William Blake

英国浪漫主义诗人威廉·布莱克（William Blake，1757---1827），英国第一位重要的浪漫主义诗人、版画家。

主要诗作有诗集《天真之歌》、《经验之歌》等。

早期作品简洁明快，中后期作品趋向玄妙晦涩，充满神秘色彩。

威廉·华兹华斯（William Wordsworth,1770-1850）与柯尔律治（Samuel Taylor Coleridge）、骚塞（Robert Southey）同被称为“湖畔派”诗人（Lake Poets）。

他们也是英国文学中最早出现的浪漫主义作家。

他们喜爱大自然，描写宗法制农村生活，厌恶资本主义的城市文明和冷酷的金钱关系，他们远离城市，隐居在昆布兰湖区和格拉斯米尔湖区，由此得名“湖畔派”。

华兹华斯的主要作品有《抒情歌谣集》《丁登寺旁》《序曲》《革命与独立》《不朽颂》《远足》。

塞缪尔·泰勒·柯勒律治（1772年10月21日－1834年7月25日），英国诗人、文评家，英国浪漫主义文学的奠基人之一。

以〈古舟子咏〉(亦可称作〈古舟子之歌〉)(The Rime of the Ancient Mariner)一诗成为名家，其文评集《文学传记》(Biographia Literaria)以博大精深见称，书中对想像(imagination)与幻想(fancy)的区别尤其著名。

一生作诗不缀，但中年时自称弃诗从哲，精研以康德、谢林为首的德国唯心论。

罗伯特·骚塞（1774—1843）是“湖畔派”三诗人中才气较差的一位。

年青时代思想激进，饱读伏尔泰、卢梭的著作，在威斯敏斯特学校学习时曾因撰文反对校方体罚学生而被开除学籍。

进牛津大学后，他更醉心法国大革命，写史诗《圣女贞德》歌颂革命，后来还与柯尔律治计划在美洲的森林里建立乌托邦社会。

但中年后骚塞的政治态度却变得十分保守，还热衷于趋附权贵，成了统治者的御用文人，并因此获得“桂冠诗人”的称号。

1821年他以桂冠诗人身份作颂诗《审判的幻景》颂扬去世不久的英王乔治三世，攻击拜伦、雪莱等进步诗人，称他们是“恶魔派”（撒旦派）。

威廉·布莱克的诗【1】：残酷有一颗人的心，嫉妒有一张人的脸。

--威廉·布莱克【2】：如果相爱，那是无限的。

原文：If a thing loves? it is infinite. --威廉·布莱克【3】：一粒沙中见世界一朵花中见天国把无限存在你的手掌中一刹那便是永恒 --威廉·布莱克《天真的预言》【4】：To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild fllower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour. 一粒沙里看世界，一朵花里见天国，手掌里盛住无限，一刹那便是永劫。

（一沙一世界，一花一天堂。

手掌里盛住无限，一刹那便是永劫） --威廉·布莱克【5】：生活的地平线是随着心灵的开阔而变得宽广的。

--布莱克【6】：When the whirlwind of fury comes from the throne of god, 当愤怒的旋风自神座袭来，when the frowns of his countenance drive the nations together, 当神的皱眉令不同的民族也蹙紧， who can stand? 谁能承受？ --William Blake 《Who Can Stand》【7】：一颗沙里看出一个世界，一朵野花里一个天堂，把无限放在你的手掌上，永恒在那一刹那珍藏。

--威廉·布莱克【8】：To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour. (William Blake, English poet, 1757-1827) 一沙见世界，一花窥天堂；掌心纳无限，须臾含永劫。

威廉布莱克William Blake (1757-1827)William Blake was a poet, artist, and mystic（神秘主义者）---a transitional figure in English literature who followed no style but his own. Blake grew up in the middle of London, surrounded by the grit （unyielding courage）and poverty of the new industrial age. His family was poor, and Blake received virtually no education as a child. When he was ten his father was able to send him to drawing school, and at fourteen he was apprenticed to an engraver (雕刻师). As an apprentice he had time to read widely and began to write the first of his poetry, realizing early that he was not content to follow the artistic and literary values of the day. （the zeitgeist (the general intellectual, moral, and cultural state of an era) of his age）In 1778, when he had completed his apprenticeship at the age of 21, Blake became a professional engraver and earned a living over the next twenty years by supplying booksellers and publishers with copperplate engravings （雕版）. In 1789 when he was 32, he published a volume of lyrical poems called Songs of Innocence. Five years later he published another volume Songs of Experience，which is a companion volume to Songs ofInnocence, and was meant to be read in conjunction with it. The two works contrast with each other. One deals with good, passivity, and reason; the other, with evil, violence, and emotion. They were the first of Blake’s books to be illustrated, engraved, and printed on copperplates by a process of his own. Blake’s engravings and paintings are an important part of his artistic expression, for the verbal and visual work together to evoke one unified impression. Blake himself manufactured all his poems that appeared during his lifetime.As Blake grew older, he became more and more caught up in (沉湎于) his mystical faith and his visions of a heavenly world. As a child he was fascinated by the Bible and by the ideas of the German mystic Jaccob Boehme. Blake’s heavily symbolic later works, including The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790), The Gates of Paradise(1793), and Jerusalem (1804), reflect his ever-deepening reflections about God and man. His interest in the supernatural and his imaginative experimentation with his art and verse classify him, like Robert Burns, as a pre-Romantic. During the last twenty years of his life Blake’s genius as an artist, especially evident in his illustrations of Chaucer’s Canterbury Pilgrims, Dante’s Divine Comedy, and the Book of Job, overshadowed his work as a poet.Toward the end of his life, Blake had a small group of devoted followers, but when he died at seventy his wok was virtually unknown. The Romantics praised his Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, but the full extent of his creative genius went largely unrecognized for over half a century after his death. Although scholars today continue to puzzle over the complex philosophical symbolism of his later works, all readers can appreciate the delicate lyricism of his Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.Maybe the best way to understand Blake is to recognize a quotation of his: “Without contrast, there is no progression.”Blake’s Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794) clearly reflect this idea. In the two groups of poems, Blake, the great poet of contraries, points out the need for both childhood innocence and the wisdom gained by experience. The two collections, which contain some of the most beautiful lyrics of English language, clearly show the contrast. Comparative studies of the poems in the two collections may help us to see the contrast that marks the progress in his outlook on life. The bright pictures of a happy world full of harmony and love inSongs of Innocence change into the dark paintings of a miserable world full of miseries and sufferings in Songs of Experience. The imagines also change with the change of ideas.William Blake is called a forerunner of the Romantic Movement. His greatness lies in his mastery of art and verse of an extreme and moving simplicity. William Wordsworth thus commented on Blake: “there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron or Walter Scott”and Blake’s lyric poetry displays the characteristics of the romantic spirit. Blake’s revolutionary passion is much similar to that of Percy Shelley. Their similarity is also shown in imagery and symbolism. His great influence was strongly felt in the romantic poems of the 19th century.An analysis of the three of his poems:“The Lamb”and “The Tiger”form a natural contrast in every possible sense of the term. The images stand as self-evident opposites, and everything else changes accordingly. The blissful, confident tone of “The Lamb，”not colored with any shadow of doubt or pain, with the pervasive pastoral setting and the comforting wooly tender assurance of God’s blessing---all these find a direct foil （陪衬）in the world of “The Tiger.”Hereinstead of the delightful bright day, there is “the forest of the night,” a reminder of a labyrinth （迷宫）wrapped up in total darkness. Then there is the description, both outright and implied, of the terribleness of the Tiger, and the harrowing question（折磨人的问题）, rather rhetorical, “Who had the art and the courage to make the Tiger?”The “he”throughout the poem refers in a progressively clearer way to the being or God who make the Lamb. The riddle or the labyrinth left to the imagination after reading the poem remains yet to be addressed. It seems to relate to the fact that life is not all rosy and bright, and that there is a downside to it as well. But the ultimate enigma（迷）may lei in the question, much deeper and more philosophical, which has not been adequately, unequivocally resolved even today, that is, Why does He place evil alongside good? Or in the more stereotyped phrasing, why does God allow evil to exit?“The Sick Rose”In this poem two images stand out one against the other---the rose and its bed of crimson joy, and the invisible worm flying over in the storm to destroy it with his “dark secret love.” Rape is apparent, but the identity of the rapist needs the power ofimagination to figure out. The criminal is powerful and irresistible, probably supernatural (“night”and “storm”) in its destructive force. The metaphor here may stand for Time (as the villain with a T) imposing upon the mortal humanity. It may stand for a repressive society versus the people, in which case social satire is at work here evidently.Another version of simpler languageBlake was the son of a London tradesman. He was a strange and imaginative child. He never went to school but learned to read and write at home. His favorite writers were Shakespeare, Milton and Chatterton.When he was 14, he was apprenticed to an engraver. His business never became prosperous, and he always lived in poverty. Blake was a lover of poetry. He devoted some of his time to writing verses. Many of his verses are nothing but accompanying commentaries for his engravings and drawings. As a poet, Blake is famous for his short lyrics. They are remarkable and highly individual. His imagination is so little controlled by fact or logic that his works at times seem to losecontract with ordinary human experience. He looks toward an anarchistic society and a religious mysticism seems to be the source of his inspiration. His poetry strikes us with its childish vision and simplicity.In his early attempt at poetry, in his first collection of poems Poetical Sketches(1783), he tried the Spenserian stanza, Shakespearean and Miltonic blank verse, the ballad form and lyric meters. He showed contempt for classicist rule of reason and a strong sympathy for the freshness of Elizabethan poetry.He is very creative, isn’t he? Maybe such is he a person as is above described that he is referred to as strange and imaginative by another writer of English literature.。

威廉布莱克William Blake (1757-1827)William Blake was a poet, artist, and mystic（神秘主义者）---a transitional figure in English literature who followed no style but his own. Blake grew up in the middle of London, surrounded by the grit （unyielding courage）and poverty of the new industrial age. His family was poor, and Blake received virtually no education as a child. When he was ten his father was able to send him to drawing school, and at fourteen he was apprenticed to an engraver (雕刻师). As an apprentice he had time to read widely and began to write the first of his poetry, realizing early that he was not content to follow the artistic and literary values of the day. （the zeitgeist (the general intellectual, moral, and cultural state of an era) of his age）In 1778, when he had completed his apprenticeship at the age of 21, Blake became a professional engraver and earned a living over the next twenty years by supplying booksellers and publishers with copperplate engravings （雕版）. In 1789 when he was 32, he published a volume of lyrical poems called Songs of Innocence. Five years later he published another volume Songs of Experience，which is a companion volume to Songs ofInnocence, and was meant to be read in conjunction with it. The two works contrast with each other. One deals with good, passivity, and reason; the other, with evil, violence, and emotion. They were the first of Blake’s books to be illustrated, engraved, and printed on copperplates by a process of his own. Blake’s engravings and paintings are an important part of his artistic expression, for the verbal and visual work together to evoke one unified impression. Blake himself manufactured all his poems that appeared during his lifetime.As Blake grew older, he became more and more caught up in (沉湎于) his mystical faith and his visions of a heavenly world. As a child he was fascinated by the Bible and by the ideas of the German mystic Jaccob Boehme. Blake’s heavily symbolic later works, including The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790), The Gates of Paradise(1793), and Jerusalem (1804), reflect his ever-deepening reflections about God and man. His interest in the supernatural and his imaginative experimentation with his art and verse classify him, like Robert Burns, as a pre-Romantic. During the last twenty years of his life Blake’s genius as an artist, especially evident in his illustrations of Chaucer’s Canterbury Pilgrims, Dante’s Divine Comedy, and the Book of Job, overshadowed his work as a poet.Toward the end of his life, Blake had a small group of devoted followers, but when he died at seventy his wok was virtually unknown. The Romantics praised his Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, but the full extent of his creative genius went largely unrecognized for over half a century after his death. Although scholars today continue to puzzle over the complex philosophical symbolism of his later works, all readers can appreciate the delicate lyricism of his Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.Maybe the best way to understand Blake is to recognize a quotation of his: “Without contrast, there is no progression.”Blake’s Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794) clearly reflect this idea. In the two groups of poems, Blake, the great poet of contraries, points out the need for both childhood innocence and the wisdom gained by experience. The two collections, which contain some of the most beautiful lyrics of English language, clearly show the contrast. Comparative studies of the poems in the two collections may help us to see the contrast that marks the progress in his outlook on life. The bright pictures of a happy world full of harmony and love inSongs of Innocence change into the dark paintings of a miserable world full of miseries and sufferings in Songs of Experience. The imagines also change with the change of ideas.William Blake is called a forerunner of the Romantic Movement. His greatness lies in his mastery of art and verse of an extreme and moving simplicity. William Wordsworth thus commented on Blake: “there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron or Walter Scott”and Blake’s lyric poetry displays the characteristics of the romantic spirit. Blake’s revolutionary passion is much similar to that of Percy Shelley. Their similarity is also shown in imagery and symbolism. His great influence was strongly felt in the romantic poems of the 19th century.An analysis of the three of his poems:“The Lamb”and “The Tiger”form a natural contrast in every possible sense of the term. The images stand as self-evident opposites, and everything else changes accordingly. The blissful, confident tone of “The Lamb，”not colored with any shadow of doubt or pain, with the pervasive pastoral setting and the comforting wooly tender assurance of God’s blessing---all these find a direct foil （陪衬）in the world of “The Tiger.”Hereinstead of the delightful bright day, there is “the forest of the night,” a reminder of a labyrinth （迷宫）wrapped up in total darkness. Then there is the description, both outright and implied, of the terribleness of the Tiger, and the harrowing question（折磨人的问题）, rather rhetorical, “Who had the art and the courage to make the Tiger?”The “he”throughout the poem refers in a progressively clearer way to the being or God who make the Lamb. The riddle or the labyrinth left to the imagination after reading the poem remains yet to be addressed. It seems to relate to the fact that life is not all rosy and bright, and that there is a downside to it as well. But the ultimate enigma（迷）may lei in the question, much deeper and more philosophical, which has not been adequately, unequivocally resolved even today, that is, Why does He place evil alongside good? Or in the more stereotyped phrasing, why does God allow evil to exit?“The Sick Rose”In this poem two images stand out one against the other---the rose and its bed of crimson joy, and the invisible worm flying over in the storm to destroy it with his “dark secret love.” Rape is apparent, but the identity of the rapist needs the power ofimagination to figure out. The criminal is powerful and irresistible, probably supernatural (“night”and “storm”) in its destructive force. The metaphor here may stand for Time (as the villain with a T) imposing upon the mortal humanity. It may stand for a repressive society versus the people, in which case social satire is at work here evidently.Another version of simpler languageBlake was the son of a London tradesman. He was a strange and imaginative child. He never went to school but learned to read and write at home. His favorite writers were Shakespeare, Milton and Chatterton.When he was 14, he was apprenticed to an engraver. His business never became prosperous, and he always lived in poverty. Blake was a lover of poetry. He devoted some of his time to writing verses. Many of his verses are nothing but accompanying commentaries for his engravings and drawings. As a poet, Blake is famous for his short lyrics. They are remarkable and highly individual. His imagination is so little controlled by fact or logic that his works at times seem to losecontract with ordinary human experience. He looks toward an anarchistic society and a religious mysticism seems to be the source of his inspiration. His poetry strikes us with its childish vision and simplicity.In his early attempt at poetry, in his first collection of poems Poetical Sketches(1783), he tried the Spenserian stanza, Shakespearean and Miltonic blank verse, the ballad form and lyric meters. He showed contempt for classicist rule of reason and a strong sympathy for the freshness of Elizabethan poetry.He is very creative, isn’t he? Maybe such is he a person as is above described that he is referred to as strange and imaginative by another writer of English literature.。

威廉·布莱克《从一颗沙子看世界》（Toseeaworldinagrainofsand）威廉·布莱克（William Blake）是18世纪末、19世纪初的一个英国诗人，活着的时候没人知道，直到20世纪初才被挖掘出来。

他在国内最出名就是下面四行诗：To see a world in a grain of sandAnd a heaven in a wild flower,Hold infinity in the palm of your handAnd eternity in an hour.这四行诗的中译，我估计至少有二三十种。

下面选贴几种。

一沙见世界,一花窥天堂.手心握无限,须臾纳永恒.----译者不详在一颗沙粒中见一个世界，在一朵鲜花中见一片天空，在你的掌心里把握无限，在一个钟点里把握无穷。

----《布莱克诗集》上海三联，张炽恒译从一粒沙看世界，从一朵花看天堂，把永恒纳进一个时辰，把无限握在自己手心。

----王佐良一花一世界，一沙一天国，君掌盛无边，刹那含永劫。

----宗白华一颗沙里看出一个世界一朵野花里一座天堂把无限放在你的手掌上永恒在一刹那里收藏----《世界上最美丽的英文----人生短篇》但是，这几行诗在欧美并不是那么有名，讲起布莱克的时候，也不把这看作他的代表作。

似乎只有中国人才特别迷恋这几句话，我猜想也许因为这首诗跟佛教思想有相通之处有关系。

这四行诗选自一首长达132行、名为《天真的预兆》（Auguries of Innocence）的长诗，是开头四行。

这首长诗似乎并不重要，没有收在布莱克主要几本诗集里，评论家也不谈，我在网上甚至找不到它是写于哪一年的。

这首长诗通篇的风格与前四行诗很吻合，都是那种含有哲理的格言诗，总得来说很费解。

越到后面越难理解，我读了几遍，都没有看明白。

William Blake - Auguries of InnocenceTo see a world in a grain of sand,And a heaven in a wild flower,Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,And eternity in an hour.A robin redbreast in a cagePuts all heaven in a rage.A dove-house fill'd with doves and pigeons Shudders hell thro' all its regions.A dog starv'd at his master's gate Predicts the ruin of the state.A horse misused upon the roadCalls to heaven for human blood.Each outcry of the hunted hareA fibre from the brain does tear.A skylark wounded in the wing,A cherubim does cease to sing.The game-cock clipt and arm'd for fight Does the rising sun affright.Every wolf's and lion's howlRaises from hell a human soul.The wild deer, wand'ring here and there, Keeps the human soul from care.The lamb misus'd breeds public strife, And yet forgives the butcher's knife.The bat that flits at close of eveHas left the brain that won't believe.The owl that calls upon the night Speaks the unbeliever's fright.He who shall hurt the little wrenShall never be belov'd by men.He who the ox to wrath has mov'dShall never be by woman lov'd.The wanton boy that kills the flyShall feel the spider's enmity.He who torments the chafer's sprite Weaves a bower in endless night.The caterpillar on the leafRepeats to thee thy mother's grief.Kill not the moth nor butterfly,For the last judgement draweth nigh. He who shall train the horse to war Shall never pass the polar bar.The beggar's dog and widow's cat, Feed them and thou wilt grow fat.The gnat that sings his summer's song Poison gets from slander's tongue.The poison of the snake and newtIs the sweat of envy's foot.The poison of the honey beeIs the artist's jealousy.The prince's robes and beggar's rags Are toadstools on the miser's bags.A truth that's told with bad intent Beats all the lies you can invent.It is right it should be so;Man was made for joy and woe;And when this we rightly know,Thro' the world we safely go.Joy and woe are woven fine,A clothing for the soul divine.Under every grief and pineRuns a joy with silken twine.The babe is more than swaddling bands; Every farmer understands.Every tear from every eyeBecomes a babe in eternity;This is caught by females bright,And return'd to its own delight.The bleat, the bark, bellow, and roar,Are waves that beat on heaven's shore. The babe that weeps the rod beneath Writes revenge in realms of death.The beggar's rags, fluttering in air,Does to rags the heavens tear.The soldier, arm'd with sword and gun, Palsied strikes the summer's sun.The poor man's farthing is worth more Than all the gold on Afric's shore.One mite wrung from the lab'rer's hands Shall buy and sell the miser's lands;Or, if protected from on high,Does that whole nation sell and buy.He who mocks the infant's faithShall be mock'd in age and death.He who shall teach the child to doubt The rotting grave shall ne'er get out.He who respects the infant's faith Triumphs over hell and death.The child's toys and the old man's reasons Are the fruits of the two seasons.The questioner, who sits so sly,Shall never know how to reply.He who replies to words of doubtDoth put the light of knowledge out. The strongest poison ever knownCame from Caesar's laurel crown.Nought can deform the human raceLike to the armour's iron brace.When gold and gems adorn the plow,To peaceful arts shall envy bow.A riddle, or the cricket's cry,Is to doubt a fit reply.The emmet's inch and eagle's mileMake lame philosophy to smile.He who doubts from what he seesWill ne'er believe, do what you please.If the sun and moon should doubt,They'd immediately go out.To be in a passion you good may do,But no good if a passion is in you.The whore and gambler, by the state Licensed, build that nation's fate.The harlot's cry from street to streetShall weave old England's winding-sheet. The winner's shout, the loser's curse,Dance before dead England's hearse.Every night and every mornSome to misery are born,Every morn and every nightSome are born to sweet delight.Some are born to sweet delight,Some are born to endless night.We are led to believe a lieWhen we see not thro' the eye,Which was born in a night to perish in a night, When the soul slept in beams of light.God appears, and God is light,To those poor souls who dwell in night; But does a human form displayTo those who dwell in realms of day.。