出刊年月/Date of Publishing

1991.09

所屬卷期/Vol. & No.   第21卷第3期 Vol. 21, No. 3

類型/Type                 研究論文 Research Article

篇名/Title
Temporal Topographies: Tennyson’s Tears
時光的面貌：丁尼生的眼淚

作者/Author
米樂 J. Hillis Miller

頁碼/Pagination
pp. 29-45

摘要
丁尼生 (Alfred Lord Tennyson) 的抽象思維往往是傳統而保守的。論者謂其「詩的思維」與其抽象的思維迥異，而且更加微妙。以《公主》詩集中的一首名詩〈眼淚，白流的眼淚〉為例，其中就有複雜的時間觀念。那首詩表逹對時光短暫的極度憂慮，也極富奧妙的寫作技巧；作者踐行式地 (performatively) 運用諷喻符號、擬人法和矛盾比喻等手法，喚起讀者對時光短暫的憂慮。在〈淚眼汪汪亦枉然〉中，時間距離藉著空間距離的象喻而呈現出來，如「快樂旳秋野」，船隻從地平線消失或返航等意象。時間距離也透過愛人之失落或難求等意象表逹出來。在這些意象中，過去與未來顛倒，往昔一去不返，預示死亡將在未來導致終極的喪失。然而，「徒流的眼淚」本身乃是詩中象徵時光短暫最重要的符號。詩中人眺望快樂的秋野，緬懷往日的時光，眼淚不禁奪眶而出。淚珠雖與過去有關，實係追憶往日不再所引發的無意義符號，而不是讓詩中人或讀者體認淚珠所代表的涵義之符號。眼淚在此乃是諷喻的符號，如同班雅明 (Walter Benjamin) 對此符號的定義。直言之，淚珠意指其所表徵之事物不復存在，而非如同柯立基式 (Coleridgean) 的象徵一般，直接透過眼淚而讓省思者意識到昨日已是虛幻渺茫。

Abstract
Alfred Lord Tennyson’s abstract thinking was frequently traditional and conventional, however his “poetic thinking” differed from his abstract thinking and was also more subtle. The poem “Tears, Idle Tears” in The Princess contains an example of Tennyson’s profound apprehension of temporality. The poem’s expression of an apprehension of human time, Tennyson’s rich meticulous writing techniques, and the performative use of the allegorical signs, prosopopoeia and catachresis, call forth that apprehension of temporality. In “Tears, Idle Tears” temporal distance is associated with spatial distance. For example, in “looking on the happy Autumn-fields” there is the image of a ship appearing or disappearing over the horizon. Temporal distance also permeates expressions of loss of a loved one or unassuageable desire. In these kinds of images, past and future are inverted, gone forever in the past, foreshadowing a death that will in the future cause the ultimate loss. Thus, the “idle tears” themselves in the poem remain the most important allegorical sign, as opposed to symbol, of the transience of time. The person in the poem, as they gaze at the happy autumn fields, continues to cherish the days gone by, and the tears continue to fall. Tears here are allegorical signs, in the Benjaminian sense of the definition. Unlike the Coleridgean definition, under which tears are used symbolically, these tears allow the person reminiscing to fully understand the illusion of yesterday. In other words, the failure of tears to express what they mean makes them function as an allegorical sign for temporality.

關鍵字/Key Word
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DOI
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學門分類/Subject
文學 Literature