悲伤的意义
——读海琳•卡多纳的诗歌《木制品》
齐凤艳
为什么我们喜欢在诗歌中写悲伤？为什么在文学审美中，悲伤的价值被置于快乐之上。不仅古希腊的戏剧观如是，古典雕塑美学中我们亦能够找到这样的证据，比如著名的拉奥孔。其实，一切都与现实生活中的人的思想情感有关，因为我们必须时刻记住，文学艺术来源于生活。是生活中悲伤比快乐更长久的占据着我们？是生活中快乐少吗？绝对不是。那么我们为什么那么喜欢书写悲伤呢？
或者快乐是肤浅的，像一道闪电，瞬间不可持续。而悲伤是由内而外发出的一种情愫，是一个过程，久久不能从内心平静。然而快乐在很多时候也是持久的啊。或者说，悲伤是一件需要逻辑的事情，而快乐是不需要逻辑的事情。我们经常花大量的时间沉思，在深夜思考自己痛苦的来源，却很少花时间去想我为什么会因为今天天气很好而开心。或者，悲伤让人们更能体会到精神世界的重要性。悲伤促使人们的自我成长，自我成长是人们痛苦的蜕变过程。悲伤同时促使人们更加有意识的寻找到人生的快乐，那么就是说，快乐其实一直是人生的意义所在。要快乐啊！而且，快乐是常态！
那么，我们为什么总是不快乐呢？人性的弱点，总是去纠结于那些得不到的，遗憾的。世事令人悲伤的原因，我想一是重得失，二是伤离别。这也许太高度概括了。列夫•托尔斯泰说：“幸福的家庭都是相似的，不幸的家庭各有各的不幸。”悲伤是多种多样的。
在《木制品》中诗人海琳•卡多纳说，她要收集各种各样的悲伤于一个葫芦，然后偶尔摇一下，“让它歌唱/让它使我忆起以前的我/因它所教授给我的而为它祈祷”。这让我想起约瑟夫•布罗茨基《悲伤与理智》一书中在谈论弗罗斯特的一首诗时说：“他所探求的就是悲伤与理智，这两者尽管互为毒药，但却是语言最有效的燃料，或者如果你们同意的话，它们是永不退色的诗歌墨水。” 海琳•卡多纳说，摇一下悲伤，让它唱歌，让悲伤唱歌，写出诗。这就是诗意，就是一种境界，这是多次唤醒悲伤后得到的智慧。对此，布罗茨基也有同样的表达，他说：
当苦闷袭来，你们就沉湎与苦闷。让苦闷压垮你们，你们干脆沉下去，一直沉到水底。就整体而言，在遇到不愉快的事情时你们会发现这样一个法则，即你们越早沉到水底，便能越快浮出水面。这个主意，用另一位伟大英语诗人的话来说，就是“目不转睛地直面糟糕”。苦闷之所以能博得如此关注，就因为它在其重复的、过剩的、单调的辉煌中呈现出一种毫无杂质的纯粹时间。可以这样说，苦闷就是你们的一扇窗户，透过它你们能看到时间，看到时间的一些特质，人们通常会忽视这些特质，以致危机自己的精神平衡。总之，苦闷就是一扇窗户，能让你们看到时间之无穷，也就是说，它能让你们看到自己在时间里的无足轻重。
我想，悲伤的意义就在这里，而且是终极意义。个体在认识到自己的“无足轻重”的时候，他会怎样看待悲伤呢，一定会放开它，放下它，找到前行的方向。为什么海琳•卡多纳要从悲伤中找到自己呢，因为悲伤的事促进了我们的生长。并且悲伤的时候，我们是最真实的自己。且过往成就了我们。所以诗人“深情地盯着它/感谢它没有从容器里渗出来”。
可以这样说，阅读《木制品》是没有难度的，真正体悟它的深邃，不在词语的理解，而在于生命的感悟。只有读者自身也有相同的情怀，诗歌的价值才能真正出现。最后一点我想说的是，我注意到诗歌的题目《木制品》而不是诗中提到的“葫芦”，这是为什么呢？诗人是不是在说，外形不重要，重要的是我们要拥有这样一个“容器”，放置我们的过往，以抵抗时间的流逝，记忆的衰减，生命的终结。而诗人就是用语言诉诸记忆，进而战胜时间、死亡和遗忘。诗，就是一个容器。记下我们的悲伤与快乐，享受过程，归指向美。美是愉悦，是快乐。
The Value of Sadness
—— On Hélène Cardona’s Poem Woodwork
Qi Fengyan
Why do we like to write about sadness in poetry? Why is the value of sadness placed above happiness in literary aesthetics? Such perspective is shown not only in the ancient Greek view of drama, but also can be found in classical sculpture aesthetics, such as the famous Laocoon. In fact, everything in literature and art is related with the thoughts and feelings of people in real life. We must always remember that literature and art come from life. Then is it because in life sadness occupies us longer than happiness? Is there less happiness in life? Absolutely not. So why do we love writing about sadness?
It is said that happiness is shallow and unsustainable like a flash of lightning, and that sadness is from the inside, out of a sincere feeling, is a process in which the heart needs a long time to arrive at serenity. However, happiness in many cases is also lasting. People say that sadness is a logical thing, while happiness is not, we often spend a lot of time meditating late at night about the source of our pain, but very little time we think about why we are happy when it is a beautiful day. It is also believed that sadness makes people more aware of the importance of the spiritual world and sadness promotes people’s self-growth, which is a painful transformation process. Sadness also makes people more conscious of finding happiness in life, that is to say, happiness has always been the meaning of life. Be happy! And happiness is the normal state.
Then why are we always unhappy? It’s a human weakness that people are always caught in a sad mood because of those unobtainable and regretful. So the world is sad because, in my opinion, we attach too much importance on gains and losses as well as love and death. That may be too highly generalized. Leo Tolstoy said, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” There are many kinds of sadness too.
In the poem Woodwork, Hélène Cardona, the poetess says that she would collect all kinds of sadness in a gourd, and then shake it once in a while and “let it sing,/let it remind me of who I used to be,/bless it for what it taught me”. These sentences remind me of what Joseph Brodsky, in His book On Grief and Reason, has said when talking about a poem by Frost: “What he seeks is grief and reason, though they are mutually poisonous, they are the most potent fuel for language, or, if you agree, they are the ever-lasting ink of poetry.” When Hélène Cardona shakes sadness, lets it sing, she writes a poem. This is of poetic thought, and it reaches a poetic conception, which is the wisdom achieved through the enlightenment of the sadness. Brodsky has the same expression:
When sadness strikes, you wallow in it. Let it overwhelm you, and you simply sink, right down to the bottom. As a whole, the rule you will find in unpleasant situations is that the sooner you sink to the bottom, the faster you can rise to the surface. This idea, in the words of another great English poet, is to “fix eyes on abyss”. Sadness commands so much attention because it presents, in its repetitive, superfluous and monotonous glory, an unadulterated purity of time. You can also say sadness is a window of yourselves, through which you can see time, and see some of the qualities of time that people tend to ignore to the point of jeopardizing their mental balance. In short, sadness is a window through which you can see the infinity of time, that is to say, it allows you to see your own insignificance in time.
These words, I think, get the meaning of sadness, and the ultimate meaning. When an individual realizes his own “insignificance”, how does he deal with sadness? He must lay it down, let go of it, and find the way forward. Why does Hélène Cardona need to find herself in sadness? Because sadness helps us grow. And when we are sad, we are who we really are. And the past brings us where we are. So the poetess “stare at it lovingly/for not seeping out of its container”.
It can be said that Woodwork is not difficult to read. The key to truly appreciate its depth lies not in the understanding of words, but in the perception of life. Only when the reader has the same feelings, can the value of a poem really come into being. The last point I want to make is that I notice the title of the poem is “Woodwork” instead of a “gourd” as mentioned in the poem. Why is that? Does the poetess mean that it doesn't matter what the shape is, what matters is that we have a container for our past, against the passage of time, against the decay of memory, against the end of life. A poet uses language to conquer time, death, and forgetfulness by means of words. Poetry is a container. Write down our sadness and happiness, enjoy the process, and aim at beauty. Beauty is pleasure, beauty is joy.
附：原诗与中译文
Woodwork
Hélène Cardona
If I could gather all the sadness of the world,
all the sadness inside me
into a gourd,
I’d shake it once in a while
and let it sing,
let it remind me of who I used to be,
bless it for what it taught me
and stare at it lovingly
for not seeping out of its container.
木制品
作者：海琳•卡多纳
译者：齐凤艳
如果我能收集世界上所有的悲伤
我内心所有的悲伤
于一个葫芦
我会偶尔会摇它一下
让它歌唱
让它使我忆起以前的我
因它所教授给我的而为它祈祷
我深情地盯着它
感谢它没有从容器里渗出来
