Funeral Blues

二戰、冷戰時代的美國詩人W. H. Auden作品眾多，形式各異，成就非凡。Funeral Blues是我最喜歡的作品之一。

Funeral拆開雖有fun，但一點也不有趣 (爛)，因為這個字解作葬禮。Blues有s，解作藍調，有憂傷的意思，詳情可參考維基大神。

這首詩是葬禮時朗讀出來的輓歌，為的是悼念逝者。

全詩只有16行，言詞簡白，但感情豐富。以下為原文：

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone.
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled [被裹住的 (n.)] drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners [送葬者 (n.)] come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning [呻吟 (v.)] overhead [在頭上；高空 (adv.)]
Scribbling [塗抹 (v.)]in the sky the message He is Dead,
Put crêpe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever, I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle [拆卸 (v.)] the sun.
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.


從第一節開始，speaker已經不斷在發出指令：

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone.
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling in the sky the message He is Dead,
Put crêpe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

我們卻不知道speaker是向誰人提出這些指令，但隱約猜到speaker對死者的深厚敬意(with muffled drum bring out the coffin; Put crêpe bows round the white necks of the public doves; Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves)。

同時，我們也不知道死者是誰，只知道他的性別。也許speaker覺得所有出席的人都知道，所以不需要提出來。


全詩最感人的一節是第三節的那四行：

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever, I was wrong.

讀者要等到這一節才會了解到speaker對死者的愛。不過，speaker用了很多隱喻(metaphor)來表達死者身前是如何的重要，例如他為speaker的人生指引方向、每天倍伴在側等等。


第四節speaker是這樣的說：

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun.
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

明顯地，speaker不會覺得聽眾能夠put out the stars或dismantle the sun，但speaker是透過這些極端的指令/要求，去表達他的內心痛苦。


電影Four Weddings and a Funeral有以下一幕：

相關連結：

作品背景及簡單文學角度分析(中文)
作品背景及簡單文學角度分析(英文)