第三讲结婚的诗句 英美诗歌的押韵
押韵(rhyme)是指一个音节的读音在以后音节读音中的重复,或是一个单词的最后一个音节或几个音节的读音在以后音节相应位置的读音重复。鳝丝
从押韵的位置看,押韵主要有头韵(alliteration)、尾韵(end rhyme)和中间韵或腹韵(internal rhyme)。尾韵又分全韵(perfect rhyme)和非全韵(imperfect rhyme)两种。全韵要求押韵的辅音和元音都相同,非全韵又包括只是元音相同但辅音不押韵的元韵(assonance)和只押辅音不押元音的和韵(consonance),另外,还有从拼写上看起来似乎押韵但实际读音并不押韵的目韵(eye rhyme, visual rhyme or sight rhyme)等。
第一节 头韵
头韵是指一行(节)诗中几个词开头的辅音相同,形成押韵。如克里斯蒂娜•罗塞蒂的《歌》前两诗节:
When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no ro at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.
(Christina Rostti: Song)
第一行的dead / dearest,第二行的sing / sad / songs,第五行的green / grass,第六行的 with / wet押头韵。小心眼什么意思
又如柯尔律治的《古舟子咏》第103~第106行:
The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free,
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent a.
(Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner)
前三行里,头韵[f]重复七次。这个摩擦送气的清辅音模仿柔风轻涛的声音,创造出一种宁静的意境。第四行里的两个[s]音宛如和风吹过沉寂海面而发出的咝咝声。头韵在这里的使用,令读者有身临其境之感。另外,中间韵blew / flew,first / burst,furrow / followed,尾韵free / a形成悦耳动听的韵味和节奏感。
再如莎士比亚编号为71的十四行诗前八行:
No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell.
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it; for I love you so
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot
If thinking on me would make you woe.
每行都有不同的头韵。第一行为mourn / me,第二行为surly / sullen,第三行为warning / world,第四行为world / worm,第五行为read / remember,第八行为me / make和would / woe。第二行、第三行和第五行为than / that / this,第七行和第八行为thoughts / thinking。这样的不同首字母交替出现在一个诗节中,可以称为交叉头韵。
诗人在使用头韵时,还使用一种声音的重复,通过这种声音的重复表达一种独特的情感。如多恩的《歌》:
When thou sigh’st, thou sigh’st not wind
But sigh’st my soul away;
When thou weep’st, unkindly kind,
My life’s blood doth decay.
It cannot be,
修正主义国家That thou lov’st me, as thou say’st,
If in thine my life thou waste,小孩能吃阿胶糕吗
Thou art the best of me.
(John Donne: Song)
此诗节使用的头韵有when / wind / weep / waste,sigh / soul / say,doth / decay,blood / be / best,thou / then / that等。另外,在sigh、kindly、thine、my和life中有频繁的元音字母i,此音暗示悲伤和抑郁,加上它是一个长元音,自然就减缓了诗行自然的快节奏运动,哀伤和抑郁之情得到了充分的表现。
同样的诗歌技巧也体现在爱伦•坡的《乌鸦》之中,如该诗的最后一节:
And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the eming of a demon that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted –nevermore!
(Allan Poe: The Raven)
此诗节中除了各行的头韵(still / sitting,pallid / Pallas,his / have,lamp / light,from / floating / floor),还有内韵(flitting / sitting,eming / dreaming等),贯穿整个诗节的短元音[i]、[æ],长元音[i:]、[o:]和双元音[əu]生动地传达出了主人公的痛苦和绝望。
第二节 尾韵
尾韵(end rhyme)指行尾押韵单词最后的重读元音及其后面的辅音在读音上相同,而元音前面的辅音则不能相同。也就是说,元音以及元音后面的辅音押韵,而元音前面的辅音则不押韵。这种韵又被称为全韵(perfect rhyme)。根据音节的数量,可分为单音节尾韵(single rhyme)、双音节尾韵(double rhyme)和三重音节尾韵(triple rhyme)。
单音节尾韵又称男韵或阳韵(masculine rhyme),是在诗行结尾重读音节之间出现的最普遍的押韵。如米勒《在太平洋之滨》第二诗节:
Above yon gleaming skies of gold
One lone imperial peak is en;
While gathered at his feet in green
Ten thousand foresters are told.
And all so still! So still the air
That duty drops the web of care.
(Joaquin Miller: By the Pacific Ocean)
第一、四行押韵,第二、三行押韵,第五、六行押韵,都是重读单音节。
虽然是单音节押韵,但它只要求一个音节押韵,而不要求押韵的一个音节是一个单音节单词。例如叶芝《走过柳园》第一节:
Down by the sally gardens my love and I did meet;
She pass’d the sally gardens with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;
But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.
(W. B. Yeats: Down by the Sally Gardens)
这里第四行的agree就是一个双音节单词,它只在第二个音节上与前行的tree押韵,而且它
严格执法
是重读音节。
双音节韵又称女韵或阴韵(feminine rhyme),其基本特征是行尾单词最后两个音节押韵,其中倒数第二个音节是重读音节,而最后一个音节是非重读音节。由于其读音是重读加非重读结构,因此它又称扬抑格韵(trochaic rhyme)。如华兹华斯的《写于三月》前四行:
The cock is crowing,
The stream is flowing,
The small birds twitter,逸闻趣事
The lake doth glitter.
合租合同
(William Wordsworth: Written in March at Brother’s Water)
行尾的crowing / flowing,twitter / glitter相互押韵。两组押韵都是由双音节单词组成,每个单词的第一个音节为重读音节,第二个音节为非重读音节。
又如丁尼生《女郎夏洛特》第一部分的第二诗节:
Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Through the wave that runs forever
By the island in the river