旅行的藝術(shù):風(fēng)景 Ⅴ 鄉(xiāng)村與城市-6

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為什么？為什么接近一座瀑布、一座山或自然界中的任何一部分，一個(gè)人比較能免于“仇恨和卑劣欲望”的騷擾？為什么在比肩接踵的街道就做不到？

Why? Why would proximity to a cataract, a mountain or any other part of nature render one less likely to experience 'enmities and low desires' than proximity to crowded streets?

湖區(qū)提供了我們一些線索。我和M在這里的第一個(gè)早晨起得很早，到“凡人”旅館的早點(diǎn)室享用早餐。它的墻漆上一層粉紅色，從窗口向外望出，是一個(gè)茂密的山谷。外面下著大雨，但房東向我們保證，這不過是一場(chǎng)過路雨。他接著為我們呈上了粥，并提醒我們?cè)绮腿粝爰拥氨仨氼~外付費(fèi)。錄音機(jī)正在播放秘魯?shù)墓軜?，并且穿插亨德?[7] 《彌賽亞》片斷。我們用過早點(diǎn)后，把背包整理好，隨即開車到安布賽德鎮(zhèn)采購(gòu)一些背包行走的必用品，如指南針、防水地圖套、水、巧克力和三明治。

The Lake District offered suggestions. M and I rose early on our first morning and went down to the Mortal Man's breakfast room, which was painted pink and overlooked a luxuriant valley. It was raining heavily, but the landlord assured us, before serving us porridge and informing us that eggs would cost extra, that this was but a passing shower. A tape recorder was playing Peruvian pipe music, interspersed with highlights of Handel's Messiah. Having eaten, we packed a rucksack and drove to the town of Ambleside, where we bought a few items to take with us on a walk: a compass, a waterproof map holder, water, chocolate and some sandwiches.

安布賽德鎮(zhèn)雖然不大，但是它卻有大都會(huì)的喧嘩。大卡車正在商店外卸貨，嘈雜聲不斷。另外，到處都可看見餐館和旅店的告示牌。雖然我們很早便到達(dá)這里，但茶室早已座無虛席。報(bào)攤架上的報(bào)紙，刊登了倫敦一場(chǎng)政治丑聞的最新態(tài)勢(shì)。

Little, Ambleside had the bustle of a metropolis. Lorries were noisily unloading their goods outside shops, there were placards everywhere advertising restaurants and hotels, and though it was still early the teashops were full. On racks outside newsagents, the papers carried the latest development in a political scandal in London.

然而，安布賽德鎮(zhèn)西北方幾英里外的大朗戴爾谷，景色卻迥然不同。我們自抵達(dá)湖區(qū)以來，首次深入鄉(xiāng)間，感受到了大自然的氣息遠(yuǎn)強(qiáng)于人氣。行道兩旁的田野里聳立著許多橡樹，樹與樹之間都相隔一段距離，對(duì)山羊來說，這片田野肯定曾讓它們胃口大開，因?yàn)檎麄€(gè)的田野已被它們啃平，變成不錯(cuò)的草坪了。橡樹長(zhǎng)得非常高雅標(biāo)致。它的樹枝不像柳樹那樣垂臥在地上，葉子也不像一些白楊樹那樣不修邊幅，近距離看起來像半夜被喚醒的模樣一樣：頭發(fā)蓬亂、不及梳理。相比之下，橡樹將低處的樹枝緊密地收聚起來，較高處的樹枝則有序地生長(zhǎng)，形成了一個(gè)翠綠茂密、近乎完美的圓形冠頂，就好像小孩的畫中樹的原型一樣。

A few miles north-west of the town, in the Great Langdale valley, the atmosphere was transformed. For the first time since arriving in the Lake District, we were in deep countryside, where nature was more in evidence than humans. On either side of the path stood a number of oak trees. Each one grew far from the shadow of its neighbour, in fields so appetizing to sheep as to have been eaten down to a perfect lawn. The oaks were of noble bearing: they did not trail their branches on the ground like willows, nor did their leaves have the dishevelled appearance of certain poplars, which can look from close-up as though they have been awoken in the middle of the night and not had time to fix their hair. Instead they gathered their lower branches tightly under themselves while their upper branches grew in small orderly steps, producing a rich green foliage in an almost perfect circle-like an archetypal tree drawn by a child.

與房東預(yù)測(cè)的相反，雨繼續(xù)下個(gè)不停，站在橡樹下，我們感覺到了橡樹的碩大。雨點(diǎn)灑落在4萬片樹葉上，擊打或大或小、或高或低、或積水或少水的葉片，發(fā)出了不同音調(diào)的聲響，形成了“噼里啪啦”的和諧旋律。這些樹木形成了一個(gè)復(fù)雜而又有序的系統(tǒng)：樹根耐心地從泥土中吸收養(yǎng)分；樹干中的毛細(xì)管將水和養(yǎng)分朝25米高的上方運(yùn)送；每根樹枝吸收足夠的養(yǎng)分滋潤(rùn)樹葉；每片樹葉盡力為整棵樹貢獻(xiàn)一己之力。這些樹木也體現(xiàn)出了耐心：它們聳立在這個(gè)下雨的早晨，不發(fā)一句怨言，只是適應(yīng)著季節(jié)的緩慢轉(zhuǎn)變。它們不會(huì)因?yàn)轱L(fēng)狂雨暴而陷入狂躁，也不會(huì)因耐不住寂寞而想要遠(yuǎn)走高飛，去往別的河谷。這些橡樹安安分分的，樹根像細(xì)長(zhǎng)的手指深入濕濕的土壤里，延伸到離主干若干米的地方，同時(shí)也遠(yuǎn)離了最高處蓄滿雨水的樹葉。

The rain, which continued to fall confidently despite the promises of the landlord, gave us a sense of the mass of the oaks. From under their damp canopy, rain could be heard falling on 40,000 leaves, creating a harmonious pitter-patter, varying in pitch according to whether water dripped on to a large or a small leaf, a high or a low one, one loaded with accumulated water or not. The trees were an image of ordered complexity: the roots patiently drew nutrients from the soil, the capillaries of their trunks sent water twenty-five metres upwards, each branch took enough but not too much for the needs of its own leaves, each leaf contributed to the maintenance of the whole. The trees were an image of patience too, for they would sit out this rainy morning and the many that would follow it without complaint, adjusting themselves to the slow shift of the seasons-showing no ill-temper in a storm, no desire to wander from their spot for an impetuous journey across to another valley; content to keep their many slender fingers deep in the clammy soil, metres from their central stems and far from the tallest leaves which held the rainwater in their palms.

華茲華斯喜歡坐在橡樹下，聆聽著雨聲或者看著陽光穿梭于樹葉間。他把樹木的耐心和莊嚴(yán)看作是大自然特有的杰作，并且認(rèn)為這些價(jià)值應(yīng)該受到尊重。他寫道：

Wordsworth enjoyed sitting beneath oaks, listening to the rain or watching sunbeams fracture across their leaves. What he saw as the patience and dignity of the trees struck him as characteristic of Nature's works, which were to be valued for holding up:

在心靈為了眼前的景物

before the mind intoxicate

沉醉之前，一場(chǎng)眼花繚亂之舞

With present objects, and the busy dance

轉(zhuǎn)瞬即逝，大自然卻適度呈現(xiàn)了

Of things that pass away, a temperate show

一些永恒的東西

Of objects that endure

華茲華斯說，大自然會(huì)指引我們從生命和彼此身上尋找“一切存在著的美好和善良的東西”，自然是“美好意念的影像”，對(duì)于扭曲、不正常的都市生活有矯正的功能。

Nature would, he proposed, dispose us to seek out in life and in each other, 'Whate'er there is desirable and good'. She was an 'image of right reason' that would temper the crooked impulses of urban life.

如果我們要接受華茲華斯的論點(diǎn)（即便是其中一部分），我們就必須接受以下前提：人的身份認(rèn)同多多少少都具有伸縮性，也就是說，我們的個(gè)性會(huì)隨著周圍的人或物的轉(zhuǎn)變而變化。與某些人往來，可能會(huì)激發(fā)我們的慷慨和敏感，但與另外一些人來往則會(huì)引發(fā)我們的好勝和嫉妒心。A君對(duì)于地位和權(quán)勢(shì)的迷戀可能會(huì)悄悄引發(fā)B君對(duì)自己身份輕重的擔(dān)憂。A君所開的玩笑可能潛移默化地激起B(yǎng)君隱藏在內(nèi)心已久的荒謬感。但如果把B君置于另一個(gè)環(huán)境，他所關(guān)注的事物將受新的互動(dòng)者的言行舉止影響，隨之發(fā)生轉(zhuǎn)變。

To accept even in part Wordsworth's argument may require that we accept a prior principle: that our identities are to a greater or lesser extent malleable; that we change according to whom-and sometimes what -we are with. The company of certain people excites our generosity and sensitivity, of others, our competitiveness and envy. A's obsession with status and hierarchy may-almost imperceptibly-lead B to worry about his significance. A's jokes may quietly lend assistance to B's hitherto submerged sense of the ridiculous. But move B to another environment and his concerns will subtly shift in relation to a new interlocutor.

那么如果把人放置于大自然中，與一座瀑布或高山、一棵橡樹或一株白屈菜共處，又會(huì)對(duì)他的身份認(rèn)同產(chǎn)生什么影響呢？畢竟，草木無情，它們何以能鼓勵(lì)我們，讓我們從善如流。然而，華茲華斯堅(jiān)持認(rèn)為人類能從大自然中獲益，其論點(diǎn)的關(guān)鍵在于：一個(gè)沒有活動(dòng)能力的物體仍然能對(duì)它周遭的事物產(chǎn)生影響。自然景物具有提示我們某些價(jià)值的能力，例如：橡樹象征尊嚴(yán)、松樹象征堅(jiān)毅、湖泊象征靜謐。因此，自然界景物能夠含蓄地喚起我們的德性。

What may then be expected to occur to a person's identity in the company of a cataract or mountain, an oak tree or a celandine-objects which, after all, have no conscious concerns and so, it would seem, cannot either encourage or censor behaviour? And yet an inanimate object may, to come to the linchpin of Wordsworth's claim for the beneficial effects of nature, still work an influence on those around it. Natural scenes have the power to suggest certain values to us-oaks dignity, pines resolution, lakes calm-and, in unobtrusive ways, may therefore act as inspirations to virtue.

華茲華斯在1802年夏天寫給一位年輕學(xué)生的信中，討論了詩歌的作用。他在信中幾乎明確指出自然界所包含的價(jià)值。他說：“一位偉大的詩人……應(yīng)該在某種程度上矯正人們的思想感情……使他們的感情更健全、純潔和永久，也就是與大自然產(chǎn)生共鳴、更加和諧。”

In a letter written to a young student in the summer of 1802, while discussing the task of poetry, Wordsworth came close to specifying the values he felt Nature embodied: 'A great Poet … ought to a certain degree to rectify men's feelings … to render their feelings more sane, pure and permanent, in short, more consonant to Nature.'

華茲華斯從每個(gè)自然景觀中都能找到這份穩(wěn)健、純潔和永恒性。例如，花朵是謙卑和溫順的典范。

In every natural landscape, Wordsworth found instances of this sanity, purity and permanence. Flowers, for example, were models of humility and meekness.

致雛菊

TO THE DAISY

甜美、恬靜的你！

Sweet silent Creature!

與我一同沐浴在陽光中、在空氣中吐息

That breath'st with me in sun and air,

你以歡欣和柔順

Do thou, as thou art wont, repair

溫潤(rùn)

My heart with gladness, and a share

我的心

Of thy meek nature!

動(dòng)物是堅(jiān)忍的象征。華茲華斯對(duì)一只藍(lán)色山雀特別鐘愛，因?yàn)榧词故亲類毫拥奶鞖?，它也仍舊在詩人寓所“鴿舍”的果園里高歌一曲。詩人和妹妹多蘿茜在那里度過的第一個(gè)嚴(yán)冬，便被一對(duì)天鵝感動(dòng)，這對(duì)天鵝也是那里的新客，但卻比他們兄妹倆更能忍耐寒冷。

Animals, for their part, were paragons of stoicism. Wordsworth at one point became quite attached to a bluetit that, even in the worst weather, sang in the orchard above Dove Cottage. During their first, freezing winter there, the poet and his sister were inspired by a pair of swans that were also new to the area and endured the cold with greater patience than the Wordsworths.

我們?cè)诶蚀鳡柹焦茸吡?個(gè)小時(shí)后，雨勢(shì)開始減弱，我和M聽見了持續(xù)不斷但十分微弱的“啐”聲，穿插著較強(qiáng)的“啼嗦”聲。三只鷚從草叢中飛出，一只黑耳麥翁鳥則高踞在松樹枝上，神色憂郁，它在夏末的陽光中曬著那沙黃色的羽毛。不知什么東西驚動(dòng)了它，它突地飛離了原位，在山谷上空盤旋，并發(fā)出迅疾而刺耳的叫聲：“噓耳，噓喂，噓喂喔！”然而這陣?guó)Q叫聲卻絲毫未對(duì)巖石上費(fèi)力攀爬的毛毛蟲產(chǎn)生影響，而谷地上的眾多綿羊也無動(dòng)于衷。

An hour up the Langdale valley, the rain having abated, M and I hear a faint tseep, rapidly repeated, alternating with a louder tissip. Three meadow pipits are flying out of a patch of rough grass. A black-eared wheatear is looking pensive on a conifer branch, warming its pale sandy-buff feathers in the late summer sun. Stirred by something, it takes off and circles the valley, releasing a rapid and high-pitched schwer, schwee, schweeoo . The sound has no effect on a caterpillar walking strenuously across a rock, nor on the many sheep dotted over the valley floor.

一只羊緩緩地走近小道，并好奇地望著游客。人和羊都驚訝地互相凝視。過了一陣，那只羊蹲了下來，懶洋洋地吃了一口草，好像在咀嚼口香糖一樣。為什么我是我這樣，而它又緣何是那般樣子？另一只綿羊走過來，挨著它的同伴蹲了下來。霎時(shí)間里，它們好像交換了一個(gè)會(huì)意而欣然的眼神。

One of the sheep ambles towards the path and looks curiously at her visitors. Humans and sheep stare at one another in wonder. After a moment, the sheep sits down and takes a lazy mouthful of grass, chewing from the side of her mouth as though it was gum. Why am I me and she she? Another sheep approaches and lies next to her companion, wool to wool, and for a second they exchange what appears to be a knowing, mildly amused glance.

在前方幾米處，有一片蔓延到溪流的草叢。草叢中突然發(fā)出一種奇怪的聲音，像是一個(gè)倦意十足的老翁在飽食一餐后清理喉嚨的聲音。緊接著是雜亂的颯颯聲，像是有人在一堆樹葉中急躁不安地翻找寶物。一旦發(fā)現(xiàn)有來者，他便即刻安靜下來，緊張得好像小孩在玩捉迷藏時(shí)躲在衣柜后面屏住呼吸，不敢出聲。在安布賽德，人們買報(bào)紙，吃煎餅，而在這里，隱藏在草叢中的或許是一只長(zhǎng)滿毛、拖著一條尾巴、愛吃漿果和蒼蠅的動(dòng)物，正在樹葉堆中亂竄，發(fā)出“呼嚕，呼嚕”的聲音。然而，這個(gè)家伙盡管如此奇怪，卻仍然活在當(dāng)下，是個(gè)和我們一樣睡覺和呼吸、活生生地生活在這個(gè)地球上的生物，而宇宙中除了這個(gè)星球有生物外，其他主要都是由巖石、蒸氣和沉寂構(gòu)成。

A few metres ahead, inside a deep green bush that grows down to a stream, comes a noise like that of a lethargic old man clearing his throat after a heavy lunch. This is followed by an incongruously frantic rustle, as though someone were rifling through a bed of leaves in an irritated search for a valuable possession. But on noticing that it has company, the creature falls silent, the tense silence of a child holding its breath at the back of a clothes cupboard during a game of hide-and-seek. In Ambleside, people are buying newspapers and eating scones. And here, buried in a bush, is a thing, probably with fur, perhaps a tail, interested in eating berries or flies, scurrying in the foliage, grunting-and yet still for all its oddities a contemporary, a fellow sleeping and breathing creature alive on this singular planet in a universe otherwise made up chiefly of rocks and vapours and silence.

華茲華斯寫詩的目的之一是想引導(dǎo)我們?nèi)リP(guān)注那些和我們生活在一起、卻常被人漠視的動(dòng)物。我們經(jīng)常只是用眼角余光瞥它們一眼，從未嘗試去了解它們正在做什么或想要什么，它們的存在不過是一些模糊而又普普通通的影子，例如尖塔上的小鳥和在草叢中穿梭的動(dòng)物。詩人請(qǐng)讀者放下他們的成見，設(shè)想用動(dòng)物的眼光看看這個(gè)世界，并輾轉(zhuǎn)切換于人類和自然界的視角。為什么這樣做會(huì)有趣、甚至有啟發(fā)性呢？也許不快樂的泉源正來自我們用單一的視角看世界。在我前往湖區(qū)的幾天前，我發(fā)現(xiàn)有一本19世紀(jì)的書討論華茲華斯對(duì)鳥類的興趣。該書的序言中提示了運(yùn)用多重視角看待事物的好處：

One of Wordsworth's poetic ambitions was to induce us to see the many animals living alongside us whom we typically ignore, registering them only out of the corner of our eyes, having no appreciation of what they are up to and want: shadowy, generic presences; the bird up on the steeple, the rustling creature in the bush. He invited his readers to abandon their usual perspectives and to consider for a time how the world might look through other eyes, to shuttle between the human and natural perspective. Why might this be interesting, or even inspiring? Perhaps because unhappiness can stem from having only one perspective to play with. A few days before travelling to the Lake District I had happened upon a nineteenth-century book that discussed Wordsworth's interest in birds and in its preface hinted at the benefits of the alternative perspective they offered:

我相信，如果這個(gè)國(guó)家的地方消息、每日新聞或一周大事不僅記載這塊領(lǐng)土上伯爵、尊貴女士、國(guó)會(huì)議員和大人物的啟程和返程，而且也記錄鳥兒的抵達(dá)和離去，必定會(huì)給公眾帶來樂趣。

I am sure it would give much pleasure to many of the public if the local, daily and weekly press throughout this country would always record, not only the arrivals and departures of Lords, Ladies, MPs and the great people of this land, but also the arrivals and departures of birds.

如果我們對(duì)這個(gè)時(shí)代或精英的價(jià)值觀感到痛心，那么思及地球生命的豐富多采，或許會(huì)讓我們感到釋然，讓我們記住，這個(gè)世界除了大人物的事業(yè)，還有在原野鳴叫的草地鷚。

If we are pained by the values of the age or of the élite, it can be a source of relief to come upon reminders of the diversity of life on the planet, to hold in mind that, alongside the business of the great people of the land, there are also pipits tseeping in meadows.

當(dāng)科爾律治回頭看華茲華斯早期的詩作時(shí)，他認(rèn)為這個(gè)天才作了以下的貢獻(xiàn)：

Looking back on Wordsworth's early poems, Coleridge would assert that their genius had been to:

賦予日常事物以新意，并且激發(fā)一種類似超自然的感覺；通過喚醒人們的意識(shí)，使它從慣性的冷漠中解放出來，看著眼前的世界是多么可愛和奇妙。大自然是個(gè)取之不盡的寶藏，然而因?yàn)槿祟惖膽T性和自私自利的追逐，我們視而不見、充耳不聞，心靈既不能感受也不能領(lǐng)悟。

give the charm of novelty to things of every day, and to excite a feeling analogous to the supernatural, by awakening the mind's attention from the lethargy of custom, and directing it to the loveliness and wonders of the world before us; an inexhaustible treasure, but for which, in consequence of the film of familiarity and selfish solicitude we have eyes, yet see not, ears that hear not, and hearts that neither feel nor understand.

華茲華斯認(rèn)為大自然的“可愛”能繼而鼓勵(lì)人們找到自己內(nèi)在的善。兩個(gè)人站在巖石邊，俯瞰著河流及樹木茂密的大山谷。這樣的景色可能不僅改變了他們與自然的關(guān)系，也使得這兩人之間的關(guān)系更不一樣了。

Nature's 'loveliness' might in turn, according to Wordsworth, encourage us to locate the good in ourselves. Two people standing on the edge of a rock overlooking a stream and a grand wooded valley might transform their relationship not just with nature but, as significantly, with each other.

在懸崖相伴之下，我們?cè)P(guān)注的一些東西都顯得不重要了。反之，一些崇高的念頭油然而生。它的雄偉鼓勵(lì)我們要穩(wěn)重和寬宏大量；它的巨大體積教導(dǎo)我們用謙卑和善意尊重超越我們的東西。當(dāng)然，站在一座瀑布前或許會(huì)引發(fā)我們對(duì)一位同事的羨慕，但是如果華茲華斯的觀點(diǎn)能讓人信服的話，那么出現(xiàn)這種情況的可能性會(huì)小一些。詩人認(rèn)為人的一生如果在大自然中度過，人的性格會(huì)被改變不少，不再會(huì)爭(zhēng)強(qiáng)好勝，羨慕別人，也不再焦慮，于是他歡呼：

There are concerns that seem indecent when one is in the company of a cliff; others to which cliffs naturally lend their assistance, their majesty encouraging the steady and highminded in ourselves, their size teaching us to respect with good grace and an awed humility all that surpasses us. It is of course still possible to feel envy for a colleague before a mighty cataract. It is just, if the Wordsworthian message is to be believed, a little more unlikely. Wordsworth argued that, through a life spent in nature, his character had been shaped to resist competition, envy and anxiety-and so he celebrated,

阿舍·布朗·杜蘭德：《相近的靈魂》，1849年

… that first I looked

……起初

At Man through objects that were great or fair;

我透過偉大或美好的東西來看人，

First communed with him by their help. And thus

藉由這些東西的助力來深入了解人

Was founded a sure safeguard and defence

結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個(gè)穩(wěn)固的堡壘，對(duì)抗

Against the weight of meanness, selfish cares,

卑鄙、自私、粗野、低俗——

Coarse manners, vulgar passions, that beat in

這些在我們?nèi)粘Ｉ钍澜?/p>

On all sides from the ordinary world

從四面八方向我們進(jìn)襲的敵人。

In which we traffic