原诗：
Father:
On these occasions, the feelings surprise,
Spontaneous as rain, and they compel
Explicitness, embarrassed eyes——
Son:
Father, you’re not Polonius, you’re reticent,
But sure. I can already tell
The unction and falsetto of the sentiment
Which gratifies the facile mouth, but springs
From no felt, had, and wholly known things.
Father:
You must let me tell you what you fear
When you wake up from sleep, still drunk with sleep:
You are afraid of time and its slow drip,
Like melting ice, like smoke upon the air
In February’s glittering sunny day.
Your guilt is nameless, because its name is time,
Because its name is death. But you can stop
Time as it dribbles from you, drop by drop.
Son:
But I thought time was full of promises,
Even as now, the emotion of going away——
Father:
That is the first of all its menaces,
The lure of a future different from today;
All of us always are turning away
To the cinema and Asia. All of us go
To one indeterminate nothing.
Son:
Must it be so?
I question the sentiment you give to me,
As premature, not to be given, learned alone
When experience shrinks upon the chilling bone.
I would be sudden now and rash in joy,
As if I lived forever, the future my toy.
Time is a dancing fire at twenty-one,
Singing and shouting and drinking to the sun,
Powerful at the wheel of a motor-car,
Not thinking of death which is foreign and far.
Father:
If time flowed from your will and were a feast
I would be wrong to question your zest.
But each age betrays the same weak shape.
Each moment is dying. You will try to escape
From melting time and your dissipating soul
By hiding your head in a warm and dark hole.
See the evasions which so many don,
To flee the guilt of time they become one,
That is, the one number among masses,
The one anonymous in the audience,
The one expressionless in the subway,
In the subway evening among so many faces,
The one who reads the daily newspaper,
Separate from actor and act, a member
Of public opinion, never involved.
Integrated in the revery of a fine cigar,
Fleeing to childhood at the symphony concert,
Buying sleep at the drugstore, grandeur
At the band concert, Hawaii
On the screen, and everywhere a specious splendor:
One, when he is sad, has something to eat,
An ice cream soda, a toasted sandwich,
Or has his teeth fixed, but can always retreat
From the actual pain, and dream of the rich.
This is what one does, what one becomes
Because one is afraid to be alone,
Each with his own death in the lonely room.
But there is a stay. You can stop
Time as it dribbles from you, drop by drop.
Son:
Now I am afraid. What is there to be known?
Father:
Guilt, guilt of time, nameless guilt.
Grasp firmly your fear, thus grasping your self,
Your actual will. Stand in mastery,
Keeping time in you, its terrifying mystery.
Face yourself, constantly go back
To what you were, your own history.
You are always in debt. Do not forget
The dream postponed which would not quickly get
Pleasure immediate as drink, but takes
The travail of building, patience with means.
See the wart on your face and on your friend’s face,
On your friend’s face and indeed on your own face.
The loveliest woman sweats, the animal stains
The ideal which is with us like the sky ...
Son:
Because of that, some laugh, and others cry.
Father:
Do not look past and turn away your face.
You cannot depart and take another name,
Nor go to sleep with lies. Always the same,
Always the same self from the ashes of sleep
Returns with its memories, always, always,
The phoenix with eight hundred thousand memories!
Son:
What must I do that is most difficult?
Father:
You must meet your death face to face,
You must, like one in an old play,
Decide, once for all, your heart’s place.
Love, power, and fame stand on an absolute
Under the formless night and the brilliant day,
The searching violin, the piercing flute.
Absolute! Venus and Caesar fade at that edge,
Hanging from the fiftieth-story ledge,
Or diminished in bed when the nurse presses
Her sickening unguents and her cold compresses.
When the news is certain, surpassing fear,
You touch the wound, the priceless, the most dear.
There in death’s shadow, you comprehend
The irreducible wish, world without end.
Son:
I begin to understand the reason for evasion,
I cannot partake of your difficult vision.
Father:
Begin to understand the first decision.
Hamlet is the example; only dying
Did he take up his manhood, the dead’s burden,
Done with evasion, done with sighing,
Done with revery.
Decide that you are dying
Because time is in you, ineluctable
As shadow, named by no syllable.
Act in that shadow, as if death were now:
Your own self acts then, then you know.
Son:
My father has taught me to be serious.
Father:
Be guilty of yourself in the full looking-glass.
诗歌的分析与解读
这段父子之间的深刻对话探讨了时间、死亡和人类意识之间的复杂关系。父亲试图传达关于死亡不可避免性和时间无情流逝的严肃真理，而儿子最初对此表示抵触，体现了年轻人的乐观和否认。诗歌以对话的形式构建，突显了对立的观点：父亲对死亡的智慧和接受与儿子年轻的反抗和希望。
父亲将时间描述为一种缓慢、融化和消逝的力量，类似于冰块融化或烟雾在空气中消散，象征着生命和机会的逐渐流失。他强调与时间和死亡相关的“无名的罪疚”，暗示着所有人类都承载但常常避免面对的存在负担。相对而言，儿子则将时间视为充满承诺和活力，代表着年轻的能量和对死亡的否认。
这首诗还涉及到人们如何逃避时间和死亡的现实——通过分心、从众和对娱乐、食物或怀旧等肤浅乐趣的追求。父亲警告不要逃避这些，鼓励儿子面对自己的恐惧，并对自己的生活和死亡负责。诗中对《哈姆雷特》的提及强化了直接面对死亡和人类状况的主题。
最终，父亲敦促儿子接受死亡的现实，以真正生活并找到意义，暗示只有接受死亡，才能掌握时间和自我。
背景与作者介绍
这首诗是对生命、死亡和时间流逝的现代反思，令人想起存在主义和哲学诗歌。对话的形式和对《哈姆雷特》的引用表明作者与文学传统和人类心理的互动。
虽然这里未提及作者的名字，但他可能是一位对存在主题和人类状况深感兴趣的诗人，借鉴古典文学和现代感受。诗歌的语调和结构暗示其源于20世纪或当代，使用对话诗探讨内心冲突和哲学思想。
反思与见解
阅读这首诗鼓励我们反思自己对时间和死亡的态度。它挑战读者超越肤浅的分心，面对存在的更深真理。诗中的父子对话反映了代际智慧与年轻人抵抗的普遍经历。
对许多人来说，这首诗可能唤起一种紧迫感，促使人们有意义和真实地生活，认识到时间是有限的，而否认只会延迟与死亡的不可避免对抗。它还强调了自我意识和责任感的重要性。
对儿童和学生的教训与应用
从这首诗中，儿童和学生可以学习到几个重要的教训：
- 理解时间的流逝： 时间是珍贵且不可逆转的，这促使我们谨慎使用时间。
- 面对恐惧和责任： 避免困难的真相可能导致空虚，而面对它们则能建立成熟。
- 年轻与智慧的对比： 年轻人常常看到无限的可能性，而智慧则认识到限制和更深的意义。
- 自我反思的价值： 了解自己和自己的历史对成长和决策至关重要。
在日常生活中，这些教训可以帮助学生管理拖延，珍惜当下，并在面对挑战时培养韧性。在学习环境中，这首诗鼓励对时间、死亡和个人成长等抽象概念进行批判性思考。
关键词汇与概念
- 沉默寡言： 保留或不愿意说话。
- 虚情假意： 过度或不真诚的认真。
- 无名的罪疚： 一种模糊、不明确的责任或悔恨感。
- 逃避： 避免或逃避现实或责任。
- 不可避免： 不可能避免或逃脱。
- 沉思（幻想）： 一种梦幻般的冥想或幻想沉思状态。
- 绝对： 一种普遍有效或无条件的事物。
阅读理解问题
- 诗中父子讨论的主要主题是什么？
- 儿子最初如何看待时间，这与父亲的观点有何不同？
- 诗中提到人们试图避免面对时间和死亡现实的方式有哪些？
- 为什么父亲在诗中提到《哈姆雷特》？
- 父亲所说的“在全身镜中对自己感到内疚”是什么意思？
- 理解这首诗如何帮助年轻人在日常生活中？
答案
- 主要主题是时间和死亡的不可避免性以及面对这些现实的重要性。
- 儿子认为时间充满承诺和活力，而父亲则将其视为向死亡缓慢、不可避免的衰退。
- 人们通过分心、娱乐、食物、怀旧和从众来逃避现实，变得匿名和疏离。
- 《哈姆雷特》被用作一个例子，说明一个人通过直接面对死亡接受成年，结束逃避。
- 这意味着要对自己负全责，诚实地面对自己的真实本性和恐惧，而不加以否认。
- 它可以教导年轻人珍惜时间，面对恐惧，以更大的意识和责任生活。
