The Birth of Tragedy The Birth Of Tragedy No. 149 Music and Myth

2016-08-30 「 3946 words / 8 minute 」
The Birth of Tragedy The Birth Of Tragedy No. 149 Music and Myth .jpg
masterpieces
借助于音乐的不和谐关系,我们岂不是能够同时把悲剧效果这个难题基本上简化了吗?
Is it not possible that by calling to our aid the musical relation of dissonance we may meanwhile have made the difficult problem of the tragic effect much easier?
因为,我们现在明白了,所谓“意欲看悲剧,而同时又憧憬着视野以外的东西”是甚么意思。
For we now understand what it means to wish to see tragedy and at the same time to long to get beyond all seeing:
就音乐上的不和谐而言,我们不妨指出这种心情的特征如下:我们愿意谛听,而同时又憧憬着听觉以外的东西,向往无限的境界,对了如指掌的现实感到最高快乐而神飞天外。这种现象,使我不由得想到:必须把这两种心情看作同一的醉境现象,我们不断地看到个性世界忽而建成,忽而毁掉的儿戏,仿佛原始的快感在横流旁溢,正如玄秘的赫拉克利图把创造世界的力量譬作顽童嬉戏,这里那里叠起石块,筑成沙堆,而又把它推翻那样。
referring to the artistically employed dissonances, we should have to characterize the corresponding state by saying that we desire to hear and at the same time long to get beyond all hearing. The striving for the infinite, the wing-beat of longing that accompanies the highest delight in clearly perceived reality, reminds us that in both states we must recognize a Dionysian phenomenon: again and again it reveals to us the playful construction and destruction of the individual world as the overflow of a primordial delight. Thus the dark Heraclitus compares the world-building force to a playing child that places stones here and there and builds sand hills only to overthrow them again.
所以,为了正确的估计一个民族的醉境能力,我们不但要想到他们的音乐,而且要把他们的悲剧神话视为这种能力的第二佐证。
In order, then, to form a true estimate of the Dionysian capacity of a people, we must not only think of their music, but also just as necessarily of their tragic myth, as the second witness of this capacity.
至于音乐与神话的密切关系,也同样必须设想:一者的蜕化衰落,势必引起另一者的凋败。一般地说,神话之衰微,往往表示醉境能力之削弱。
Considering this extremely close relationship between music and myth, one must suppose that a degeneration and depravation of the one will involve a deterioration of the other, if the weakening of the myth really expresses a weakening of the Dionysian capacity.
然而,关于这两者,试看德国天才的发展,便毋庸置疑。
Concerning both, however, a glance at the development of the German character should not leave us in any doubt.
在歌剧上,正如在我们那无神话存在的抽象状态,在堕落为娱乐的艺术上,正如我们凭概念指导的生活方面,我们都见到苏格拉底乐观主义,它既否定艺术,又虚度人生,幸而还有一些使我们快慰的征兆。
In the opera, just as in the abstract character of our mythless existence, in an art degenerated to mere entertainment as will as in a life guided by concepts, the inartistic as well as life-consuming nature of Socratic optimism had revealed itself to us.
虽然如此,但德国精神还睡在深不可测的渊壑中,安然无恙,奥妙莫测,还保持着醉境力量,如同一个好梦正浓的武士;酒神祭的歌声,从这深渊飘送到我们的耳朵,教我们知道:这位德国武士,在快乐而庄严的梦境中,尚且梦着他的原始的酒神神话。你不要以为:德国精神已经永远失掉它的神话故乡,因为它依然清楚地听到灵岛的啼声在诉说故乡的美景。
Yet we were comforted by indications that nevertheless in some inaccessible abyss the German spirit still rests and dreams, undestroyed, in glorious health, profundity and Dionysian strength, like a knight sunk in slumber; and from this abyss the Dionysian song rises to our ears to let us know that this German knight is still dreaming his primordial Dionysian myth in blissfully serious visions. Let no one believe that the German spirit has forever lost its mythical home when it can sill understand so plainly the voices of the birds that tell of that home.
有朝一日,它一旦从酣睡中觉醒,朝气焕发,那时它将斩蛟龙,杀掉狡猾的侏儒,唤醒勃伦希德(Brunhild),——那时甚至沃顿(Wotan)的长矛也不能阻止它前进!
Some day it will find itself awake in all the morning freshness following a tremendous sleep: then it will slay dragons, destroy vicious dwarfs, wake Brünhilde--and even Wotan's spear will not be able to stop this course!
我的朋友,您是相信酒神音乐的,您也知道悲剧对我们的意义。在悲剧中,我们见到悲剧神话从音乐里再生——在诞生时,我们能希望到一切,而忘掉最痛苦的事情。然而,使我们大家感到最痛苦的,是德国天才离家去国,为狡猾的侏儒们效劳,屈辱久矣!您是明白我的话的,最后您也将了解我的希望。
My friends, you who believe in Dionysian music, you also know what tragedy means to us. There we have tragic myth reborn from music--and in this myth we can hope for everything and forget what is most painful. What is most painful for all of us, however, is--the prolonged degradation in which the German genius has lived, estranged from house and home, in the service of vicious dwarfs. You understand my words--as you will also, in conclusion, understand my hopes.