欧美文化 | She Walks in Beauty 她走在美的光彩中

She Walks in Beauty
她走在美的光彩中

She Walks in Beauty is a poem written in 1814 by Lord Byron, and is one of his most famous works. It was one of several poems to be set to Jewish tunes from the synagogue by Isaac Nathan, which were published as Hebrew Melodies in 1815. Alliteration occurs frequently to enhance the appeal of the poem to the ear. The most obvious examples of this figure of speech include the following: cloudless climes; starry skies.
《她走在美的光彩中》是拜伦勋爵写于1814年的诗,是诗人最为知名的诗篇之一。1815年出版的《希伯来歌集》,选曲来自艾萨克·内森为犹太教堂创作的乐曲,歌词则来自拜伦的众多诗篇,《她走在美的光彩中》便是其中的一首。该诗多采用头韵,听来韵律动人。文中几处显著的用法有“cloudless climes ”(皎洁无云)和“starry skies”(繁星漫天)。

She Walks in Beauty is a lyric poem centering on the extraordinary beauty of a young lady. On the evening of June 11, 1814, Byron attended a party with his friend. Among the other guests was the beautiful Mrs. Anne Beatrix Wilmot, the wife of Byron's first cousin. Her exquisite good looks dazzled Byron and inspired him to write She Walks in Beauty. The theme of the poem is the woman's exceptional beauty, internal as well as external. The first stanza praises her physical beauty. The second and third stanzas praise both her physical and spiritual, or intellectual, beauty.
该抒情诗吟诵了一位无比美丽的年轻女士。1814年6月11日夜,拜伦和朋友一起参加宴会。宴会嘉宾中就有拜伦表亲那美丽的妻子安妮·比阿特丽克斯·薇尔莫特。拜伦一时为安妮无比精致的面容倾倒,灵感突发,挥笔写下这首《她走在美的光彩中》。诗中展现了一位内外兼修的绝色佳人,第一节讴歌了主人公外在的美貌,第二和第三节则从外在和心灵上都赞扬了她的美丽和魅力。

Byron presents an ethereal portrait of the young woman in the first two stanzas by contrasting white with black and light with shadow in the same way that nature presents a portrait of the firmament — and the landscape below — on a cloudless starlit evening. Byron's words thus turn opposites into compeers working together to celebrate beauty.
拜伦在前两节诗中用黑白对比、光影交错的比喻,描绘了一位超凡脱俗的年轻女子。她的美,好比大自然在一个晴朗的、星辰密布的夜晚精心展示天空和大地万物的美一样。拜伦笔下原本相反的事物,却幻化成映衬她美丽的共同体。