Hugh Selwyn Mauberley

原文與注釋(Text and Annotation)

II
The age demanded an image  
Of its accelerated grimace,
Something for the modern stage,  
Not, at any rate, an Attic grace;
   
Not, not certainly, the obscure reveries 25
Of the inward gaze;  
Better mendacities  
Than the classics in paraphrase! (27-28)
   
The"age demanded"chiefly a mould in plaster,  
Made with no loss of time, 30
A prose kinema, not, assuredly, alabaster
Or the"sculpture"of rhyme.  



Line
Annotation
21
its accelerated grimace:its是指Age.全句是指現代社會變化快速如一張扭曲的臉,故意做小丑狀的臉。[back]
24
Not, at any rate, and Attic grace:Attic grace是指維多利亞式虛偽的高雅作風。[back]
25
obscure reveries:難解的晦澀夢幻或白日夢之類的思想。[back]
27-28
Better mendacities . . . paraphrase意謂有創造性的即使是謊言也好,總比沒有創造性,只知模擬或改寫古典文學要來得強。[back]
30
no loss of time:立即做好,馬上做好。指大量生產之意。[back]
31
kinema:希臘文,謂「動作片子」──指「電影」。全句是說二十世紀的藝術如電影,是平面的,散文化的,而不是詩的,不是立體化的。[back]

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