学弟： 我们现在要来做一件「不道德」的事！──偷看诗人的日记与信件！ 学「狗仔队」那样，看看诗人们私底下在想些什麽事情… Sylvia Plath(1932-1963)在1958年3月29日的日记中写道： 傲慢，我认为我已经写出足以使我被评价为美国女诗人的代表(就像 泰德将成为英国及其属地的诗人的代表)。谁是对手？这个嘛，历史 上—Sappho, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti, Amy Lowell, Emily Dickenson, Edna St. Vincent Millay—全作古 了。现在：Edith Sitwell & Marianne Moore，年迈的女巨人和诗坛 教母。Phyllis McGinley出局了—轻浮的韵文：她出卖了自己。当然： May Swenson, Isabella Gardner, & most close, Adrienne Cecile Rich—她们将会被这八首诗盖过锋芒：我现在热切、皮肤发红，确信 我的天赋，只想要磨练和教导它—我要算算从现在起我将会以这八首 诗打开多少杂志和稿费。咱们等着瞧。[1] S.P.这种野心勃勃、患得患失的竞争焦虑充斥在日记中，例如不久前 的2月5日她写道： 至少在美国我没有理由不能超过那口齿伶俐的—Isabella Gardner&甚 至那女同性恋&异想天开&珠光宝气的Elizabeth Bishop。假如我这个夏 天挥汗工作的话。[2] 是呀！不够份量的诗人，也无法成为S.P.的「假想敌」！然而有趣的是， S.P.似乎只以「女诗人」为「假想敌」。在1958年3月29日同一天的日记 里，当时正在教书的S.P.提到她备课的工作： 看了一遍又一遍我的月历：八周：实际要教七周的课。每周都会耗掉我 一大叠的准备：Hopkins, Yeats, Eliot, Thomas, Auden, Crowe Ransom, e.e. cummings。我应该会乐在其中如果我面对备课并紮紮实实、好好准 备的话。[3] 虽然提到了这一串名单，然而S.P.似乎没有与这些诗坛的男性巨头们一决 雌雄的念头，是她将男、女诗人分班看待，还是她觉得自己羽翼未丰，决 战时刻未到？而S.P.用的「女诗人」这个字Poetess(或许译为「女流诗人」 更为恰当)，在女性主义兴起後，已成为带有贬抑的辞汇，不过1958年的 S.P.在用Poetess这个字时，显然并没有这种感觉。可是十年之後，Anne Sexton(1928-1974)在1967年回信Ted Hughes(1930-1998)答应去英国出席 一场诗人大会时，就特别强调了一下性别问题： 看来我将会是这场节庆中唯一的女诗人(Ginsberg不算的话！)…是这样吗？ 多奇怪…当然，你不是因为我的性别不同而邀请我。非也。这是我讨厌的 另一挂「女诗人那一挂」、「自白派诗人那一挂」或「Lowell, Sexton, Plath那一挂」。你的意图是睿智而正确的。因此，能被原谅。[4] 事实上，Anne Sexton不愿被贴上任何标签，不愿被归类为「某某类」诗人。 现在，女诗人不会喜欢被强调自己的性别，但是愿意正视自己的女性意识。 Female poet或Woman poet取代了Poetess。然而，正如上述S.P.列出的上起 公元前七世纪古希腊女诗人Sappho的名单，并将自己投入这个传承中与前人 同辈一较高下，以砥砺自己的才华。像S.P.那样将「女诗人」标举出来，究 竟对女性诗人而言是好还是不好呢？还是说，我们现在应该很自然地只问才 华不问性别，将「Sappho, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti, Amy Lowell, Emily Dickenson, Edna St. Vincent Millay」与「Hopkins, Yeats, Eliot, Thomas, Auden, Crowe Ransom, e.e. cummings」一齐位列 仙班？ 1997年英国女诗人Maura Dooley(1957- )在她编辑的一本英国女诗人选集的 序言中，表达了「女诗人」问题的两难： 旧的论点将正好是女性的诗人置於一种两难的窠臼中。此论点是这样的。女性 已不再为了出版而挣扎：她们的作品被购买、借阅与阅读，在广播中被聆听并 公开朗诵。继续将她们区别开来出版或推广是去创造一种文学的贫民窟或一种 文化的点缀节目。相对的论点则是这样。女性被出版、被阅读与聆听，但她们 的作品没有被讨论。若她们的作品仍未被当今主流文学期刊持续地、严肃地、 无差别地好好思考并为之撰文，她们的诗未来将不会成为英国文学主流经典的 一部分。[5] 即便没有人认为诗写得好不好与性别有什麽关系，即便女诗人中的翘楚更受男 诗人敬重，但性别歧视这种问题就像「虽然饭菜多半是女人在烧，顶尖的大厨 多半还是男人」这样的偏见一样，正如多数的男人其实认为男人写诗是「娘娘 腔」的事情(正如上文中Anne Sexton调侃Ginsberg那样)…不过，我总觉得问题 似乎又不在於性别… 因为若说到文学史的地位，那可真是残酷的优胜劣败，如果举另一位英国女诗 人Elizabeth Jennings(1926-2001)於1996年编辑的一本掌上型的、个人化的英 国诗选《一位诗人的选择》(A Poet's Choice)为例，她在浪漫时期与维多利亚 时期选择的是Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Tennyson, Arthur Hugh Clough, Matthew Arnold, Dante Gabriel Rossetti & Christina Rossetti, Emily Dickinson, Hopkins, G. K. Chesterton, Edward Thomas, Wilfred Owen，我们可以看到，严选之下，连拜伦都被舍弃，但当Elizabeth Jennings回忆起中学时代初识诗歌之美的时刻，令自己大受感动的却是G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)浮夸的长诗Lepanto： 当时我十三岁，仍然还十足是个孩子，我那一班正读着一本名为《龙塾韵书》 的选集中的几首诗。某日我们读到G. K. Chesterton的 Lepanto。诗中充斥着 像这样的诗句：「低沉鼓声震震微闻丘壑间…」、「瓦洛王的影子呵欠於弥撒」、 「西班牙万岁！光荣的道明会！奥地利的唐璜驰向大洋！」我被改变了，被彻 底掌握；英文诗歌的魔力已接管了我。[6] 因此回顾自己走向诗学之路的原点，Elizabeth Jennings无论如何也要选择曾 经红透半边天，现在却已无人闻问的G. K. Chesterton的诗。顺代一提的是， 《龙塾韵书》(The Dragon Book of Verse)是牛津一所声誉卓着的小学「龙塾」 (The Dragon School)编撰的诗选集，该校成立於1877年，招收八到十三岁的学 生，男女兼收。电影哈利波特(Harry Potter)中饰演妙丽(Hermione Granger) 的小女孩Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson(1990- )在现实生活中就是读这所古老 的小学。 诚然，每个诗人心中自有一本「选集」，例如Anne Sexton在1962年写给她其实 并不认识的另一位女诗人May Swenson(1913-1989)的信中说： 我感觉(正如读者有时会这样)我好像认识你…因为我已仰慕你的作品很久了… 向上望着你的作品，而不知为何，以此为傲…因为这的确是女性的作品而且是 优秀诗人的作品。我将你列为首位…仅在Elizabeth Bishop之後… 假如我要编一本选集(我无此计画只是假设)若缺了你的许多诗作我将无法呈现 现代诗的状况…[7] 真是尴尬呀！Anne Sexton在自己未曾谋面的May Swenson面前大大称扬Elizabeth Bishop(1911-1979)，这到底是抬举还是贬抑对方呢？还说对方的诗「的确是女性 的作品而且是优秀诗人的作品」，以及「假如」自己编选集的话一定会选对方的 诗等等，May Swenson看信时想必只能苦笑吧！唯一能确定的一点是：Anne Sexton 对Elizabeth Bishop赞誉有加！而无独有偶，S.P.也对Elizabeth Bishop赞誉有加， 虽说正如前文所引，S.P.用「女同性恋&异想天开&珠光宝气」这种不怀好意的方式 形容她，但在1959年10月10日的日记中，S.P.可是大大称赞了她一番： 以极大的钦佩读Elizabeth Bishop。她优秀的原创性，总是令人惊喜，从不僵硬， 行云流水，比起Marianne Moore，她的教母，更为丰富多汁。[8] 如果承认S.P.与Anne Sexton是真正有才气的诗人，而不只是什麽「女诗人那一挂」、 「自白派诗人那一挂」或「Lowell, Sexton, Plath那一挂」的诗人，那麽她们欣赏 Elizabeth Bishop，是她为真正有才气的诗人，也就没有什麽共谋，也不是出於 什麽意识形态。因此再回到性别的问题，如果考量到诗人月旦人物时狂妄自大却又 慧眼识英雄的本质，那麽诗人的眼中从来只有「好诗人」与「烂诗人」，没有「男 诗人」与「女诗人」。例如英国女诗人Stevie Smith(1902-1971)就曾尖酸地评论道： 差劲的女诗人的人品比较端正，她们很少…酩酊大醉…鎯铛入狱…射杀钢琴师。 她们的错误在於灵魂过於丰富而且陈腔滥调。她们喜欢密谈(谁不是呢)，与精灵、 自然还有她们彼此之间，但她们的辞句却不足以承载其交通…有些差劲的男诗人能 够取信於人…耍把戏与惊世骇俗成了天赋的代用品…好的诗人不分性别皆超乎於这 些喧嚣之上。[9] 诗人品评诗人常常是残酷的。上文中被S.P.称之为「年迈的女巨人、诗坛教母」的 Edith Sitwell(1887-1964)在1949年写给John Lehmann(1907-1987)的一封信中， 议论着他们正在合作编辑的一本美国诗选，以及她对美国诗坛的看法： 我现在对美国诗选生气死了。天啊！那里面实际上没有一个生气勃勃的诗人，除了 Tom, Ezra, Marianne, e.e. commings, Wystan与Jose Villa之外。然而，那里面 有一首壮观的诗是Robert Lowell写的。名为〈鬼魂〉。你知道吗？我认为那首诗属 最高等级，几乎真的可以说是一首伟大的作品。此诗萦绕着绝望感，并有某种挥之 不去邪气。 那里面死掉的诗人也不多！唯一可做的事仍然是去大量刻划那些好的诗人们—咱们 美妙的惠特曼，当然，几首艾伦坡，几首Emily Dickinson，还有Wystan发现的早期 的泰勒。Wystan还点出 了一首Melville的绝佳诗作给我。[10] Edith Sitwell毫不客气地批评美国诗坛生气勃勃的诗人不多，死後能留名的更少， 但也毫不吝啬地称赞她喜爱的诗人，她更促狭地开玩笑说： 没有把所有美国诗人编进里面使我非常烦恼。因此我该在序言中说这只是第一册， 而其他人将全部进入第二册。然後根本就不会有第二册！！这样能哄他们开心，倘 若我还会去美国的话，我会对他们说，第二册就要出来罗… [11] 唉！我们读诗不也只会挑「第一册」的诗来读，烂诗又何必读呢？但这样对被贬抑 为「第二册」的诗人们又情何以堪呢？然而，诗人的才性各有不同，正如宝石虽有 「硬度」、「稀有度」等标准，但也不能一盖而论，钻石虽然硬度高又稀有，但中 国人偏偏喜欢硬度低的玉石，另外讲究其成色与质地，不取其材质精纯稀有而取其 自然造化难得。因此历经时代考验的诗坛大名家固然如钻石般闪耀，但默默写诗的 小名家也各如奇石，自有识者珍爱之，当然，评诗选集也无须必欲去掉「硬度」、 「稀有度」等标准，毕竟文学的标准毕竟不能用自由、民主、平等这样的价值来判 断，後代历史的评价也非今人所能操弄。所以我也不觉得「女流诗人」就是不好， 就是贬抑，各有其才华而已。 注释： [1] Arrogant, I think I have written lines which qualify me to be The Poetess of America (as Ted will be The Poet of England and her dominions). Who rivals? Well, in history—Sappho, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti, Amy Lowell, Emily Dickenson, Edna St. Vincent Millay—all dead. Now: Edith Sitwell & Marianne Moore, the aging giantesses & poetic godmother. Phyllis McGinley is out—light verse: she's sold herself. Rather: May Swenson, Isabella Gardner, & most close, Adrienne Cecile Rich—who will soon be eclipsed by these eight poems: I am eager, chafing, sure of my gift, wanting only to train & teach it—I'll count the magazines & money I break open by these best eight poems from now on. We'll see. 引自：Karen V. Kukil, ed., The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath: 1950-1962, New York: Anchor Books., 2000, p.360. [2] No reason why I shouldn't surpass at least the facile—Isabella Gardner & even the lesbian & fanciful & jeweled Elizabeth Bishop in America. If I sweat the summer out. 引自：Karen V. Kukil, ed., The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath: 1950-1962, New York: Anchor Books., 2000, p.322. [3] Looked through & through my calendar: eight weeks: seven actual teaching weeks. Each week will diminish my pile of preparation: Hopkins, Yeats, Eliot, Thomas, Auden, Crowe Ransom, e.e. cummings. I should have fun if I face preparations & do them very tight, very well. 引自：Karen V. Kukil, ed., The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath: 1950-1962, New York: Anchor Books., 2000, p.358. [4] It looks as if I will be the only female poet at the festival (not counting Ginsberg!)...is that so? How strange...Not, of course, that you asked me because I was another sex. No. That is another lump I dislike "female poets lump," the "confessional poets lump," or "Lowell, Sexton, Plath lump." Your intentions were insightful and correct. Thus, be forgiven. 引自：Linda Gray Sexton & Lois Ames, ed., Anne Sexton: A Self-Portrait in Letters, Boston, New York, London: Houghton Mifflin Company, [1977], 1991, p.308. [5] The old argument sets poets who happen to be women in an unhappy groove of ambivalence. The argument runs like this. Women no longer have the same struggle to be published: their work is bought, borrowed and read, heard on radio and at public readings. To continue to publish and promote them separately is to create a literary ghetto or a cultural sideshow. The counter argument runs like this. Women are published, read and heard, but their work is not discussed. Until their work is considered and written about consistently, seriously and undifferentiatingly by the major literary journals of the day, their poetry will not have a future as part of the main canon of English Literature. 引自： Maura Dooley, ed., Making for Planet Alice, Highgreen, Great Britain: Bloodaxe Books. 1997, p.12. [6] When I was thirteen, and still very much a child, my class was studying certain poems in an anthology called The Dragon Book of Verse. One day we read G.K. Chesterton's 'Lepanto'. It was packed with lines like 'Dim drums throbbing in the hills half-heard...', 'The shadow of the Valois is yawning at the Mass', 'Vivat Hispania! Domino Gloria! Done John of Austria is riding to the sea.' I was transfigured, totally held; the magic of English verse had taken me over. 引自： Elizabeth Jennings, ed., A Poet's Choice, Manchester: Carcanet Press, 1996, p.xiii. [7] I feel (as readers sometimes do) as if I knew you...for I have long admired your work…looking up to it and being, somehow, proud of it… for it is the work of a woman and the work of a fine poet. I have counted you at the top of the list...beside Elizabeth Bishop... If I were to make up an anthology (and I don't plan to but if I did) I would not be able to represent modern poetry without many of your poems... 引自：Linda Gray Sexton & Lois Ames, ed., Anne Sexton: A Self-Portrait in Letters, Boston, New York, London: Houghton Mifflin Company, [1977], 1991, p.146. [8] Am reading Elizabeth Bishop with great admiration. Her fine originality, always surprising, never rigid, flowing, juicier than Marianne Moore, who is her godmother. 引自： Karen V. Kukil, ed., The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath: 1950-1962, New York: Anchor Books., 2000, p.516. [9] Bad women poets are better characters, they seldom... get drunk ... go to prison ... shoot the pianist. Their faults are soul fullness and banality. They like to commune (who does not) with the deity, nature, and themselves, but their words do not quite carry the traffic ... some bad men poets can persuade people ... that tricks and shocks are a substitute for talent ... good poets of either sex are above these quarrels. 引自：Anne Bryan, Stevie Smith Biography；参见： http://www.strange-attractor.co.uk/stevibio.htm [10] I am having, at the moment, hell with the American Anthology. Heavens! There is practically not a living poet, excepting Tom, Ezra, Marianne, e.e. commings, Wystan, and Jose Villa. There is, however, a really magnificent poem by Robert Lowell, ‘The Ghost.’ Do you know it? I think that on the highest level, one may very nearly call it a really great poem. It has a despair about it, and a haunting wickedness. There are also very few dead poets either!! Still, the only thing to do is to give a large representation, of those who are good poets,--our wonderful Whitman, of course, some Poe, some Emily Dickinson, and Wystan’s discovery, the early Taylor. Wystan also pointed out to me a very fine poem by Melville.引自： John Lehmann & Derek Parker, ed., Edith Sitwell: Selected Letters (1919-1964), New York: The Vanguard Press, 1970., pp.164-5. [11] I shall be in fearful trouble with all the Americans for not putting them all in. I shall therefore say in my Preface that this is the First Volume only, and that of course they will all come in the Second. And then there will be no Second!! That will jolly them all along, and I shall say to them, if I ever go to America again, that the Second Volume is comimg… 引自： John Lehmann & Derek Parker, ed., Edith Sitwell: Selected Letters (1919-1964) ,New York: The Vanguard Press, 1970., p.165 参考书目： ．Karen V. Kukil, ed., The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath: 1950-1962, New York: Anchor Books., 2000. ．Linda Gray Sexton & Lois Ames, ed., Anne Sexton: A Self-Portrait in Letters, Boston, New York, London: Houghton Mifflin Company, [1977], 1991. ．Maura Dooley, ed., Making for Planet Alice, Highgreen, Great Britain: Bloodaxe Books. 1997. ．Elizabeth Jennings, ed., A Poet's Choice, Manchester: Carcanet Press, 1996. ．John Lehmann & Derek Parker, ed., Edith Sitwell: Selected Letters (1919-1964), New York: The Vanguard Press, 1970. -- http://www.wretch.cc/blog/kamadevas\ --

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