《四季随笔》节选 - 秋 04

《四季随笔》是吉辛的散文代表作。其中对隐士赖克罗夫特醉心于书籍、自然景色与回忆过去生活的描述，其实是吉辛的自述，作者以此来抒发自己的情感，因而本书是一部富有自传色彩的小品文集。

吉辛穷困的一生，对文学名著的爱好与追求，以及对大自然恬静生活的向往，在书中均有充分的反映。本书分为春、夏、秋、冬四个部分，文笔优美，行文流畅，是英国文学中小品文的珍品之一。

以下是由网友分享的《四季随笔》节选 - 秋 04的内容，让我们一起来感受吉辛的四季吧!

The characteristic motive of English poetry is love of nature, especially of nature as seen in the English rural landscape. From the "Cuckoo Song" of our language in its beginnings to the perfect loveliness of Tennyson's9 best verse, this note is ever sounding. It is persistent even amid the triumph of the drama. Take away from Shakespeare all his bits of natural description, all his casual allusions to the life and aspects of the country, and what a loss were there! The reign of the iambic couplet confined, but could not suppress, this native music; Pope10 notwithstanding, there came the "Ode to Evening" 11 and that "Elegy"12 which, unsurpassed for beauty of thought and nobility of utterance in all the treasury of our lyrics, remains perhaps the most essentially English poem ever written.

英国诗歌的主要原动力是对自然的热爱，特别是对英国乡村景色中的自然。从我们语言早期的“布谷鸟之歌”到丁尼生最好诗歌中的那份秀美绮丽，这个调子是贯穿始终的。即使在戏剧的鼎盛时期，也是持续不断的。如果从莎士比亚的作品中，取走所有对自然的描绘以及所有信手拈来的对乡村生活和场景的描写，这将会是多大的损失啊！五音步抑扬格诗体的流行，虽然限制但并没有抑制这种本土的音乐；虽然有蒲伯，但依然出现了《黄昏颂》和《墓园挽歌》，其思想之瑰丽和用词之高贵在我们的诗歌宝库中无可匹敌，至今依然可能是英国现存最本土化的诗歌。

This attribute of our national mind availed even to give rise to an English school of painting. It came late; that it ever came at all is remarkable enough. A people apparently less apt for that kind of achievement never existed. So profound is the English joy in meadow and stream and hill, that, unsatisfied at last with vocal expression, it took up the brush, the pencil, the etching tool, and created a new form of art. The National Gallery represents only in a very imperfect way the richness and variety of our landscape work. Were it possible to collect, and suitably to display, the very best of such work in every vehicle, I know not which would be the stronger emotion in an English heart, pride or rapture.

这种特有的民族性情甚至促生了一个英国画派。它兴起的时间比较晚，但是它总归是兴起了，这一点的意义就足够重大。没有一个民族，比英国人民更不适于取得这种艺术成就。英国人对草原、河流、山川的热爱是如此深沉，他们最终不满足止于口头表达，而是拿起了毛刷、铅笔和蚀刻工具，创造出一种新的艺术形式。国家美术馆中陈列的英国风景画，只是以一种并不完美的方式展示着它的丰富和多样。如果能将各个形式流派最好的风景作品收集起来并进行展览，我不知道国人心中哪种感情会更强烈一些，骄傲抑或是狂喜？

One obvious reason for the long neglect of Turner13 lies in the fact that his genius does not seem to be truly English. Turner's landscape, even when it presents familiar scenes, does not show them in the familiar light. Neither the artist nor the intelligent layman is satisfied. He gives us glorious visions; we admit the glory—but we miss something which we deem essential. I doubt whether Turner tasted rural England; I doubt whether the spirit of English poetry was in him; I doubt whether the essential significance of the common things which we call beautiful was revealed to his soul. Such doubt does not affect his greatness as a poet in colour and in form, but I suspect that it has always been the cause why England could not love him. If any man whom I knew to be a man of brains confessed to me that he preferred Birket Foster14, I should smile—but I should understand.

透纳长期受到冷落的一个显见的原因是，他的才华似乎不具有真正的英国特色。透纳的风景画，即使选取的都是寻常景物，也表现出一种不寻常的情状。结果，艺术家和有见识的外行都不满意。他呈现出的是绚丽的幻像；我们接受那份绚丽——但是感觉它缺少了我们认为至关重要的东西。我怀疑透纳是否欣赏过英国的乡村景色，我怀疑他是否具备英国诗歌的灵性，我怀疑他的灵魂是否洞悉了我们称为“美丽”的寻常事物的那种本质意义。这种怀疑并不影响他作为颜色和形状之诗人的伟大，但是我想这一直都是他无法赢得英格兰爱慕的原因。如果我认识的任何有智慧的人告诉我，他更喜欢伯基特·福斯特的作品，我会微笑——但是我会理解。