of the Valley.
…………
Angel, look back at your hometown and be merciful;
Dolphin, let the unfortunate young people float back!
Stop crying, sad shepherd, stop crying,
The Lysada you mourn is not dead,
…………
All the saints in the upper world greet him,
All solemn teams, dear friends,
They sang and marched gloriously,
Wiped the tears from his eyes forever.
Now, Leigh Sedas, the shepherd no longer cries;
From now on, you are the guardian angel of the coast,
It will be kind to be your infinite return.
A vagrant in a dangerous storm.
The clumsy boy sang this song to Lin Chuan.
The quiet morning light went out in the gray sandalwood;
He touched the eye of the flute with his finger.
Play Dorian pastoral with eager thoughts;
Now the sunset has lengthened all the mountain shadows,
Now the sunset has entered the West Bay.
He finally stood up and tightened his blue cloak.
Tomorrow we will rush to new forests and grasslands.
(translated by Bai Fei)
Precautions:
Muse Devise, the daughter of Zhu Fu, the king of gods, was born in the sacred spring at the foot of Mount Olympus.
Mincius River: the river in the hometown of Virgil, an ancient Roman poet.
Pannope: the fairy in the sea.
The seat of Cambridge University.
St Peter, a disciple of Jesus, was originally a ship on Lake Galilee. He is in charge of the gates of heaven.
Edward King should be a priest.
Yu Jiaohui.
One of the four major dialect areas in ancient Greece.
Make an appreciative comment
Leigh Sedas is the pinnacle of Milton's early poetry creation, and it is an idyllic elegy with serious theme and sad style. The whole poem has both the seriousness of Puritanism and the elegance of humanism. It not only poured personal feelings and interests, but also criticized the corruption of the church. Therefore, it occupies a very high position in the history of elegy in England, and it is called "four major elegies" together with adonis by Shelley, Elegies by Tennyson and Sextus by Arnold.
Milton said in the preface that this poem is an elegy written in memory of "a learned friend". This friend is Edward King, Milton's classmate at the Christian College of Cambridge University. King, like Milton, is deeply religious and knowledgeable, and is regarded as an excellent priest. Their interests and ideals are very close. They all love literature and wrote some good poems. The two even made a cross-sea trip in a close time:1In August, 937, Jin went to Ireland to teach, was shipwrecked in the middle, and unfortunately drowned; It was also in this year that Milton, who had been studying literature for a long time, came up with the idea of traveling around the European continent and put it into practice the next year. King and himself have a similar life trajectory, but they both met with bad luck in the end, which will undoubtedly cause Milton to think about his destiny, life significance and social reality. Therefore, in Leigh Sedas, what we see is not only Milton's lament over the untimely death of his friend, but also Milton's profound thinking behind his lament. No wonder some people think that Elegy is looking for Milton, not gold.
The title of elegy "Lisedas" ("the best piper") is the name of a beautiful shepherd boy in ancient Greek and Roman mythology, and it is also the image of a shepherd that often appears in classical pastoral songs, so Milton mourns his good friend. According to the western pastoral tradition, the shepherd is a poet; In Christian doctrine, the shepherd represents the priest. Both of these meanings are consistent with Milton and Kim's identity. In fact, Milton used the double meaning of shepherd to describe the problems and solutions faced by Lisdas, who was a shepherd and a poet and a shepherd and a priest respectively, and conceived the ultimate fate of Lisdas, a priest and a poet.
Elegy consists of 1 1 section. The first section is a prelude. The poet appeared in an idyllic environment as a "shepherd and poet", telling three evergreen plants the story of Lisdas' unfortunate drowning and his desire to sing for his dead friend. The three evergreen plants appearing at the beginning of the poem are symbolic: laurel trees are related to Apollo and Muse, representing the poet's glory; Myrtle is related to Aphrodite, the god of love, representing immortal love; Ivy is related to Dionysus, the god of wine, and stands for eternal life. The green "fruit" and yellow "leaves" that followed meant that poetry was not refined enough. Milton took this opportunity to show that although he intended to study literary works behind closed doors and accumulate enough before writing poems, the death of his old friend forced him to climb Guizhi ahead of time and comfort his dead friends with immature poems.
In the second section, the poet turned to the Muse (nine literary goddesses born from the sacred spring at the foot of Olympus) and asked them to sing for their dead friends. At the same time, the poet also regards his home as a "shepherd". He hopes that someone will write poems for him in the future, and the calm tone is the expectation of poetry honor.
Next, the poet recalled the good times he spent with Lisdas in the past. What we see on the surface is the shepherd's life, but it is actually a metaphor for Milton and King's campus life. As excellent students in the Christian College of Cambridge University, they study tirelessly from morning till night and cultivate their talents in their spare time. However, like-minded Lisedas is gone forever, and the joy of the past is in sharp contrast with the loneliness of today.
After entering the Sixth Poetry Festival, the poet raised the problem faced by Li Sedas, a "shepherd and poet": Li Sedas devoted himself to poetry faithfully, but he was not favored by the muse. Is it worth it? In his view, it is obviously worthwhile to pursue the honor of poetry; However, in the process of pursuing honor, sudden death will give up all your efforts, which is very unworthy. Fate plays tricks on people, it is better to imitate contemporary chivalrous poets and write some easy-to-use and popular love poems. Milton used the word "we" here, apparently linking Lisdas' bad luck with his own life, and the image of "blind nemesis" strengthened the capricious fate. The grief and emotional fear of losing a friend are revealed in just a few lines of poetry. However, Phobos (Apollo) told him that honor is not limited to the world, and only Jupiter, the observant god, can judge whether a person can win the ultimate honor-"the honor in the sky." The interruption of Phobos seems to indicate that a diligent but young poet like Lysadas will get a fair reward in heaven. Milton swept away the fear and hesitation that had troubled him before, and strengthened his ideal of devoting himself to poetry.
This serious text about honor obviously went beyond the norms of traditional pastoral, so the poet immediately appealed to the symbols of pastoral in ancient Greece and Rome-the themis Spring and the Mingqiu River, asking them to let him continue to play the pastoral flute. In the spare part of the seventh poem and the eighth verse, three pagan figures and one Christian figure appeared one after another, expressing their concern and mourning for the death of Leigh Sedas. The first one is the sea messenger. He asked what kind of disaster the waves and strong winds had brought to the gentle Lisdas. The second is the wise Fengshen, who pointed out that Lisdas' bad luck came from the cursed three-masted ship he was riding. The third is the respected God of Jianhe (compared with Cambridge University), who deeply lamented the death of Lisdas. The last one is St. Peter, a disciple of Jesus. In legend, he is the gatekeeper of heaven, in charge of the two keys to open and close heaven. The poet used a circuitous writing here, calling him his original "guide to Lake Galilee" in order to connect with a series of water images in his poems. Compared with the first three pagan figures, St. Peter's words can be described as lengthy, from which we can see the poet's belief tendency. The poet told the story of St. Peter about the problems that Lisdas, a "shepherd and priest", faced: a good priest met with bad luck and could not complete his sacred career, but a bad priest lived a long life and endangered society. Bad priests are morally bankrupt and insatiable, and turn a blind eye to human life and death. Their shameful faces are the portrayal of most Anglican priests at that time. Finally, St. Peter said that the wicked will be punished, and the bad priest will be punished ("a weapon with a handle in both hands"). Milton lashed out at the decadence and depravity of the Anglican Church here, and also expressed his radical Puritanism.
Later, the poet once again appealed to the river god and the muse, who symbolized the countryside, to awaken all kinds of flowers in the deep mountains and valleys so that he could mourn. He also prayed for angels to inspect the sea where Lisdas was killed, and called on dolphins to transport Lisdas' body back.
In the tenth section, the poet describes the ultimate fate of "poet and priest" Leigh Sedas: Leigh Sedas did not die, but rose to the kingdom of heaven, gained eternal life, and became the guardian angel of Na Pianhai, where he was killed. He not only won the "sacred honor" of the poet, but also won the reward of a good priest.
The last section is the end. As a bystander, the poet shows that the article was written by a "clumsy teenager", and he just recorded it with a pen. This is actually a routine of elegy. The last two lines not only leave a lasting appeal at the end of the song, but also hint at Milton's future creative direction. Teenager shook off the "blue cloak" symbolizing hope and "rushed to new Woods and grasslands", which showed Milton's determination to bid farewell to the old poetic style and move towards a new poetic style. In fact, Milton has always been dissatisfied with his previous poems, and mentioning his poetic skills at the beginning of this poem is not exquisite enough. His ideal poetry should be to describe serious themes in a lofty style and write poems for the society, not to write poems for the sake of writing poems. In his later poetry creation, Milton practiced this ideal and left us many magnificent poems.
Generally speaking, Lisedas not only retains the pastoral tradition, but also incorporates personal meditation and political tendencies. The whole poem is exquisitely conceived, flexible in form, full of myths and allusions, and the images of paganism and Christianity are harmonious and solemn, which fully embodies Milton's scholar style. Lisdas is a famous elegy in the history of English literature.
(Cai Haiyan)