克劳德·麦凯《非洲》的修辞分析
费斯托斯·克劳迪斯“克劳德”麦凯是牙买加作家和诗人，也是哈莱姆文艺复兴的中心人物。他写了五部小说：《哈林之家》（Home to Harlem），畅销书曾获得哈蒙文学金奖（Harmon Gold Award for Literature）、《班卓琴》（Banjo）、《香蕉屁股》（Banabora Bottom）、《马赛浪漫》（Romance in Marseille）以及1941年出版的一本名为《大牙齿的和蔼可亲》（Amiable With Big牙）：一部讲述共产党人与哈林区可怜的害群之马之间的爱情故事的手稿。麦凯还著有诗集、短篇小说集、金格敦、两本自传体书籍《离家很远》和《我的牙买加绿山》以及一本非小说类的社会历史论文《哈莱姆：黑人大都会》。他1922年的诗集《哈莱姆阴影》是哈莱姆文艺复兴时期出版的首批书籍之一。他的诗选于1953年出版。
Africa’s Loss of Grace
by Heather L. Glover
Africa
1 The sun sought thy dim bed and brought forth light,
2 The sciences were sucklings at thy breast;
3 When all the world was young in pregnant night
4 Thy slaves toiled at thy monumental best.
5 Thou ancient treasure-land, thou modern prize,
6 New peoples marvel at thy pyramids!
7 The years roll on, thy sphinx of riddle eyes
8 Watches the mad world with immobile lids.
9 The Hebrews humbled them at Pharaoh's name.
10 Cradle of Power! Yet all things were in vain!
11 Honor and Glory, Arrogance and Fame!
12 They went. The darkness swallowed thee again.
13 Thou art the harlot, now thy time is done,
14 Of all the mighty nations of the sun.
Keeping with Shakespearean literary tradition, Claude McKay’s “Africa” is an English sonnet relating the short but tragic life of a fallen heroine. The poem opens with a lengthy sentence of practically arranged clauses, the first of which states, “The sun sought thy dim bed and brought forth light” (line 1). Referencing scientific and historical discourses on humanity’s African origins, the line alludes to Genesis, in which God brings forth light with one command. The adjective dim demonstrates Africa’s unlighted knowledge prior to God’s intervention and also connotes the dark complexions of Africa’s descendants, unspoken figures whose plight is a recurrent subject in McKay’s work.克劳德·麦凯的《非洲》是一首英国十四行诗，它与莎士比亚的文学传统保持一致，讲述了一个堕落的女主人公短暂而悲惨的一生。这首诗以一个很长的句子开头，这句话实际上是有条理的，第一句话是：“太阳寻找你昏暗的床，带来了光明”（第1行）。引用科学和历史上有关人类起源于非洲的论述，这条线暗指创世记，在其中上帝用一个命令带来光明。形容词dim表明了非洲在上帝干预之前的无知，也意味着非洲后裔的黑暗肤色，他们的困境是麦凯作品中反复出现的主题。
The next line, “The sciences were sucklings at thy breasts,” establishes the poem’s female personification of Africa and lends further support to the cradle of civilization metaphor introduced in the first line. Mother Africa, a nurturer, raises and encourages the “sciences,” actions that foreshadow another brightening of the world to come in the Enlightenment. Lines 3 and 4 also evoke a maternal image with the word pregnant, but return to an indirect expression of the African and African-American experience: “When all the world was young in pregnant night / Thy slaves toiled at thy monumental best.” A subtle nod to the difference between African servitude and American slavery, the lines complete an encomium of Africa’s success before the advent of “new peoples” (6).下一行，“科学在你的胸前吮吸”，确立了这首诗对非洲的女性拟人化，并进一步支持了第一行中引入的文明摇篮隐喻。非洲母亲，一个养育者，提出并鼓励“科学”，这些行动预示着启蒙运动中世界的另一个光明。第3行和第4行也用“怀孕”这个词唤起了母性的形象，但回到了非裔和非裔美国人经历的间接表达：“当全世界都在怀孕的夜晚年轻时/你的奴隶在你的丰功伟绩中辛勤劳作。”这是对非洲奴役和美国奴役之间区别的一种微妙的肯定，这两行诗完成了非洲在“新人民”出现之前取得的成功。
While McKay’s next quatrain does not take the drastic turn reserved for the final couplet in Shakespearean sonnets, it clearly indicates a shift in the poem. The lines transform Africa from the enterprise’s champion to its object, thereby placing the Mother of Civilization into an antithetically lower position. Opening with an isocolonthat stresses Africa’s changing position--“Thou ancient treasure-land, thou modern prize”--the quatrain continues to demote Africa, placing agency in the hands of “new peoples” who “marvel at thy pyramids” (5-6). As the cliched expression of rolling time suggests the permanency of Africa’s new condition, the quatrain concludes, “thy sphinx of riddle eyes / Watches the mad world with immobile lids” (7-8).虽然麦凯的下一首四行诗没有像莎士比亚十四行诗中最后的对句那样发生剧烈的转折，但它清楚地表明了这首诗的一个转变。这些线将非洲从企业的冠军变成了目标，从而将文明之母置于一个相对较低的位置。这首四行诗以一个强调非洲不断变化的地位的等号线开头——“古老的宝地，你的现代的奖品”——继续贬低非洲，把权力交给“惊叹于你的金字塔”的“新人民”（5-6）。正如滚滚时光的陈词滥调暗示着非洲新环境的永久性，这首诗的结论是，“你的谜眼狮身人面像/用不动的眼皮看着疯狂的世界”
The sphinx, a mythical creature often used in caricatures of Egyptian Africa, kills anyone who fails to answer its difficult riddles. The image of a physically and intellectually challenging monster risks undermining the gradual degradation of Africa that is the poem’s theme. But, if unpacked, McKay’s words reveal his sphinx’s lack of power. In a demonstration of anthimeria, the word riddle acts not as a noun or verb, but as an adjective that invokes the sense of perplexity usually associated with riddles or to riddle. The sphinx, then, does not invent a riddle; a riddle makes a confused sphinx. The “immobile lids” of the dazed sphinx frame eyes that do not detect the mission of the “new people"; the eyes do not move back and forth to keep the strangers in constant sight. Blinded by the activity of the “mad world,” a world both busy and crazed with expansion, the sphinx, Africa’s representative, fails to see its imminent destruction.狮身人面像是一种神话生物，经常被用于埃及和非洲的漫画中，它可以杀死任何一个无法解答谜底的人。一个身体上和智力上具有挑战性的怪物的形象有可能破坏这首诗的主题——非洲的逐渐退化。但是，如果不加掩饰，麦凯的话揭示了他的狮身人面像缺乏力量。在anthimeria的一个例子中，单词ridder的作用不是作为名词或动词，而是作为一个形容词来唤起通常与谜语或谜语相关联的困惑感。那么，狮身人面像并没有发明一个谜语；一个谜语造就了一个困惑的狮身人面像。茫然的斯芬克斯人面像的“不动的眼睑”框着眼睛，无法察觉“新人”的使命；眼睛也不会来回移动，以保持陌生人不间断的视线。它的代表作“疯狂的世界”和“疯狂的世界”都无法看到。
The third quatrain, like the first, begins by retelling a moment of Biblical history: “The Hebrews humbled them at Pharaoh’s name” (9). These “humbled people” differ from the slaves mentioned inline 4, proud slaves that “toiled at thy monumental best” to construct an African heritage. Africa, now without the spirit of her youth, succumbs to a lowly existence. After a tricolonic list of attributes linked with conjunctions to convey the magnitude of her former excellence--“Cradle of Power! […] / Honor and Glory, Arrogance and Fame!”--Africa is undone with one short, plain phrase: “They went” (10-12). Lacking the elaborate style and obvious devices contained throughout the poem, “They went” powerfully understates Africa’s demise. Following the pronouncement is another declaration--“The darkness swallowed thee again”--that connotes discrimination of Africans based upon their skin color and the failure of their “dark” souls to reflect the light offered by the Christian God inline 1.第三首四行诗，和第一首一样，以复述圣经历史的一个瞬间开始：“希伯来人以法老的名义使他们谦卑”（9）。这些“卑微的人”不同于第4条中提到的奴隶，骄傲的奴隶“竭尽全力”建设非洲遗产。非洲，现在没有了她年轻时的精神，屈从于卑微的生活。在一个用连词连接的属性的三部曲列表之后，她表达了她以前的卓越成就——“权力的摇篮！[…]/荣誉与荣耀，傲慢与名望！非洲只剩下一句简单明了的话：“他们去了”（10-12）。由于缺乏精雕细琢的风格和贯穿整首诗的明显手法，《他们去了》有力地低估了非洲的消亡。在这一声明之后是另一个宣言——“黑暗再次吞噬了你”，它意味着基于非洲人肤色的歧视，以及他们“黑暗”的灵魂无法反射基督教上帝的光。
In a final blow to Africa’s once shining image, the couplet offers a scathing descriptionof her present state: “Thou art a harlot, now thy time is done, / Of all the mighty nations of the sun” (13-14). Africa thus seems to fall on the wrong side of the virgin mother/tainted whore dichotomy, and the personification formerly used to sing her praises now condemns her. Her reputation, however, is saved by the couplet’s invertedsyntax. If the lines read “Of all the mighty nations of the sun, / Thou art the harlot, now thy time is done,” Africa would be rendered a wayward woman worthy of scorn because of her licentiousness. Instead, the lines state, “Thou art the harlot, […] / Of all the mighty nations of the sun.” The couplet suggests that Europe and America, nations enjoying the Son and the “sun” because they are predominantly Christian and scientifically advanced, pimped Africa in their quests to own her. In a clever positioning of words, then, McKay’s Africa does not fall from grace; grace is snatched from Africa.在对非洲曾经辉煌的形象的最后一击中，这幅对联对她的现状进行了严厉的描述：“你是一个妓女，现在你的时代结束了，/太阳上所有强大的国家”（13-14）。因此，非洲似乎站在了处女母亲/污点妓女二分法的错误一边，以前用来歌颂她的拟人现在谴责了她。然而，这副对联的反复无常的语调挽救了她的声誉。如果这句台词写着“在太阳的所有强国中，/你是妓女，现在你的时代结束了”，非洲将被视为一个任性的女人，因为她放荡，值得蔑视。相反，这句台词说，“你是太阳所有强大国家的妓女，[……]/”。对联表明，欧洲和美国，享受圣子和“太阳”的国家，因为他们主要是基督教徒和科学先进的，拉皮条的非洲在他们的追求中拥有她。那么，用巧妙的语言定位，麦凯的《非洲》并没有失宠；优雅是从非洲夺走的。
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