原詩：
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.
詩的分析與詮釋
這段父子之間的深刻對話探討了時間、死亡與人類意識之間的複雜關係。父親試圖傳達一個關於死亡不可避免性和時間無情流逝的嚴肅真理，而兒子最初抵抗，體現了年輕的樂觀與否認。這首詩的結構呈現為對話，突顯了對比的觀點：父親對死亡的智慧與接受，與兒子年輕的反抗與希望。
父親將時間描述為一種緩慢、融化和消逝的力量，類似於冰塊融化或煙霧在空氣中消散，象徵著生命和機會的逐漸流失。他強調與時間和死亡相關的「無名罪惡」，暗示著所有人類都承擔著的存在負擔，但往往避免面對。相對而言，兒子則將時間視為充滿承諾與活力，二十一歲時的「舞動之火」，代表著年輕的能量和對死亡的否認。
這首詩還觸及了人們如何逃避時間和死亡的現實——透過分心、從眾和像娛樂、食物或懷舊這樣的表面快樂。父親警告這些逃避行為，鼓勵兒子面對自己的恐懼，對自己的生活和死亡負責。詩中對哈姆雷特的暗示強化了直接面對死亡和人類狀況的主題。
最終，父親敦促兒子接受死亡的現實，以真正生活並找到意義，暗示只有接受死亡，才能掌握時間和自我。
背景與作者介紹
這首詩是對生命、死亡和時間流逝的現代反思，讓人聯想到存在主義和哲學詩歌。對話格式和對哈姆雷特的引用表明作者對文學傳統和人類心理的關注。
雖然這裡未提及作者的名字，但他可能是一位對存在主義主題和人類狀況深感興趣的詩人，借鑒古典文學和現代感受。詩的語調和結構暗示著20世紀或當代的起源，對話詩用來探索內心衝突和哲學思想。
反思與見解
閱讀這首詩鼓勵我們反思自己對時間和死亡的態度。它挑戰讀者超越表面的分心，面對存在的更深層真理。詩中的父子對話反映了世代智慧與年輕抵抗的普遍經驗。
對許多人來說，這首詩可能喚起一種緊迫感，促使人們有意義和真實地生活，認識到時間是有限的，而否認只會延遲與死亡的不可避免對抗。它還強調了自我意識和責任的重要性。
對兒童和學生的教訓與應用
從這首詩中，兒童和學生可以學到幾個重要的教訓：
- 理解時間的流逝： 時間是珍貴且不可逆轉的，這鼓勵謹慎使用。
- 面對恐懼和責任： 避免困難的真相可能導致空虛，而面對它們則能建立成熟。
- 年輕與智慧的對比： 年輕人常常看到無限的可能性，但智慧則認識到限制和更深的意義。
- 自我反思的價值： 知道自己和自己的歷史對於成長和決策至關重要。
在日常生活中，這些教訓可以幫助學生管理拖延，珍惜當下，並在面對挑戰時發展韌性。在學習環境中，這首詩鼓勵對時間、死亡和個人成長等抽象概念進行批判性思考。
關鍵詞彙與概念
- 沉默寡言的： 保留或不願意說話。
- 虛情假意： 過度或不真誠的誠懇。
- 無名罪惡： 一種模糊、不明確的責任或懺悔感。
- 逃避： 避免或逃避現實或責任。
- 不可避免的： 不可能避免或逃避。
- 沉思： 一種夢幻般的冥想或幻想的沉思。
- 絕對的： 一種普遍有效或無條件的事物。
閱讀理解問題
- 詩中父子之間討論的主要主題是什麼？
- 兒子最初如何看待時間，這與父親的觀點有何不同？
- 詩中有哪些方式建議人們試圖避免面對時間和死亡的現實？
- 父親為什麼在詩中提到哈姆雷特？
- 父親所說的「在全身鏡中對自己感到內疚」是什麼意思？
- 理解這首詩如何幫助年輕人在日常生活中？
答案
- 主要主題是時間和死亡的不可避免性以及誠實面對這些現實的重要性。
- 兒子將時間視為充滿承諾和活力，而父親則將其視為緩慢、不可避免的死亡過程。
- 人們通過娛樂、食物、懷舊和從眾來逃避現實，變得匿名和疏離。
- 哈姆雷特被用作一個例子，表明接受死亡和成為成年人的人，通過直接面對死亡來結束逃避。
- 這意味著要對自己負全責，誠實面對自己的真實本性和恐懼，而不加以否認。
- 它可以教導年輕人珍惜時間，面對恐懼，並以更大的意識和責任生活。
