六节诗 Sestina

Sestina : 庞德的六节诗朗诵

1909年早春，在伦敦埃菲尔铁塔餐厅，餐桌旁坐着三个年轻人。他们正热烈地讨论着一些文学问题。

忽然，那个带着外地口音的青年从怀里掏出了一本小册子。他翻到了其中的一页，开始抑扬顿挫地朗读一首诗。

青年人的声音洪亮而激昂，时而像雷霆之吼，时而似火山喷发，震得桌上的餐具锵锵作响，整个餐厅的人都为之诧异。

他就是庞德。半年前，他带着自费出版的诗集，从美国来到伦敦寻找志同道合者。在这家餐厅里，他见到了著名英国诗人休姆和弗林特，并为他们朗诵了一首自己的作品《六节诗：高调强音》(Sestina: Altaforte)。

这是一首古体诗歌，描述了法国骑士伯特兰·德·波恩对战争的赞颂。

全诗共有七个小节，前六节各六行，尾词固定，但位置依次循环，最后一小节是跋，三行。 这首诗读起来铿锵有力，情绪高昂，为了达到诗名所述“高调强音”的效果，庞德用了六个特别的尾词：peace（和平）, music（音乐）, clash（拼杀）, opposing（对抗）, crimson（猩红）, rejoicing（狂喜）。这六个尾词出现在不同的诗行中，演绎了六个缩微主题，让人们朗读这首诗时，仿佛走入一座中世纪的城堡，看见一个血腥好战的男人，在愤怒中撕毁和平，在杀戮中兴奋狂喜，在战胜后祝酒欢歌。整首诗采用了独白的叙述角度，骑士的声音充满了男性沙文主义的暴力感，音调格外高亢，正如诗人所言，朗读者应该有“57英寸的胸膛”。

Sestina: Altaforte
By Ezra Pound

LOQUITUR: En Betrans de Born.
     Dante Alighieri put this man in hell for that he was a stirrer-up of strife.
     Eccovi!
     Judge ye!
     Have I dug him up again?

  The scene is his castle, Altaforte. “Papiols” is his jongleur. “The
Leopard,” the device of Richard (Cœur de Lion).

                                      I

Damn it all! all this our South stinks peace. 
You whoreson dog, Papiols, come! Let’s to music! 
I have no life save when the swords clash. 
But ah! when I see the standards gold, vair, purple, opposing 
And the broad fields beneath them turn crimson, 
Then howl I my heart nigh mad with rejoicing. 

                                      II

In hot summer have I great rejoicing 
When the tempests kill the earth’s foul peace, 
And the light’nings from black heav’n flash crimson, 
And the fierce thunders roar me their music 
And the winds shriek through the clouds mad, opposing, 
And through all the riven skies God’s swords clash. 

                                     III

Hell grant soon we hear again the swords clash!
And the shrill neighs of destriers in battle rejoicing,
Spiked breast to spiked breast opposing!
Better one hour’s stour than a year’s peace
With fat boards, bawds, wine and frail music!
Bah! there’s no wine like the blood’s crimson!

                                     IV

And I love to see the sun rise blood-crimson.
And I watch his spears through the dark clash
And it fills all my heart with rejoicing
And prys wide my mouth with fast music
When I see him so scorn and defy peace,
His lone might ’gainst all darkness opposing.

                                     V

The man who fears war and squats opposing
My words for stour, hath no blood of crimson
But is fit only to rot in womanish peace
Far from where worth’s won and the swords clash
For the death of such sluts I go rejoicing;
Yea, I fill all the air with my music.

                                     VI

Papiols, Papiols, to the music!
There’s no sound like to swords swords opposing,
No cry like the battle’s rejoicing
When our elbows and swords drip the crimson
And our charges ’gainst “The Leopard’s” rush clash.
May God damn for ever all who cry “Peace!”

                                     VII

And let the music of the swords make them crimson
Hell grant soon we hear again the swords clash!
Hell blot black for always the thought “Peace”!

六节诗 Sestina 的古今传奇

六节诗最早起源于法国。

十二世纪，法国普罗旺斯有一位名叫阿诺特·丹尼尔(Arnaut Daniel)的吟游诗人(troubadour)，由于当时的行业竞争颇为激烈，他需要不断创作出高难度的复杂作品才更有竞争力，因此第一首六节诗应运而生。

尾词变化是六节诗的重要特征。有学者称其为“所有秘密和能量的储藏之所，尤其在时间信息方面，它更具有宝贵的价值”。

因此，在探索六节诗的多维度“时间模型”之前，有必要简单了解一下什么是尾词循环。

六节诗 Sestina 也叫六字循环诗，诗人在写作之前需要先确定六个词。

比如20世纪美国诗人米勒·威廉姆斯(Miller Williams)的《萎缩且孤独的六节诗》(THE SHRINKING LONESOME SESTINA)，在第一节中首先确定了句尾的六个微缩主题词分别是：home，time, come, goes, fast,to。虽然这是六个非常简单的词汇，却包含着人世间无尽的期待与渴望。

在接下来的五个小节中，这几个词始终占据着词尾，按照特殊的次序非常有规律地重复着，仿佛诗人把上一节的诗句不断从两边向中间折叠，从而让主题词所演绎的时间与空间在重复中发生着变化。

再用最简单的方式阐述一下尾词的这个规律：可以假设这六个尾词是123456，第一节中，尾词的排列顺序是123456，到了第二节，上一节的尾词要按照从两边到中间、右先左后的顺序成2个一组地提取出来排列，于是第二节的尾词就成为：61 52 43。

第三节再把第二节的尾词以同样的方法提出来，尾词排列就是：36 41 25。

按照这个尾词呈现的规律，威廉姆斯写出了下面这首不断萎缩的六节诗，写到第六节时，只剩下六个尾词，却依然能够成诗：Time goes too fast. Come home. 其中too字取了to的谐音，因为朗读起来没有差别。这样便形成了神奇的萎缩效果。 第七节是整首的跋，每行包含了2个尾词，微缩主题的呈现频率更快，带给整首诗的意象冲击也更大。

THE SHRINKING LONESOME SESTINA
By MILLER WILLIAMS

Somewhere in everyone’s head something points toward home,
 a dashboard’s floating compass, turning all the time
 to keep from turning. It doesn’t matter how we come
 to be wherever we are, someplace where nothing goes
 the way it went once, where nothing holds fast
 to where it belongs, or what you’ve risen or fallen to.

What the bubble always points to,
 whether we notice it or not, is home.
 It may be true that if you move fast
 everything fades away, that given time
 and noise enough, every memory goes
 into the blackness, and if new ones come-

small, mole-like memories that come
 to live in the furry dark-they, too,
 curl up and die. But Carol goes
 to high school now. John works at home
 what days he can to spend some time
 with Sue and the kids. He drives too fast.

Ellen won’t eat her breakfast.
 Your sister was going to come
 but didn’t have the time.
 Some mornings at one or two
 or three I want you home
 a lot, but then it goes.

It all goes.
 Hold on fast
 to thoughts of home
 when they come.
 They’re going to
 less with time.

Time
 goes
 too
 fast.
 Come
 home.

Forgive me that. One time it wasn’t fast.
 A myth goes that when the years come
 then you will, too. Me, I’ll still be home.

然而，并不是每首六节诗 Sestina 都要求萎缩。其实，古典六节诗要求每行的长度要大致平均。也许因为这种诗歌技巧难度太高，六节诗自十六世纪传入英国后，经历了三个世纪的沉寂，最终才于二十世纪在英国文学界重新绽放光彩。其中，庞德的《高调强音》就是“自文艺复兴之后对这种诗体最有名的尝试”。

六节诗里的奇异时空

二十世纪的杰出诗人不仅让六节诗陡然复活，而且给这种诗歌形式赋予了新的生命力。

早在十二世纪，六节诗曾是吟游诗人用来歌颂爱情的动人歌曲，由于这种诗歌的特殊形式，它可以在不断的重复中，将浪漫的情感演绎得淋漓尽致，但这种效果并不仅限于表达爱情。到了二十世纪，诗人开始用这个形式在诗歌中开拓多元的时空意识。伊丽莎白·毕肖普的《六节诗》就是一个典型的例子。

Sestina
By Elizabeth Bishop

September rain falls on the house.
In the failing light, the old grandmother
sits in the kitchen with the child
beside the Little Marvel Stove,
reading the jokes from the almanac,
laughing and talking to hide her tears.

She thinks that her equinoctial tears
and the rain that beats on the roof of the house 
were both foretold by the almanac,
but only known to a grandmother.
The iron kettle sings on the stove.
She cuts some bread and says to the child,

It’s time for tea now; but the child
is watching the teakettle’s small hard tears
dance like mad on the hot black stove,
the way the rain must dance on the house.
Tidying up, the old grandmother
hangs up the clever almanac

on its string. Birdlike, the almanac
hovers half open above the child,
hovers above the old grandmother
and her teacup full of dark brown tears.
She shivers and says she thinks the house
feels chilly, and puts more wood in the stove.

It was to be, says the Marvel Stove.
I know what I know, says the almanac.
With crayons the child draws a rigid house
and a winding pathway. Then the child
puts in a man with buttons like tears
and shows it proudly to the grandmother.

But secretly, while the grandmother
busies herself about the stove,
the little moons fall down like tears
from between the pages of the almanac
into the flower bed the child
has carefully placed in the front of the house.

Time to plant tears, says the almanac.
The grandmother sings to the marvelous stove
and the child draws another inscrutable house.

“九月的雨叩击着房屋/昏暗中有位年迈的祖母/在厨房里带着孩童/倚着神奇牌小火炉/读读笑话翻翻年历/欢声笑语遮掩了她的泪滴”

这首诗有六个看似平凡的尾词：房屋、祖母、孩童、火炉、年历和泪滴。但平凡中却暗藏着玄机。

“诗人利用六个尾词的不断重复，把六种事物绵密地交织在一起，晕染出一种现象学上的神秘。”

诗里有丰富的泪水形象，祖母悲伤的泪水，持续不断的雨水，茶杯里深棕色的泪水，孩子画中衣扣形状如泪水，月亮落下的样子似泪水，以及茶壶上“小滴而坚硬的泪水”。

这些泪水形象虚实交错，彼此指涉，在现实世界之上又重叠了几层想象的空间，而会说话的年历与火炉又给故事增添了奇特的神秘感。

祖母的秋分之泪与九月的雨是一种互文，秋分既暗示了季节的更替，也暗指祖母年复一年老去，这种衰老的悲伤在与孩童相伴的欢乐中得到了暂时的掩盖。而每一次泪水形象的出现，都让时间在不同空间中交替与变换，从而让诗歌中的时间不再以线性方式呈现，而是通过虚实不同的空间同时展现。

在时空塑造的能力上，六字循环的形式赋予了六节诗无穷的力量。“可以说，诗歌本身就是时间的展厅。”

对于这种奇特的尾词循环与时间的关系，学者桑翠林在《六节诗的现代复兴及原因》中陈述：

“六节诗的多样性时间结构与中世纪人类社会的世界观和时间观有直接联系。……吟游诗人的六节诗里，语言是多维度的，是音乐和舞蹈的化身……在中世纪，时间本质上是按照神学思想来理解的……死亡永在，命运无常……时间无情，这一类主题的反复出现都表明了这种思想。这是一种’淡薄模糊’的时间意识，人们能够‘以一种悠闲的态度存在’。中世纪的神学时间可以是循环的，也可以是精致的，面对线性基督教时间的挑战，‘中世纪通过回到种种循环概念，通过雅阁限制过去与未来的规模来加以抵抗，由此造成的时间凝滞所带来的结果是，一切声称与变易都被根除。’六节诗结构中隐含的多种时间观念，既反映了基督教时间的影响，也体现了中世纪时间观对线性历史的消解意图。从这个意义上来说，六节诗的一种平等对待线性时间和非线性时间的诗歌形式。”

“十三世纪后期机械钟的发明，使可精确测量的线性分割时间逐渐主导了社会的存在模式。十八、十九世纪工业革命带来的不可逆的热力学时间更加强了线性时间的控制力。在现当代的语境中，在线性时间的大一统控制下，非线性的其他时间形态得不到生长，人们的信仰和爱也日渐式微。也许正是因为如此，现代诗人选择在六节诗这篇时间的诗歌土壤上催生时间的多样性，用多种时间形态的模具撞在存在于不可逆的线性历史中的现代世界。现代诗人借助二者相斥而产生的张力来还原现代世界的诞生，检查它的病例和悲伤的源头。”

最后，再读一首奥登的诗来体会一下这种融合了线性与非线性时间的诗歌形式吧。

Have a Good Time
By W. H. Auden

“We have brought you,” they said, “a map of the country;
Here is the line that runs to the vats,
This patch of green on the left is the wood,
We’ve pencilled an arrow to point out the bay.
No thank you, no tea; why look at the clock.
Keep it? Of course. It goes with our love.

“We shall watch your future and send our love.
We lived for years, you know, in the country.
Remember at week-ends to wind up the clock.
We’ve wired to our manager at the vats.
The tides are perfectly safe in the bay,
But whatever you do don’t go to the wood.

“There’s a flying trickster in that wood,
And we shan’t be there to help with our love.
Keep fit by bathing in the bay,
You’ll never catch fever then in the country.
You’re sure of a settled job at the vats
If you keep their hours and live by the clock.”

He arrived at last; it was time by the clock.
He crossed himself as he passed the wood;
Black against evening sky the vats
Brought tears to his eyes as he thought of their love;
Looking out over the darkening country,
He saw the pier in the little bay.

At the week-ends the divers in the bay
Distracted his eyes from the bandstand clock;
When down with fever and in the country
A skein of swans above the wood
Caused him no terror; he came to love
The moss that grew on the derelict vats.

And he has met sketching at the vats
Guests from the new hotel in the bay;
Now, curious, following his love,
His pulses differing from the clock,
Finds consummation in the wood
And sees for the first time the country.

Sees water in the wood and trees by the bay.
Hears a clock striking near the vats:
“This is your country and the hour of love.”

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