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08-6-28 09:44 |
英国文学
Ⅲ. Religious and Philosophical Attitude
T
o answer such questions as what C’s personality was, what his attitude were towards the issues that were occupying men’s minds, and where his sympathy lay can only be a matter of inference推断. From the fact that he was sent on a good many很多missions abroad one may argue that he possessed tact机智；老练, urbanity文雅,有礼responsibility and other appropriate attributes品质, 特征. On the other hand, a very real personality emerges from C’s poetry. Every reader feels that he is in the presence of/before a genial(/amiable/good-natured) and urban man, Endlessly intrigued引起兴趣by the life about him, interested in people of all kinds, amused at their foibles (性格上的)缺点and weaknesses, tolerant outwardly表面上even of the vicious.
It is generally accepted that while heterodox /unorthodox非正统的, 异端的opinions and skeptical<口>无神论的/atheistic ideas crop up in his poems, C was doubtless a devout and orthodox Christian. In the light of fully understanding of the religious attitudes prevailing in late medieval England, his keen satirical exposure of the religious orders 神职等级 is no more than只是 echoes of complaints about abuses陋习, 弊端that had been voiced by the most devout Churchmen. His works are in the mainstream of the Christian culture of the late Middle Ages. The Chaucer canon真作，经典includes no didactic allegories or pious treaties[废]恳求, yet the spacious world depicted in his poetry, even when the setting is ancient Thebes⑼or Troy, functions under the benign Providence of God.
It is noticeable/natural that given his varied, active career and being fully aware of the 14th-century social condition, C declined to voice his own views on the great contemporary issues. C lived in an age when England underwent fundamental social changes, yet very few references can be found in his works to such events as the Peasants’ Revolt or the terrible ravages (havoc灾祸)of the Black Death, and there is not an allusion提及，暗示 to the convulsions骚动动乱 that rocked the Church of the Middle Ages like the Papal “ residence” in Avignon⑽ and the Great schism (教会的)分立; 分派in his works. The rarity of such allusions and acquiescence默认, 默许over the great issues may be the result of caution on the poet’s part, but it has more to do with C’s own philosophical attitude, that of living in the world while remaining spiritually detached from it- an attitude which is at least partially a legacy from Boethius, whose Consolation of Philosophy inspired directly the philosophical and theological matter figuring 出现; 突出 all importantly in C’s works. In terms of literary achievement, it is detachment, perfectly balanced in his poetry by sympathy, which distinguishes C’s art. The art of being at once involved in and detached from a given situation is peculiarly Chaucer’s.
⑼ Thebes底比斯(古希腊Boeotia的主要城邦) : An ancient city of Upper Egypt on the Nile River in present-day central Egypt. It flourished from the mid-22nd to the 18th century b.c. as a royal residence and a religious center for the worship of Amen (古埃及的)太阳神. Its archaeological remains include many splendid temples and the tomb of Tutankhamen in the nearby Valley of the Kings.上埃及古城，濒尼罗河，位于今埃及中部。作为皇室居地和古埃及膜拜太阳神的中心，它从公元前22世纪中期到公元前18世纪曾繁荣一时。它的建筑遗迹包括许多辉煌的庙宇和王谷附近的图坦卡蒙陵墓
Tutankhamen: 图坦卡蒙，埃及第十八王朝的国王。他的陵墓于1922年被霍华德•卡特Howard Carter 发现时几乎完好无损)
Boeotia皮奥夏[希腊中东部一地区in east-central Greece northwest of Athens. Originally a Mycenaean迈锡尼的city, it reached the height of its power in the fourth century b.c. but was largely destroyed by Alexander in 336.位于雅典西北希腊中东部维奥蒂亚古城。起初是一座迈锡尼城，它于公元前4世纪达到最高权力，但在336年被亚历山大严重毁坏
⑽Avignon阿维尼翁: ( A city of southeast France on the Rhone River. It was the seat of the papacy教皇世系from 1309 to 1378 and the residence of several antipopes僭称的罗马教皇, 对立教皇from 1378 to 1417. 法国东南部城市，在隆河岸边，1309年至1378年是教廷所在，1378年至1417年是几任伪教皇的居住地。
Prioress
There was also a Nun, a Prioress
(Prioress: A nun in charge of a priory or ranking next below the abbess of an abbey.)
小女隐修院院长或大女隐修院副院长
Simple her way of smiling was and coy. (coy: 怕羞的, 忸怩的,卖弄风情的)
Her greatest oath was only “By St.Loy!” (a very mild oath)
And she was known as Madam Eglantyne, Eglantyne: 野蔷薇的一种
And well she sang a service, with a fine
(service: 礼拜仪式中歌唱的配乐 sing: chant in tone/to intone to a chant)
(referring to the singing of a hymn)
In toning through her nose, as was most seemly (seemly: suitable)
And she spoke daintily in French, extremely, ( daintily: 过份讲究地；雅致地; 优美地)
After the school of Stratford-atte-Bowe; French in the Paris style she did not know
At meat her manners were well taught withal (archaic: with; 用，以)
No morsel from lips did she let fall, ((食物)一口, 少量)
Nor dipper her fingers in the sauce too deep;
But she could carry a morsel up and keep
The smallest drop from falling for courtliness she had a special zest
(Courtly: （适合）朝廷气派的；有礼貌的; 典雅的；有教养的：)
And she would wipe her upper lip so clean
That not a trace of grease was to be seen
Upon the cup when she had drunk; to eat,
She reached a hand sedate for the meat. (sedate: 镇静的, 稳重的)
She was certainly very entertaining, (entertaining: 使人愉快的；有趣的; 会应酬的)
Pleasant and friendly in her ways, and straining
To counterfeit courtly kind of grace, (counterfeit: 伪造, 假冒)
A stately bearing fitting to her place. （stately：庄严的堂皇的 bearing：风度，仪态，举止）
And to seem dignified in all her dealings. As for her sympathies and tender feelings, (dealings行为,态度)
she was so charitably solicitous焦虑的,关切的she used to weep if she saw a mouse
Caught in a trap, if it were dead or bleeding.
And she had little dogs she would be feeding
With roasted flesh, or milk, or fine white bread.
Sorely强烈地she wept if one of them were dead
Or someone took a stick and make it smart (gave it sharp pain)
She was all sentiment and tender heart.
Neat was her wimple妇女头巾in its every plait 皱褶,
Her nose well formed, her eyes as gray as slate石板.
Her mouth was very small, but soft and red,
And certainly she had a well-shaped head,
Almost a span一拃across the brow前额, I own 自认，承认:
She was indeed by no means undergrown.
Her cloak, I noticed, had a graceful charm.
She wore a coral珊瑚色trinket 小饰物on her arm,
A set of beads, the gaudies tricked 装饰地in green.
(every eleventh bead upon which the Lord’s Prayer主祷文 is to be said)
Whence从哪里hung a golden brooch of brightest sheen (luster: 光泽)
On which there first was graven a crowned A, （grave的过去分词）
And lower, Amour vincit omnia(Latin) ： “Love conquers all.”
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