托尔金与世界大战(一):永远的TCBS托尔金的树叶:大师的人生与创作

托尔金与世界大战(一):永远的TCBS

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节目录制:江南辰、文津、Lulu
主题插画:文津
剪辑:Lulu

特别说明:受疫情影响,本期节目是三人分别在家中语音连线再各自录的,因语音延时等原因造成的尴尬而喜感的互动,以及无法展开及时有效的讨论,请多多包涵。

这一期开始我们来到新的主题:托尔金与世界大战

参加第一次世界大战是托老生命中不可磨灭的经历,虽然他从未就此经历写过任何回忆录或文章,只在二战期间与两个儿子的通信中偶有提及。但作为作家,战争的经历、时代的伤痛必然会以某种方式与他的写作经验交织、互渗。更何况,其中洲世界的第一块基石就垒于战时。但要说明的是,我们讲这个主题,并非要说他的作品是战争的隐喻性书写。无论是托老还是小托爷爷,都否认过这一点,而托老尤其厌恶寓言体裁。

在这个大主题里,我们将从战前、战时、战后三个阶段分别来聊聊世界大战与托尔金的人生、创作的关系。

这一期主讲战前,无法忽视的当然是托尔金早年的友情小团体T.C.B.S.。其经历发展、演变、“食客清洗”,最后固定下来的核心四成员是:

约翰·罗纳德·鲁埃尔·托尔金(J.R.R.Tolkien),1892—1973
克里斯托弗·怀斯曼(Christopher Wiseman),1893—1987
罗伯特·吉尔森(Robert Gilson),1893—1916
杰弗里·巴赫·史密斯(G.B.Smith)1894—1916

节目中提到的三首诗的原文在此,可参照收听。

“伦敦会议”后托尔金写下的第一首奠定中洲神话体系的诗作:

The Voyage of Earendel the Evening Star

Éarendel sprang up from the Ocean’s cup
In the gloom of the mid-world’s rim;
From the door of Night as a ray of light
Leapt over the twilight brim,
And launching his bark like a silver spark
From the golden-fading sand;
Down the sunlit breath of Day’s fiery Death
He sped from Westerland.

托尔金奔赴前线时跨越英吉利海峡所作:

The Lonely Isle

O glimmering island set sea-giirdled and alone -
A gleam of white rock through a sunny haze ;
O all ye hoary caverns ringing with the moan
Of long green waters in the southern bays ;
Ye murmurous never-ceasing voices of the tide ;
Ye plumèd foams wherein the shore and spirits ride ;
Ye white birds flying from the whispering coast
And wailing conclaves of the silver shore,
Sea-voiced, sea-wingèd, lamentable host
Who cry about unharboured beaches evermore,
Who sadly whistling skim these waters grey
And wheel about my lonely outward way - 

For me for ever they forbidden marge appears
A gleam of white rock over sundering seas,
And thou art crowned in glory through a mist of tears,
Thy shores all full of music, and thy lands of ease -
Old haunts of many children robed in flowers,
Until the sun pace down his arch of hours,
When in the silence fairies with a wistful heart
Dance to soft airs their harps and viols weave.
Down the great wastes and in gloom apart
I long for thee and thy fair citadel.
Where echoing through the lighted elms at eve
In a high inland tower there peals a bell :
O lonely, sparkling isle, farewell!

G.B.Smith为悼念Gilson的阵亡所作:

What are we, what am I?
Poor rough creatures, whose life
Is ‘depressing’ and ‘grey’,
Is a heart-breaking strife
With death and with shame
And your polite laughter,
Till – the world pass away
In smoke and in flame,
And some of us die,
And some live on after
To build it anew.