Ode to the West Wind

周聪

一个秋日的午后，诗人雪莱在意大利佛罗伦萨近郊的树林里漫步。突然狂风大作，乌云翻滚。到了傍晚，暴风雨夹带着冰雹雷电倾盆而下，荡涤着大地，震撼着人间。大自然威武雄壮的交响乐，触发了诗人的灵感，他奋笔疾书，谱写了不朽的抒情短诗《西风颂》。这是1819年的事情。
当时，欧洲各国的工人运动和革命运动风起云涌。英国工人阶级为了争取自身的生存权利，正同资产阶级展开英勇的斗争，捣毁机器和罢工事件接连不断。1819年8月，曼彻斯特八万工人举行了声势浩大的游行示威，反动当局竟出动军队野蛮镇压，制造了历史上著名的彼得卢大屠杀事件。雪莱满怀悲愤，写下了长诗《暴政的假面游行》，对资产阶级政府的血腥暴行提出严正抗议。法国自拿破仑帝制崩溃、波旁王朝复辟以后，阶级矛盾异常尖锐，广大人民正酝酿着反对封建复辟势力的革命斗争。拿破仑帝国的解体也大大促进了西班牙人民反对异族压迫和封建专制的革命运动，1819年1月，终于响起了武装起义的枪声。就在武装起义的前夕，雪莱给西班牙人民献上了《颂歌》一首，为西班牙革命吹响了进军的号角。在意大利和希腊，民族解放运动方兴未艾，雪莱的《西风颂》发表不久，这两个国家也先后爆发了轰轰烈烈的武装起义。面对着欧洲山雨欲来风满楼的革命形势，雪莱为之鼓舞，为之振奋，诗人胸中沸腾着炽热的革命激情。这时，在一场暴风骤雨的自然景象的触发下，这种难以抑制的革命激情立刻冲出胸膛，一泻千里，化作激昂慷慨的歌唱。
诗歌赏析
这是一首脍炙人口、含蕴深刻的写景名篇。诗人以饱含激情的笔触抒写了秋之生命的呼吸——狂暴的西风，创造出既是破坏者又是保护者的鲜明的西风形象。感情真挚磅礴，格调高昂激越。
雪莱自己说：“构思和基本写成这首诗，是在佛罗伦萨阿诺河岸的一个树林里，当日气温和煦，清新，而这场暴风正集聚水气，倾泻下秋雨。如我所预料，在日落时分，狂风大作，雨雹如注，伴随了西萨尔滨地区特有的那种壮观的雷电。”由此，可以知道，那狂暴的西风，秋之生命的呼吸，是诗人亲自感受过的，正因为如此，诗人笔下的西风才如此真实、壮观!
诗作共分五大部分。前三部分主要从正面直接描绘西风，写它给大地、天空、海洋带来的天翻地覆的变化，后两部分主要抒写诗人由此而产生的情感。
第一部分，以“狂暴的西风，秋之生命的呼吸”领起，既为全诗定下一个激昂的调子，又以速描式的笔法几笔勾画出西风的精神风貌。接下去以四节的篇幅描写西风对大地的冲击：枯死的落叶被“你”横扫；希望的种子被“你”送吹到冬床上，只等春天到来，昏醒的一切从梦中惊起，漫山遍野，将是姹紫嫣红，芳香扑鼻!诗人最后以“不羁的精灵啊，你无处不行/破坏者兼保护者”总束第一部分，为西风的形象再次描上浓浓的一笔。
第二部分，诗人转换视点，转写西风吹卷下天空的变化：天空因为“你”而喧哗；流云像大地的碎叶一样被撕扯，有如狂女的头发，在“你”青色的气浪上到处垂挂，从至高的天顶一直到漠漠的天涯；“你”又把蒸气凝聚，如此坚实浩大，使夜厦的顶盖承受着“你”的全部重压，最终在厦顶轰然爆炸——黑雨、电火和冰雹一齐迸发!
第三部分，转写海洋。地中海万顷碧波，正沉醉于往日的风景如画和香气弥漫，“你”一下把它的美梦吹断；大西洋为“你”让路，劈裂成波的峡谷，浪的深渊；那海底的苔花泥藻一个个惊慌失措，吓得打颤!
诗人以豪迈奔放的激情，任想象自由地驰骋，以三大部分15节诗的篇幅，诉诸于多种感官抒写出了西风的狂暴、迅疾、无所畏惧。赞美他以摧枯拉朽之势横扫残枝败叶，赞美他以磅之气驱散空中的流云，召来冰雹、大雨和闪电，为黑暗的世界唱出葬歌；赞美他把大海唤醒，掀起汹涌的海浪，震撼海底的花草树木。他是破坏者，同时又是保护者，他到处播种生命的种子，催促万紫千红春的到来。
这是自然的风暴，也是革命的风暴!诗人预言了自然的风暴，也预言了革命的风暴!由此，诗的最后两部分抒发了诗人的革命豪情，由自然之景描写转入抒发感情。
诗作的第四部分，诗人以“唉，假如我是一片枯叶被你浮起”领起，连用几个假设，表达出诗人对现实、对自己的不满，“我跌在生活底荆棘上，我流血了”；“这种岁月的重轭所制伏的生命/原是和你一样的：骄傲、轻捷而不驯”。这脱口而出的诗句是诗人发自肺腑的心声!
第五部分在意义上延承第四部分，又有一些递进。因为对现实、对自己不满，所以诗人便祈求西风“把我当作你的竖琴吧!”给予我“狂暴的精神”!“让我们合一”!吹起我枯死的思想，并把我的预言向世界传送：冬天已经来了，春天还会遥远吗?诗作在诗人对革命与未来美好的展望中戛然而止，读罢令人卓立风发，倍受鼓舞!
在写作上，诗作以象征手法见长。狂暴的西风既是自然界的风，更是革命的风暴，诗人明写自然之风，本意却在呼唤、盼望革命的风暴，象征手法使西风这一意象更加饱满而意蕴深刻。此外，诗作各部分重复“哦，你听”，重章复唱，既为了引起读者的参与，又使作品表现出一种跳动的节奏感、韵律感!
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes:O thou
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow
Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
With living hues and odoulrs plain and hill:
Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh, hear!
2 、
Thou on whose stream, 'mid the steep sky's commotion,
Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed,
Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean,
Angels of rain and lightning:there are spread
On the blue surface of thine airy surge,
Like the bright hair uplifted from the head
Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge
Of the horizon to the zenith's height,
The locks of the approaching storm.Thou Dirge
Of the dying year, to which this closing night
Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre,
Vaulted with all thy congregated might
Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere
Black rain and fire and hail will burst :O hear!
3 、
Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams
The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,
Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams
Beside a pumice isle in Baiae's bay,
And saw in sleep old palaces and fowers
Quivering within the eave's intenser day,
All overgrown with azure moss and flowers
So sweet, the sense faints picturing them!Thou
For whose path the Atlantic's level powers
Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below
The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear
The sapless foliage of the ocean, know
Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear,
And tremble and despoil themselvesh, hear!
4 、
If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;
If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee:
A wave to pant beneath thy power , and share
The impulse of thy strength, only less free
Than thou, O uncontrollable! If even
I were as in my boyhood, and could be
The comrade of thy wanderigs over Heaven,
As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed
Scarce seem'd a vision; I would ne'er have striven
As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
Oh, lift me as a wave , a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!
A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed
One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.
5 、
Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
What if my leavers are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies
Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,
Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,
My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!
Drive my dead thoughts over the universe
Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth!
And , by the incantation of this verse,
Scatter, is from an unextinguished hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawakened earth
The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
If Winter comes , can Spring be far behind?