I translated the famous poem (W.H. Auden)-funeral blues (funeral blues)

Auden's poem Funeral Blues was first published in 1936, and later the film Four was filmed in 1994.

Weddings and Funerals was written by Matthew (John Hannah) as his gay partner in Four Weddings and Funerals.

Gareth (simon callow) quoted this well-known saying in his eulogy.

W Auden is one of the few great poets in the 20th century. His poems neither pay attention to the grand theme of the times like Eliot, nor have a vast poetic style like Pound, nor are they rooted in field life like Frost, nor are they pure metaphysical poems like Stevens. His writing is very knowledgeable and is a typical intellectual writing. He is proficient in history and art, and he can integrate profound philosophical thinking into real life scenes, which not only creates a kind of

For a long time, W. H.Auden is an English poet who has been neglected in Chinese translation. His later poems are almost unknown to readers in China. 20 14, Selected Poems of Auden published by Shanghai Translation Publishing House: 1927- 1947, translated by Ma, proofread by poets. This collection of poems is the first compilation of 130 poems written by Auden in recent 20 years, including not only his brilliant creation during his college genius, but also a number of more profound and outstanding poems produced by Auden after living in the United States.

Auden is regarded as the best English poet after Eliot. He, Lewis, macneice, and Spender all studied at Oxford University, and dominated the poetry circles in the1930s, which was called "Auden Generation". Auden was only in his twenties at that time, and he had already written such famous works as Art Gallery, Twelve Ballads, Miss Ji, Letter to Me, etc. Geoffrey grigson, editor-in-chief of New Poetry, called Auden a "monster", while dylan thomas praised his elder brother's "breadth and depth". You can imagine how strong Auden was at that time.

Fascinated by the restoration of traditional poetic forms.

When Auden began to write poetry, Hardy, Ye Zhi and other old poets were still alive, Eliot was in full swing, while Larkin, Hughes, dylan thomas and others were younger than him. He regarded Hardy as his "father of poetry" and learned from him "eagle's eye"-the ability to stand on a high place and overlook life; He has mixed feelings for Ye Zhi. "He is certainly a very great poet." On the other hand, he thinks that Ye Zhi (and Rilke) have brought him a bad influence-he once lured him into an exaggerated rhetorical language. Eliot, as editor of Faber Publishing House and editor-in-chief of Standard Poems, plays the role of a young mentor. He is very supportive of Auden. Although he rejected Auden's poems when he was reviewing manuscripts for a publishing house, he published Auden's first novel in his poetry magazine Standard.

Auden said that Eliot was "a very special poet, which cannot be imitated". The so-called imitation is nothing but obvious originality in style, and imitation is death. Therefore, Auden would rather go back to the past, be obsessed with restoring the traditional poetic form, and open up his own world with a conservative position, rather than being a "successor of modernism" naturally. In style, Auden and Eliot are also very different. Auden pays more attention to the spread of poetry. "Without the desire to communicate with others, you will not become an artist, but a mystic or a madman." If he wants to achieve a universal state of communication, his works must be "light" in style, that is, "he will not feel different, and his language will be very direct and close to universal expression".

When a poet can easily express himself with images in daily life, it shows that the poet has reconciled with that era and has a stable and comfortable position. But more often, the relationship between poets and the times is hostile, and they are kicked out of the general crowd. At this time, poets will form a friendship of peers who are in the same boat. "They become introspective, vague and have a high opinion of themselves." This turn of the audience makes the poet's observation of the times clearer, but it also increases the difficulty of conveying what he sees. No one can understand it, or no one wants to hear it at all, so the poet's loneliness becomes stronger and he turns to the private world more and more.

Full of interest in exploring the form of poetry.

Auden has been making various attempts to this end, such as the diversification of poetic styles, including various rhyming poems based on traditional styles and styles.

Cheerful ballads, idylls, limericks, etc. Especially when he was slightly left-leaning in his early days, he tried to "write the meditation of the wise in the people's language", even at the expense of the essence of poetry. But he found that the most extensive "people" he tried to please did not buy his account, and no matter how clear and direct he wrote, it could not really reach the ears of the proletariat. In addition, the richness of his poetic style and his enthusiasm for exploration make it difficult for him to get rid of the name of "obscurity". If there is criticism, Auden thinks that although he is skilled, the result is "it seems that he is only going on by the automatic driving of language." (Roger kimball) Some critics think that he is too complicated and handles too many things, just like the editor of an encyclopedia, and the final result is that poetry is stuck. American critic James Fenton said that when Auden was writing, two people sat next to him. "Black sat on his left, urging him to use plain language, write concisely, and have clear views. Henry James sat on his right, gave him charming syntax and ways to lengthen sentences, and let him continue to elaborate on the details. "(Blake/Auden and James/Auden) Auden seems to have been constantly adjusting himself in this struggle.

Although there are many defenders like marianne moore (she thinks Auden is a "master of rhythm and rhyme, and his works will never be dull"), it is hard to say that Auden's works translated into Chinese are clear and light, if not obscure. The information he deals with in a poem is too complicated, combining all kinds of intertextuality, allusions, annotations and metaphors. As Larkin accused, "He became a reader instead of a writer, and there were notes"-eighty-one pages, about James, Kierkegaard, Chekhov, Rilke, Nietzsche, Goethe, Spinoza, etc. , and the text is only 58 pages-indicates. (Larkin's "What has Weinstein become") And his various rhyming poems have become neither fish nor fowl after being barely accommodated in Chinese. On the other hand, Auden has always been interested in exploring various forms of poetry. He believes that even from the hedonistic point of view, "if a person has no sense of form at all, how can he enjoy writing?"

Pay attention to the spiritual life and moral dilemma of modern people

In the eyes of many British colleagues, Auden, who left Britain for the United States, is no longer the "that" Auden in the 1930s. He is not only suspected of evading the responsibility of war, but also slipped into a dangerous trend in his creation: his attitude is ambiguous, his position is detached, and he turns from left to inward.

"Crazy Ireland stimulates you to immerse yourself in poetry. /Now the madness and weather in Ireland are still the same,/because poetry won't let anything happen. " Poetry won't let anything happen. Auden later reiterated this view in an interview: "I didn't lose interest in politics, but I began to realize that only two things are effective for social or political injustice: political action and direct reporting of facts." Art can do nothing here. ..... If there were no poems, no paintings and no music, human history would still be like this in essence. "(Auden's Popular and Late Ye Zhi) Auden seems to be using one pole of poetry to oppose the other. Before that, he was regarded as a left-leaning poet who paid attention to current affairs and emphasized intervention. His early poems are a mixture of Marxist youth thought and Freud's desire. He hoped to cure the ills of the times with Marxism and redeem his sins with Freudianism.

Larkin criticized Auden, who went to the United States on the eve of the outbreak of World War II. "In an instant, he lost his core theme and emotion-Europe and the fear of war-and abandoned his readers, along with their daily dialects and their worries." Being another poet is not very important. For Auden, this seems to be irreparable. "(Larkin's" What Has Weinstein become ") Larkin believes that Auden became grandiose and cynical after he went to the United States, and he was only" playing with the luck of words "when releasing the social responsibility of poetry.

Auden certainly can't accept this criticism. He feels that if there is a war, he is duty-bound to write poems, you know, everyone will change. He believes that this is a natural change brought about by age and life experience. "For a writer, it is really important to adapt to his age, that is, he can't look younger and naive than his actual age, nor can he look too old and decadent." His ideas are consistent. When he was young, he wrote youthful poems, passionate poems and passionate poems; After going to America, Auden began to pay more attention to the spiritual life and moral dilemma of modern people, but began to consciously remove the political factors in poetry, even with the flavor of paranoia. Compared with the elevated poet roles such as Keats, Wordsworth and Shelley, Auden prefers to have a private face in the public sphere. In Auden's view, the more private and public the poet is, the more he lives like a normal person. This is the greatest "politics".

After going to America, Auden converted to Christianity again, and his poems became more and more religious and ascetic. Modesty, kindness and love have become the most common themes. Returning to Christian faith, Auden did not hesitate to regard "love" as the power of salvation. This change in Auden's belief has also turned his poetry to a new dimension-turning the object of appeal to God and calling for the nobility of human nature in the call for divinity. In the sacred poetry hall, there are some people, such as Holderlin, Rilke and Ye Zhi. They "eulogize the traces of the dead gods" (Holderlin), and regard the arrival of the sacred light as a power to benefit all beings, and poetry has also become the way of redemption in this sense.

Based on this "belief in love", Auden is convinced that although our real world is full of depravity and evil, it can still be saved. Every successful poem is bound to reflect this saving power and present a paradise-like scene.

"The scenery presented by every good poem is infinitely close to utopia."

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