酷我-北美枫

[timmid]

I. Introduction



The meaning of any literary work lies at least at three levels (see the following figure): 1) meaning, which is comparatively definite and salient enough to grasp, 2) intention or intended effects, which embodies the pulls and pushes between convention and the writer’s creation, and denies any easy comprehension though it somehow leaves traces through the writer’s deviation from language norms, and 3) spirit, which is a dynamic fusion of both culture and the writer’s originality, and is the most unapproachable for it triggers (as the writer always intends) variety of comprehension.



This may somehow justifies the mystery of poetry. Poetry is perceived as the most elevated language and literary form. However, language is by its nature a make-shift to say what cannot be said: since no langue can perfectly translate the subtleties of thoughts or reflect the infinite variety within reality, there is always an unexpected margin between language and thought, a potential source of misunderstanding. Furthermore, as the most elevated literary form, poetry is most condensed, trying to say the most with the least words, thus, it is entitled to make fuller use of language. The peculiarity of poetry lies in its dimensional language, or as Widdowson (1992) puts it, “Poetry is viewed as a representation of socially unsanctioned reality through the exploitation of unrealized possibilities in language”. It seems to follow that what poems mean cannot be explained. However, seen in another way, how poems mean may be put to analysis, analysis of the traces they leave through their deviation from language norms. This paper intends to unfold a tentative picture of how linguistic features give warrant to certain individual understanding. The poem chosen is “To an Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Housman wherein the poet highlights his pessimistic philosophy that life is short, death is ruthless and fame, illusionary.



II. The poem



To read this poem, the reader is required to attend to what significance words may have within the confines of the poem itself, that is to say, to dissociate the poem from context and to focus on the language itself and the way it connects with the patterning or language within the poem. In this way, the intended effects of its poetic elements, namely, its voice, diction, setting, figure of speech, imagery, syntax, form and sound.



From the title, we may know it is a private communication, which has point only for the participants. Then, what the significance of our engagement? The supposed participants and context they share are incorporated into a text which has been compared and made public by a first person writer and open to interpretation by a second- reader: the reader shifts from observer to participant. In this way, town, home refer to no privately shared knowledge but suggest universality, and still this intermingled relationship draws the reader to a close attendance to the poem itself.

--- Why does the poet choose his addressee an athlete dying young instead of someone else?

--- because this premature death suggests oddity and thus significance: young athlete relates to vigor, liveliness and even fame of mortal beings while his perishing indicates the truth that human beings are doomed to die.

--- What does the poet intend to address?

------

Mental operations of this question-and-answer may draw the reader into the self-contained context the poem creates. The plain statement, as the departure point of reflection, sheds light on the figurative language in the poem depicting death and fame, for instance, home, town, threshold, townsman of a stiller town, shady night and so on.



Consider the two deliberately chosen occasions in the first two stanzas, the time you won the race and Today you die. Though simple narrative it is, a rough reading may still put the reader into confusion, only the reoccurrence of certain words suggestion something significant. Then, what is it? Virtually, these two stanzas are inter-dependent in interpretation for they constitute sharp contrast: home in the second stanza, denies any referential interpretation, for it refers to tomb, and accordingly, town, the neither world, threshold, the opening of the tomb. However, in what way is home likened to a tomb? The resemblance is not expounded, instead, it is represented by association occurring in the contrast. The image shoulder-high has the effect to bring the two into close association and in return is prominent by repetition. It is this shift from the referential to the representational indicates significance to the extent that the language does not signify in customary linguistic ways.



Time, space, participants, events in these stanzas, all familiar yet somehow unexpectedly conspicuous are well mirrored in the accordingly chosen linguistic forms. And home we brought your shoulder-high---should-high we bring you home may best reveal the world difference shrouded with similarity: you are not what you were, and home is not home any more. Time has brought about fundamental changes (notice the change of tense: brought-bring). Once extracted and put side by side, the two lines may even lead the reader farther. The inversion of word order, especially which of shoulder-high and home may suggest whatever glory life may bestow a person, death is his destination and sometimes it arrives just at the wake of glory, the road towards glory is the same one towards death.



The second stanza is about death. It makes, one may say, a number of statements about the pessimistic associations. But the poet tells us none of theses association. He even does not use the word death in this stanza. Instead, home with so many happy imaginations stands out conspicuously. The poet adds to the experience in first stanza: he describes it so vividly with the prominent image of shoulder high.



Still so is the third stanza. The first glance may distract the reader’s focus and lead to divergent interpretations. These four lines constitute, at one level, a clear syntactic pattern. He is a smart lad to slip betimes away from fields where glory can not stay and where though the laurel grows early it withers quicker than the rose. However, it is somehow semantically ambiguous in that fields may relate to smart lad, glory and laurel, that is he is a smart lad to slip betimes away from fields (sports ground), or glory can not stay in the fields (sports ground, or even life arena), or in the fields though the laurel grows early, it withers quicker than the rose.



This syntactic unification of the three seemingly irrelevant propositions justifies in its own context the word fields as a pun with dimensional meaning. More important, it is this connection that suggests considerable semantic consistency, which supports certain interpretation. Though the athlete gets his reputation when he is quiet young, he is cretin to de, which is signified in the last two lines wherein laurel symbolizes glory. The deliberate layout of vertical lines, especially with the first line separated by a comma, the first part thus made prominent, and second part running on to the end, indicates the oddity of its connection and logic. The irony may emerge when the title is taken into consideration: the poet praises the athlete sensible to die early, to hold his eternal glory and thus the poet intends to say trough the irony underlying the whole text: death is inevitable and fame illusionary.



Consider the fourth stanza. Here, eyes and ears represent the whole person, including his senses and mentality. The special location with eyes as the beginning an dears as the ending is conspicuous in that it not only serves rhyme, but also suggests a circle of cognition: how the person feels fame and death and how fame and death strikes the person. Compare, for instance, record cut or not makes no sense/ when the shady night shuts the eyes. Notice also the line and silence sounds no worse than cheers, where the repetition of the pleasing sound s shows certain satisfaction, yet satisfaction at the cost of premature life, which reinforces the underlying irony.

In the sixth stanza, life is compared to a race, the end of which is death (the sill of shade). The premature death enables the athlete to win the race of life and secures the eternality of his glory. Here, irony again functions. It greatly extends the dimensions of meaning and the ironic tone it creates serves as safeguard against sentimentality: although the poet shows his pessimistic attitude towards short life, ruthless death and illusionary fame, it seems to the reader that he does not go too far. The combination of consonance and alliteration in fleet foot, that is, the repletion of the unpleasant sounds of f and t emphasizes swiftness of the athlete and thus accentuates the irony.



In the last stanza, the poet imagines what will happen to the dead athlete in the neither world. The paradox is that this premature death, on the one hand secures the eternality of his glory, on the other, makes it even more transient: laurel garland though is not withered, is briefer than a girl’s. Still, the complicated design signifies the paradox. Compare, for instance, And the strengthless dead will flock to gaze around that early laurelled head and find on it curls the garland unwithered but briefer than a girl’s. The repetition of and emphasize this illogicality.



III. Conclusion

The demystification of poetry, as demonstrated in the above analysis, the trinity of sound, form and meaning, though in a sense futile and frustrating, still has reason to provide general conditions for individual interpretation. In fact, the enchantment of poetry lies in the process of trust, aggression, incorporation and restitution of its elements and poetry as a whole.



References

Perrine, Laurence (1978). Sound and sense: An introduction to poetry. Florida: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Widdowson, H, G. (1992). Practical stylistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.



Appendix



The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.


昔日赢得奖杯

广场澎湃沸腾

雀跃为你喝彩

君在肩头凯旋

To-day, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.

今朝含悲而聚

抬君挥泪相送

轻轻归于尘土

悲沉万籁寂静

Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields were glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

生命如此短暂

荣耀为谁停留

月桂依然苍翠

玫瑰却已凋零

Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:

暗空如幕笼罩

往事随风而逝

沉默代替欢呼

大地将君深藏

Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.

浩气永存世间

强敌黯然无光

后世纵有英雄

谁当与君齐名

So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.

荣耀并未远逝

君已踏上归途

前方光芒永耀

永恒冠军之杯

And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
he garland briefer than a girl's.

头戴月桂花环

众友凝望君颜

小花点缀青丝

清隽丽如佳人
_________________
无话可说

[[timmmid]]

I. Introduction



The meaning of any literary work lies at least at three levels (see the following figure): 1) meaning, which is comparatively definite and salient enough to grasp, 2) intention or intended effects, which embodies the pulls and pushes between convention and the writer’s creation, and denies any easy comprehension though it somehow leaves traces through the writer’s deviation from language norms, and 3) spirit, which is a dynamic fusion of both culture and the writer’s originality, and is the most unapproachable for it triggers (as the writer always intends) variety of comprehension.



This may somehow justifies the mystery of poetry. Poetry is perceived as the most elevated language and literary form. However, language is by its nature a make-shift to say what cannot be said: since no langue can perfectly translate the subtleties of thoughts or reflect the infinite variety within reality, there is always an unexpected margin between language and thought, a potential source of misunderstanding. Furthermore, as the most elevated literary form, poetry is most condensed, trying to say the most with the least words, thus, it is entitled to make fuller use of language. The peculiarity of poetry lies in its dimensional language, or as Widdowson (1992) puts it, “Poetry is viewed as a representation of socially unsanctioned reality through the exploitation of unrealized possibilities in language”. It seems to follow that what poems mean cannot be explained. However, seen in another way, how poems mean may be put to analysis, analysis of the traces they leave through their deviation from language norms. This paper intends to unfold a tentative picture of how linguistic features give warrant to certain individual understanding. The poem chosen is “To an Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Housman wherein the poet highlights his pessimistic philosophy that life is short, death is ruthless and fame, illusionary.



II. The poem



To read this poem, the reader is required to attend to what significance words may have within the confines of the poem itself, that is to say, to dissociate the poem from context and to focus on the language itself and the way it connects with the patterning or language within the poem. In this way, the intended effects of its poetic elements, namely, its voice, diction, setting, figure of speech, imagery, syntax, form and sound.



From the title, we may know it is a private communication, which has point only for the participants. Then, what the significance of our engagement? The supposed participants and context they share are incorporated into a text which has been compared and made public by a first person writer and open to interpretation by a second- reader: the reader shifts from observer to participant. In this way, town, home refer to no privately shared knowledge but suggest universality, and still this intermingled relationship draws the reader to a close attendance to the poem itself.

--- Why does the poet choose his addressee an athlete dying young instead of someone else?

--- because this premature death suggests oddity and thus significance: young athlete relates to vigor, liveliness and even fame of mortal beings while his perishing indicates the truth that human beings are doomed to die.

--- What does the poet intend to address?

------

Mental operations of this question-and-answer may draw the reader into the self-contained context the poem creates. The plain statement, as the departure point of reflection, sheds light on the figurative language in the poem depicting death and fame, for instance, home, town, threshold, townsman of a stiller town, shady night and so on.



Consider the two deliberately chosen occasions in the first two stanzas, the time you won the race and Today you die. Though simple narrative it is, a rough reading may still put the reader into confusion, only the reoccurrence of certain words suggestion something significant. Then, what is it? Virtually, these two stanzas are inter-dependent in interpretation for they constitute sharp contrast: home in the second stanza, denies any referential interpretation, for it refers to tomb, and accordingly, town, the neither world, threshold, the opening of the tomb. However, in what way is home likened to a tomb? The resemblance is not expounded, instead, it is represented by association occurring in the contrast. The image shoulder-high has the effect to bring the two into close association and in return is prominent by repetition. It is this shift from the referential to the representational indicates significance to the extent that the language does not signify in customary linguistic ways.



Time, space, participants, events in these stanzas, all familiar yet somehow unexpectedly conspicuous are well mirrored in the accordingly chosen linguistic forms. And home we brought your shoulder-high---should-high we bring you home may best reveal the world difference shrouded with similarity: you are not what you were, and home is not home any more. Time has brought about fundamental changes (notice the change of tense: brought-bring). Once extracted and put side by side, the two lines may even lead the reader farther. The inversion of word order, especially which of shoulder-high and home may suggest whatever glory life may bestow a person, death is his destination and sometimes it arrives just at the wake of glory, the road towards glory is the same one towards death.



The second stanza is about death. It makes, one may say, a number of statements about the pessimistic associations. But the poet tells us none of theses association. He even does not use the word death in this stanza. Instead, home with so many happy imaginations stands out conspicuously. The poet adds to the experience in first stanza: he describes it so vividly with the prominent image of shoulder high.



Still so is the third stanza. The first glance may distract the reader’s focus and lead to divergent interpretations. These four lines constitute, at one level, a clear syntactic pattern. He is a smart lad to slip betimes away from fields where glory can not stay and where though the laurel grows early it withers quicker than the rose. However, it is somehow semantically ambiguous in that fields may relate to smart lad, glory and laurel, that is he is a smart lad to slip betimes away from fields (sports ground), or glory can not stay in the fields (sports ground, or even life arena), or in the fields though the laurel grows early, it withers quicker than the rose.



This syntactic unification of the three seemingly irrelevant propositions justifies in its own context the word fields as a pun with dimensional meaning. More important, it is this connection that suggests considerable semantic consistency, which supports certain interpretation. Though the athlete gets his reputation when he is quiet young, he is cretin to de, which is signified in the last two lines wherein laurel symbolizes glory. The deliberate layout of vertical lines, especially with the first line separated by a comma, the first part thus made prominent, and second part running on to the end, indicates the oddity of its connection and logic. The irony may emerge when the title is taken into consideration: the poet praises the athlete sensible to die early, to hold his eternal glory and thus the poet intends to say trough the irony underlying the whole text: death is inevitable and fame illusionary.



Consider the fourth stanza. Here, eyes and ears represent the whole person, including his senses and mentality. The special location with eyes as the beginning an dears as the ending is conspicuous in that it not only serves rhyme, but also suggests a circle of cognition: how the person feels fame and death and how fame and death strikes the person. Compare, for instance, record cut or not makes no sense/ when the shady night shuts the eyes. Notice also the line and silence sounds no worse than cheers, where the repetition of the pleasing sound s shows certain satisfaction, yet satisfaction at the cost of premature life, which reinforces the underlying irony.

In the sixth stanza, life is compared to a race, the end of which is death (the sill of shade). The premature death enables the athlete to win the race of life and secures the eternality of his glory. Here, irony again functions. It greatly extends the dimensions of meaning and the ironic tone it creates serves as safeguard against sentimentality: although the poet shows his pessimistic attitude towards short life, ruthless death and illusionary fame, it seems to the reader that he does not go too far. The combination of consonance and alliteration in fleet foot, that is, the repletion of the unpleasant sounds of f and t emphasizes swiftness of the athlete and thus accentuates the irony.



In the last stanza, the poet imagines what will happen to the dead athlete in the neither world. The paradox is that this premature death, on the one hand secures the eternality of his glory, on the other, makes it even more transient: laurel garland though is not withered, is briefer than a girl’s. Still, the complicated design signifies the paradox. Compare, for instance, And the strengthless dead will flock to gaze around that early laurelled head and find on it curls the garland unwithered but briefer than a girl’s. The repetition of and emphasize this illogicality.



III. Conclusion

The demystification of poetry, as demonstrated in the above analysis, the trinity of sound, form and meaning, though in a sense futile and frustrating, still has reason to provide general conditions for individual interpretation. In fact, the enchantment of poetry lies in the process of trust, aggression, incorporation and restitution of its elements and poetry as a whole.



References

Perrine, Laurence (1978). Sound and sense: An introduction to poetry. Florida: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Widdowson, H, G. (1992). Practical stylistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.



Appendix



The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.


昔日赢得奖杯

广场澎湃沸腾

雀跃为你喝彩

君在肩头凯旋

To-day, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.

今朝含悲而聚

抬君挥泪相送

轻轻归于尘土

悲沉万籁寂静

Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields were glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

生命如此短暂

荣耀为谁停留

月桂依然苍翠

玫瑰却已凋零

Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:

暗空如幕笼罩

往事随风而逝

沉默代替欢呼

大地将君深藏

Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.

浩气永存世间

强敌黯然无光

后世纵有英雄

谁当与君齐名

So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.

荣耀并未远逝

君已踏上归途

前方光芒永耀

永恒冠军之杯

And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
he garland briefer than a girl's.

头戴月桂花环

众友凝望君颜

小花点缀青丝

清隽丽如佳人
_________________
无话可说

[anna]

Hi Timmid,

Welcome you back.

I read the essay, great.

However, I found these two lines you may need to think it again?

And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

月桂依然苍翠

玫瑰却已凋零

some lines are not translated as it is, I guess.

Just wonder why the translation is like this.

I feel the essay goes well without translation.
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[[星子安娜]]

Hi Timmid,

Welcome you back.

I read the essay, great.

However, I found these two lines you may need to think it again?

And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

月桂依然苍翠

玫瑰却已凋零

some lines are not translated as it is, I guess.

Just wonder why the translation is like this.

I feel the essay goes well without translation.
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[ericcoliu]

Hi! timmid:

Is the essay you posted here a complete or right one?

[[ericcoliu]]

Hi! timmid:

Is the essay you posted here a complete or right one?

[timmid]

hi, Anna and Ericcoliu,
Thanks for your comments. I did this a couple of years ago for a course "An introduction to poetry", and since it has been some time, I can not remember exactly what was in my mind. It is right for you to say that this essay seems not so complete since I suppose I had planned a huge topic and tried , in a hard way, to narrow it down, thus negelecting some actually very important elements. Besides, I am sorry to say that I did not translate the poem. It happened that I thought I had better also have the poem with the essay when I posted it here and then I tried searching for it on the web and that was what i got.
Thanks again, wish you guys happy moon festival.
_________________
无话可说

[[timmmid]]

hi, Anna and Ericcoliu,
Thanks for your comments. I did this a couple of years ago for a course "An introduction to poetry", and since it has been some time, I can not remember exactly what was in my mind. It is right for you to say that this essay seems not so complete since I suppose I had planned a huge topic and tried , in a hard way, to narrow it down, thus negelecting some actually very important elements. Besides, I am sorry to say that I did not translate the poem. It happened that I thought I had better also have the poem with the essay when I posted it here and then I tried searching for it on the web and that was what i got.
Thanks again, wish you guys happy moon festival.
_________________
无话可说

[ericcoliu]

Hi! Timmid:

Thank you for your reply to my questions. Your essay is good; I just don't like the "(de)mystification of poetry."

I like your previously posted piece entitled Translation in Context and am looking forward to reading more about your work on translation.

By the way, it would be interesting to have a comparative reading of A. E. Housman's poem, To an Athlete Dying Young and Paramahansa Yogananda's The Dying Youth's Divine Reply, two contrasting views of early death.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Hi! Timmid:

Thank you for your reply to my questions. Your essay is good; I just don't like the "(de)mystification of poetry."

I like your previously posted piece entitled Translation in Context and am looking forward to reading more about your work on translation.

By the way, it would be interesting to have a comparative reading of A. E. Housman's poem, To an Athlete Dying Young and Paramahansa Yogananda's The Dying Youth's Divine Reply, two contrasting views of early death.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[timmid]

Hi, ericcoliu and anna,
Thanks to ericcoliu for your interest in "Translation in context", and your insightful suggestion of a comparative reading of the two poems. I will do that.
Also thanks to anna for your removing from here my essay "communication through translation", so that I had a chance to get it published in "International Journal of Translation" and it will come out quite soon.
Finally, happy happy new year to you all. I do like this place, though recently I am not able to come up here quite often owing to study stress.
_________________
无话可说

[[timmmid]]

Hi, ericcoliu and anna,
Thanks to ericcoliu for your interest in "Translation in context", and your insightful suggestion of a comparative reading of the two poems. I will do that.
Also thanks to anna for your removing from here my essay "communication through translation", so that I had a chance to get it published in "International Journal of Translation" and it will come out quite soon.
Finally, happy happy new year to you all. I do like this place, though recently I am not able to come up here quite often owing to study stress.
_________________
无话可说

[ericcoliu]

Hi! Timmid,

Congratulations on your publication!

May each day of the new year bring a full measure of all blessings that make for good health, success, and happiness!

Eric
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Hi! Timmid,

Congratulations on your publication!

May each day of the new year bring a full measure of all blessings that make for good health, success, and happiness!

Eric
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul