閱讀薩拉·梯斯苔爾 Sara Teasdale在诗海的作品!!! |
悌絲黛爾(Sara Teasdale,1884-1933),美國女詩人。悌絲黛爾出生於密蘇裏州的聖路易城,自小成長於傳統保守家庭,受到父母過度的保護。她先後進入洛剋伍德夫人學校(Mrs. Lockwood’s School)和瑪麗大學(Mary Institute)就讀,1903年,畢業於Hosmer Hall女子學院。她在大學時期開始寫詩,於1907年發表首篇詩作。1904到1907年間,悌絲黛爾曾和一群朋友創辦了一份頗獲好評的文學月刊《陶匠的轉輪》(The Potter’s Wheel)。她遊蹤廣阔,並多次前往芝加哥,後來成為哈麗葉.孟若(Harriet Monroe)所辦《詩刊》的成員,結識不少詩人。詩人林賽(Vachel Lindsay,1879-1931)對她展開熱烈追求,但因他作風行徑過於狂野大膽,悌絲黛爾最後拒絶了他的求愛。1914年,悌絲黛爾嫁給商人菲爾辛格(Ernst Filsinger)。丈夫對她呵護倍至,可是她個性孤僻,情緒不穩,再加上體弱多病,和丈夫關係漸行漸遠;1929年,她與丈夫離婚。之後,她離群索居,健康狀況日益惡化,並患有精神衰弱癥。1933年,她服用過量的安眠藥,死於紐約寓所的浴缸裏。
悌絲黛爾的第一本詩集《給杜斯的十四行詩及其它》(Sonnets to Duse and Other Poems)於1907年出版,之後陸續出版了《奔流入海的河流》(Rivers to the Sea,1915),《戀歌》(Love Songs,1917),《火焰與陰影》(Flame and Shadow,1920),《月亮的黑暗面》(Dark of the Moon,1926),和《奇異的勝利》(Strange Victory,1933)等詩集。1918年,《戀歌》為她贏得美國詩協會年度詩人奬,以及哥倫比亞大學詩協會奬(這是普立茲詩奬的前身)。
歲月的消逝,愛情的喜悅與幻滅,往事的追憶,人生的孤寂,死亡的沉思是悌絲黛爾詩作中常見的主題。她的作品情感節制、冷靜,語調溫柔、含蓄,但她用字精練且擅長營造氣氛,因此詩的密度頗高,十分耐讀。她在寫給一位友人的書信中提到:詩人應該設法使自己的詩作具有火焰般安祥、敏捷的特質,如此纔可讓讀者在閱讀時不假思索地立即感受,而在讀畢之後不斷思索。在此處譯的三首詩當中,我們可以看到她此種詩觀的實踐。
In 1918, she won the Columbia University Poetry Society prize and the annual prize of the Poetry Society of America for her volume, Love Songs. Throughout her life, Teasdale suffered poor health and it was at age 9 that she was well enough to begin school In 1898 she went to Mary Institute and to Hosmer Hall in 1899 where she finished in 1903. In 1913 Teasdale fell in love with a poet Vachel Lindsay. He wrote her daily love letters, but nevertheless she married Ernst Filsinger in 1914 when she was 30. Teasdale and Lindsay remained friends throughout their lives. Teasdale was a product of her upbringing, and was never able to experience the passion that she expressed in her poetry. She was not happy in her marriage, and she divorced in 1929. On the morning of January 29, 1933, she overdosed on sleeping pills in her apartment, lay down in a warm bath, fell asleep, and never woke up again. In 1931 Lindsay,her friend, had also committed suicide.
In 1994, Sara Teasdale was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
She is interred in the Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.
Teasdale's suicide and "I Shall Not Care"
A common urban legend surrounds Teasdale's 1933 suicide. The legend claims that her poem "I Shall Not Care" (which features themes of abandonment, bitterness, and contemplation of death) was penned as a suicide note to a former lover. However, the poem was actually first published in her 1915 collection Rivers to the Sea, a full 18 years before her suicide: [1]
I SHALL NOT CARE
When I am dead and over me bright April
Shakes out her rain-drenched hair,
Though you should lean above me broken-hearted,
I shall not care.
I shall have peace, as leafy trees are peaceful
When rain bends down the bough,
And I shall be more silent and cold-hearted
Than you are now.
Sara Teasdale (1915)
編輯者: hello