An anthem to humanism - Wole Soyinka / 沃莱·索因卡

Wole Soyinka / 沃莱·索因卡

THE CHILD BEFORE A MIRROR OF STRANGERS

As if you were never here before,

As if you have forgotten that you were

What we are, but you, self-betrayed

Raise walls of deafness to deflect

Pleas of innocence. As if the world you

Taught has los its axis, ceased to spin.

As if you have forgotten when you watched

Entranced, the dance of leaves on stream currents,

Your image wobbling in their depths. As if

You never chased or raced to leave your shadow.

As if you never waved to shapes of folklore

Monsters, heroes, morphing in the clouds.

As if you ever peddled differences

Among your kind at that first, guileless sight,

Till knowing winks and whispers, otherness words -

Pauper, pagan, dirty, low-born -banned

Partners-in-prank of yesterday from closeness -

Henceforth fiends from outer space, non-human.

As if your arms, drug empowered or orphaned,

Were ever forced to cradle ponderous arms,

Senses fused to death commands, as if

Your shoulders caved under abnormal loads

To earn a pittance and a night of slums

Where the sun is total stranger. As if

A child is not the unlisted heritage

Of time, the one perennial season. As if

My presence fails to image what you were,

Mirrored in trustful faces-like the world,

Itself a trusting planet, an eternity that

Spins in human hands-as if, as if

Childhood were out of fashion. As if, as if...






一个孩子面对镜中的陌生人


仿佛你从未来过

仿佛你已经忘了从前的自己

你啊，背叛自我的人

却筑起耳聋的墙壁

挡住童真的呼唤。仿佛你所教导的世界

失去了轴心，停止了旋转

仿佛你已经忘了

那时的你如何入迷地观赏

树叶在潺潺溪流上的舞蹈

波光里你的倒影摇摆不定

仿佛你从未和自己的影子玩过你追我赶的游戏

也从未向云朵幻化的怪兽、英雄和神话人物挥手致意

仿佛你也曾在见到同伴的第一眼

便从彼此真诚的眼神中寻找差异

直至你学会了挤眉弄眼、窃窃私语

学会了排他的言语——乞丐，异端，肮脏，低贱

昔日一起恶作剧的伙伴不再亲密

从此他们成了来自外太空的恶魔非人

仿佛你那仅剩的手臂，在药物作用下变得有力

被迫抬起沉重的臂膀，感觉与死亡融为一体

仿佛你的双肩因超常的负荷塌陷下去

只为赚取微薄的收入和在贫民窟

那个阳光照射不到的地方

一夜安眠。仿佛

孩子并不是遗失在时间

那永恒的季节里的馈赠

仿佛我的存在无法

让你照见曾经的自己——就像世界，

本是一个值得信任的星球，永恒地

旋转在人类手中——仿佛，仿佛

童年已经过时。仿佛，仿佛……

小寅 (Xiao Yin) 译



*



SANS SOUCI, LAFERIERRE, HAITI

I am seated by your ruins, King Christophe,

Your spirit perched above the gutted towers

Here, where your legend's bones are laid -

Pride of race sedated, leave of absence

Terminal. Sans Souci made literal -

The only space of truthful end to strife?

A truncated pillar tilts, sparse survivor

Of earth - and other - quakes less considerate

Than Nature's own malevolence.

I marvel yet again at mortal grandeur

Brought to heel by history's

Inconsistencies. And what of ambition's

Drive - including yours - the spur to war

On comrades? Adieu, then, Dessalines?

For now, see addicts of world marvels

Troop to this wilderness promontory

Measuring, dissecting, learning, contesting.

What mind configured this, what passion

Pushed liberty to edges of sublimity?

Its place secured as universal heritage,

The citadel you raised to dialogue hills,

Its canons silenced, thrust through time

And mute disuse - the deadly humour of

Comite d'Accueil, that welcomed hostile

Guests, uninvited, to their doom -

No way forward, no retreat, only

Submission to the will of erstwhile slaves.

Your mind conjectured all, rooted where

The will of others had prevailed - the distant

Earth, the capture, bonds, dispersal.

Do not fret, King Christophe, restrain

Your soul from longing. Home

Is where it all begins, and home

Is where it ends. Earth is home,

Be it in sculpted citadels awaiting

Guests that never dared. Or in distant

Continent of birth -home is Mind. There

You took your stance, built forts that challenged

The imperial will. We gather, wide-eyed -

See this home that Henri built, this eyrie

Perched on mountain crags? Freedom!

Ever our home from home. Welcome.






无忧宫，拉费里埃城堡，海地

我坐在你的废墟旁，克里斯托夫国王，

你的灵魂栖息在残破的塔楼上

就在此处，在传说中你的尸骨埋葬的地方——

种族的狂热平息了

永恒的假期开始了

无忧宫成了名副其实的忘忧之所——

唯一能真正结束纷争的地方？

断柱倾颓，是地震

是比大自然的恶作剧更加粗暴的灾难

零星的幸存者。

我再次惊叹于

历史的出尔反尔

造就的人间奇景。

是什么样的野心

驱使你，对同袍

发起战争？再见了，德萨林？

但看今日，沉迷于世界奇观的人们

成群结队来到这荒野海角

测量，剖析，学习，争辩。

是什么样的头脑设计了这一切？

是什么样的激情将自由推向崇高的边缘？

你筑起城堡与群山对话，

炮台哑默，刺穿无声的

荒弃岁月——真是致命的幽默

接待委员般，迎接满怀敌意的

不速之客，投入命运的罗网——

前无去路，后无归途，唯有

听凭昔日奴隶的摆布。

你的头脑变幻出这一切，

扎根于别人的意志占领的地方——

遥远的大地，俘虏，镣铐，驱逐

别担心，克里斯托夫国王，请缚住

你灵魂的渴求。家

是一切的开始。家

也是一切的终点。大地就是家，

无论在雕饰的城堡静候

不敢露面的客人。抑或在你

遥远的出生地——家就是心灵。在那里

你坚守立场，筑造堡垒

挑战帝国意志。我们聚集，睁大眼睛——

欣赏亨利修建的家园，如鹰巢般

栖息于峭壁悬崖。自由！

我们永远的家。欢迎。

小寅 (Xiao Yin) 译



*



AN ANTHEM TO HUMANISM

That human gaze be raised skyward,

Not in fear or supplication, but

To hail the fall of superstitions

Spewed as ashes from the after-burn

Of vessels bearing Woman, Man

Through timeless galaxies;

That heads shall bow only in seasonal call

To seed Earth's humus, not seeking

Blessings of indifferent deities;

That arms shall stretch not in beggary, but

In triumph, gathering labour's just deserves;

That Knowledge boldly temper Nature;

That Submission, allied creeds

Fall to questions of unfettered minds

Bound only to Man's ultimate designs -

Not in the Great or Small Beyond but

Here, in the home of need, of hunger,

Fear, yet filled with nuggets of the mind -

These let our mortal passage strive

To bring to fruition, content to leave

A world of fewer doubts, surer guides,

Where Reasoning reasons Reason.

Let Revelation stand disrobed

As Fables ministering to fear.

No 'fall from grace' but Man's transcendental

Free fall in boundless space! Let Faiths -

And Creeds of Man the maker - return to

Mortal hand and mind. Let Voices yoked to

Freedom, Choice, Volition rise to a

Grand Chorale - a quest for Peace.






人文颂

人类的目光投向天空

不含畏惧或乞怜， 

而是欢呼迷信的消亡

如飞船燃烧后喷薄的灰烬

那飞船承载着女人，男人

穿越永恒的星系；

人类的头颅只受四季召唤而低下

在大地的腐植土上播种，而非祈求 

冷漠的神祇的祝福；

人类的双臂张开不为乞讨，而是 

带着胜利的喜悦，收获劳动的果实；

知识锤炼天性

那份顺从，和共同的信条

令自由的思想疑惑不已

它只受制于生命的极限——

不在那或伟大或渺小的彼岸

就在此人世间，在欲望、饥饿、

恐惧的故乡，依然有黄金般珍贵的思想——

它让我们凡人的一生

臻于完满，留下一个

更加安然可靠的世界

在那里，理性服从理性

真理褪去外衣

如同寓言服侍恐惧

再无“失去天恩”之说

唯有人类在无垠的太空

自由地坠落！让信仰——

让造物主的信条——

回归凡人的思想和手中。

让自由意志的声音

上升为一曲

伟大的赞歌——追寻和平。


小寅 (Xiao Yin) 译

Wole Soyinka, Playwright, Poet, Novelist, and Essayist. Nobel Laureate for Literature 1986, Wole Soyinka has published more than forty works, and remains active on various international artistic and Human Rights organizations. A Yoruba, he was born and educated in Nigeria, and in the United Kingdom. Soyinka has held several university positions round the world. He is Professor Emeritus in Comparative Literature, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, Honorary Life Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, UK, and Overseas Hutchins Fellow at Harvard University, US. He currently teaches as Arts and Humanities Professor at New York University, Abu Dhabi, Wole Soyinka is essentially a playwright, but his works cover various literary genres – from poetry, though drama and prose fiction to essays, largely in exploration of the human condition under the binary of power and freedom. His two-volume essay compilation captures a near half century of his reflections on that, and allied themes, across cultures, politics and histories, published in March 2023, titled OF POWER AND FREEDOM. Soyinka’s return to the medium of prose fiction - CHRONICLES FROM THE LAND OF THE HAPPIEST PEOPLE ON EARTH. - was included in the 100 outstanding fictional works of 2021. And has been translated into several languages.


沃莱·索因卡，是一名剧作家，诗人，小说家和散文家。1986 年诺贝尔文学奖得主。出版了四十余部作品，至今活跃于各种国际艺术和人权组织。他是约鲁巴人，出生 于尼日利亚，在尼日利亚和英国接受教育。索因卡任教于 世界各地的多所大学。他是尼日利亚奥巴费米·阿沃罗沃 大学比较文学系荣誉教授，英国剑桥大学丘吉尔学院荣誉终身研究员，美国哈佛大学海外哈金斯研究员。目前，他在阿布扎比的纽约大学担任艺术人文学科教授。沃莱·索因卡的主要身份是一名剧作家。不过，他的创作覆盖多种文学体裁，从诗歌到戏剧，从小说到散文，其作品主要探究权力与自由冲突对立之下的人类境况。2023 年3 月出版的两卷本散文选集《权力与自由》，收录了他近半个世纪以来对此问题的思考和相关主题的文章，涉及不同的文化、政治和历史。索因卡在小说领域的回归之作《地球上最幸福的国度编年史》，入选2021 年度百部优秀小说作品，已被翻译成多国文字。