I
1 O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,
2 Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
3 Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
4 Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
5 Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,
6 Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
7 The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,
8 Each like a corpse within its grave, until
9 Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow
10 Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill
11 (Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
12 With living hues and odours plain and hill:
13 Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
14 Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh hear!
II
15 Thou on whose stream, mid the steep sky's commotion,
16 Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed,
17 Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean,
18 Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread
19 On the blue surface of thine airy surge,
20 Like the bright hair uplifted from the head
21 Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge
22 Of the horizon to the zenith's height,
23 The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge
24 Of the dying year, to which this closing night
25 Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre,
26 Vaulted with all thy congregated might
27 Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere
28 Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: oh hear!
III
29 Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams
30 The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,
31 Lull'd by the coil of his crystalline streams,
32 Beside a pumice isle in Baiae's bay,
33 And saw in sleep old palaces and towers
34 Quivering within the wave's intenser day,
35 All overgrown with azure moss and flowers
36 So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou
37 For whose path the Atlantic's level powers
38 Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below
39 The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear
40 The sapless foliage of the ocean, know
41 Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear,
42 And tremble and despoil themselves: oh hear!
IV
43 If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;
44 If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;
45 A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share
46 The impulse of thy strength, only less free
47 Than thou, O uncontrollable! If even
48 I were as in my boyhood, and could be
49 The comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven,
50 As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed
51 Scarce seem'd a vision; I would ne'er have striven
52 As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
53 Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
54 I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!
55 A heavy weight of hours has chain'd and bow'd
56 One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.
V
57 Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
58 What if my leaves are falling like its own!
59 The tumult of thy mighty harmonies
60 Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,
61 Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,
62 My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!
63 Drive my dead thoughts over the universe
64 Like wither'd leaves to quicken a new birth!
65 And, by the incantation of this verse,
66 Scatter, as from an unextinguish'd hearth
67 Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
68 Be through my lips to unawaken'd earth
69 The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
70 If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
雪莱(1792-1822),生于英国萨塞克斯郡。1816年往瑞士,与拜伦结为好友。1822年与友人驾帆船出海,遇暴风,舟沉身亡。作品包括长诗《仙后麦布》(Queen Mab)、《阿多尼斯》(Adonais)等。《西风颂》,全诗五节,每节的韵脚安排是:aba,bcb,cdc,ded,ee。
其中的名句,“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? ”
这是雪莱在歌唱西风,同时在激励和鞭策自己。雪莱是一个热情的浪漫主义诗人,同时又是一个勇敢的革命战士,他以诗歌作武器,积极投身革命运动,经受过失败和挫折,但始终保持着高昂的战斗精神。他早年就赴爱尔兰参加民族解放斗争,回到英国后继续抨击暴政,鼓吹革命,同情和支持工人运动。因而受到资产阶级反动政府的迫害,不得不愤然离开自己的祖国。在旅居意大利期间,他与意大利“烧炭党”人和希腊革命志士来往密切,同情和支持他们的革命活动。在《西风颂》里,熔铸着雪莱坎坷的人生道路,倾注着雪莱对反动统治者的满腔愤恨,洋溢着雪莱不屈不挠的战斗精神,表达了雪莱献身革命的强烈愿望。
《西风颂》是秋天的歌,是时代的声音。19世纪初叶,科学社会主义还没有诞生,欧洲各国的工人运动还处在自发阶段,封建贵族和资产阶级的反动势力还很强大,“神圣同盟”的魔影正在到处游荡着。大地还没有苏醒,寒冬还在后头。所以,《西风颂》不免带有“婉转而忧愁”的调子。但作为社会主义思想的先驱,雪莱对革命前途和人类命运始终保持着乐观主义的坚定信念,他坚信正义必定战胜邪恶,光明必定代替黑暗。从总的倾向来看,《西风颂》的旋律又是“猛烈、刚强”的。诗人以“天才的预言家”的姿态向全世界大声宣告:
如果冬天来了,春天还会远吗?.