再读奥登的诗歌《美术馆》
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奥登是二十世纪英语诗歌的巨人，于1907年1月21日出生在英格兰中北部临海的约克郡，毕业于牛津大学，32岁移居纽约，并加入美国籍，在美国皈依了新教。1973年秋天，奥登在维也纳的一次诗歌朗诵之后，因心脏病发作突然去世。
本文讨论的诗作《美术馆》写作于1938年12月，首次出版于1939年春，是奥登参观了布鲁塞尔的美术馆，欣赏了古代大师的绘画后，有感而作的。
下面先来读作品的原文：
Musee des Beaux Arts
by W.H.Auden
About suffering they were never wrong，
The Old Masters；how well，they understood
Its human position；how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along；
How，when the aged are reverently，passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth，there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen，skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood：
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner，some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer’s horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel’s Icarus，for instance：how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster；the ploughman may
Have heard the splash，the forsaken cry，
But for him it was not an important failure；the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water；and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing，a boy falling out of the sky，
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
再看一些词的理解：
dull：1.lacking in alertness or speedy responsiveness
2.lacking in energy or enthusiasm
dreadful：causing fear or suffering
forsake：to leave somebody or something，especially when you have a responsibility to stay
failure：lack of success in doing or achieving sth；an act of not doing sth，especially sth that you are expected to do
对于别人的悲剧或苦难，人们大都淡然处之，退避三舍。诗歌先概括后具体，主要分成两个部分描绘，深化主题，发人深省。
奥登曾写道：至于诗歌，或任何艺术，都可以说具有这样的潜在目的：通过讲出真话来根除人们的幻想，使人们不再陶醉。（“In so far as poetry，or any of the arts，can be said to have an ulterior purpose，it is，by telling the truth，to disenchant and disintoxicate.”）
诗歌通过把平淡的琐事和宏大的事件并置，取得反讽（irony）和突降（bathos）的效果。
结合上面单词的英文解释，再看一些词句的理解：
it takes place，
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along；
此处呈现了两幅画面：一个人在遭罪；而别的人或吃东西，或开窗户，或麻木地前行。也许看见了别人的苦痛，却熟视无睹？此处的dully不应该理解为“无聊的”。
dreadful martyrdom must run its course可以说是杀猴儆鸡式的白色恐怖，dreadful不应该理解成“悲惨的”，must也不是“必须”，而是终归、必然、自然――不管怎样，总有结束的时候。Have heard the splash，the forsaken cry，
But for him it was not an important failure；
也许听到了落水的声音，听到了呼救的声音，却两耳不闻身外事，置之不理，因为救不救那个落水的人对他来说无关紧要。笔者认为failure指对呼救（cry）不予理睬（forsaken）―failure to respond to the cry（was of no importance for him.）―不去救人，无所谓的。“不是了不得的/重要的/重大的失败”，这样的译文有点让人不知所云。
再读这首诗歌，越发体会到诗人在轻描淡写中蕴含沉郁的悲凉，也许这就是诗人看了先贤的画作后有感，又通过自己的文字想向读者传达信息。