“Reflecting on the now does not imply relinquishing the future or forgetting the past: the present is the meeting place for the three directions of time. Neither can it be confused with facile hedonism. The tree of pleasure does not grow in the past or in the future but at this very moment. Yet death is also a fruit of the present. It cannot be rejected, for it is part of life. Living well implies dying well. We have to learn how to look death in the face.”
- Literature laureate Octavio Paz in his 1990 banquet speech
Paz grew up under poor circumstances, but his interest in literature was sparked at an early age as he gained access to his grandfather’s library. Having already begun writing poetry as a teenager, he made his literary debut at the age of 19 with the poetry collection ‘Luna silvestre’ (‘Wild Moon’).
At university, Paz studied both literature and law. Beginning in 1946, he served as a diplomat for 20 years. During this time, Paz also published dozens of volumes of poetry and prose. One of his most famous literary works is ‘El laberinto de la soledad’ (‘The Labyrinth of Solitude’), a collection of essays in which he analyses Mexican history and culture.
Paz is often considered one of the greatest Latin American poets of the twentieth century.
Though small in stature and well into his seventies, Octavio Paz, with his piercing eyes, gives the impression of being a much younger man. In his poetry and his prose works, which are both erudite and intensely political, he recurrently takes up such themes as the experience of Mexican history, especially as seen through its Indian past, and the overcoming of profound human loneliness through erotic love. Paz has long been considered, along with César Vallejo and Pablo Neruda, to be one of the great South American poets of the twentieth century; three days after this interview, which was conducted on Columbus Day 1990, he joined Neruda among the ranks of Nobel laureates in literature.
Paz was born in 1914 in Mexico City, the son of a lawyer and the grandson of a novelist. Both figures were important to the development of the young poet: he learned the value of social causes from his father, who served as counsel for the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, and was introduced to the world of letters by his grandfather. As a boy, Paz was allowed to roam freely through his grandfather’s expansive library, an experience that afforded him invaluable exposure to Spanish and Latin American literature. He studied literature at the University of Mexico, but moved on before earning a degree.
At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Paz sided immediately with the Republican cause and, in 1937, left for Spain. After his return to Mexicao, he helped found the literary reviews Taller (“Workshop”) and El Hijo Pródigo (“The Child Prodigy”) out of which a new generation of Mexican writers emerged. In 1943 Paz traveled extensively in the United States on a Guggenheim Fellowship before entering into the Mexican diplomatic service in 1945. From 1946 until 1951, Paz lived in Paris. The writings of Sartre, Breton, Camus, and other French thinkers whom he met at that same time were to be an important influence on his own work. In the early 1950s Paz’s diplomatic duties took him to Japan and India, where he first came into contact with the Buddhist and Taoist classics. He has said, “More than two thousand years away, Western poetry is essential to Buddhist teaching: that the self is an illusion, a sum of sensations, thoughts, and desire. In October 1968 Paz resigned his diplomatic post to protest the bloody repression of student demonstrations in Mexico City by the government.
His first book of poems, Savage Moon, appeared in 1933 when Paz was nineteen years old. Among his most highly acclaimed works are The Labyrinth of Solitude (1950), a prose study of the Mexican national character, and the book-length poem Sun Stone(1957), called by J. M. Cohen “one of the last important poems to be published in the Western world.” The poem has five hundred and eighty-four lines, representing the five hundred and eighty-four day cycle of the planet Venus. Other works include Eagle or Sun? (1950), Alternating Current (1956), The Bow and the Lyre (1956), Blanco (1967),The Monkey Grammarian (1971), A Draft of Shadows (1975), and A Tree Within(1957).
Paz lives in Mexico City with his wife Marie-José, who is an artist. He has been he recipient of numerous international prizes for poetry, including the International Grand Prix, the Jerusalem Prize (1977), the Neustadt Prize (1982), the Cervantes Prize (1981), and the Novel Prize.
During this interview, which took place in front of an overflow audience at the 92nd Street YM-YWHA in New York, under the auspices of the Poetry Center, Paz displayed the energy and power typical of him and of his poetry, which draws upon an eclectic sexual mysticism to bridge the gap between the individual and society. Appropriately, Paz seemed to welcome this opportunity to communicate with his audience.
Paz's writings ranged far beyond his native land in their subject matter and reflected the cultural influences of his many years abroad. His output was prolific -- more than 40 volumes of poetry and essays, many translated into dozens of languages.
In awarding him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990, the Swedish Academy of Letters hailed Paz for "impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity." The academy also quoted one of Paz's poems as his literary credo:
Between what I see and what I say Between what I say and what I keep silent Between what I keep silent and what I dream Between what I dream and what I forget: Poetry.
"He is one of the greatest poets that the Spanish-language world has produced," said the Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa
In Light of India 印度札记/ Selected Works of Octavio Paz
台 北有家新出版社,精美地編集繁體字《雙重火燄──愛情與欲望的幾何學》(LA LLAMA DOBLE, AMOR Y EROTISMO, 1993 - The Double Flame: Love and Eroticism)台北,2004;《雙重火燄:──愛與欲》蔣顯璟等譯,北京:東方出版社,1998
【標題常騙人,這本提到的現代經 典很不少,包括人工智能學的《心智的社會》,由於中文書都不肯作索引,一般人不了解這些知識份子--詩人的博學…….『它 燃起了情欲(eroticism)的紅色火焰, 而情欲繼之又燃起另一個搖曳不定的藍色火焰:愛情(love)的火焰。情欲與愛情:生命的雙重火焰。」「就像同心圓一樣,性欲就是這種情欲幾何的中心和樞 紐。」』】
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鄭樹森在他得諾貝爾獎之前訪問他(《國際文壇十二家》(其中第一篇Octavio Paz, Juan Carlos Onetti),鄭樹森編,台北: 聯合文學,1992)。我們從中知道,Paz的世界和他的西班牙譯介漢詩,頗為拉丁文壇歡迎。Paz透過英文和法文的翻譯和介紹(包括程抱一的《中國詩 學》、《紅樓夢》、《史記》等等),轉譯中國古典詩(按:1993出版《莊子》)
「在《翻譯與消遣》(1973 Traduccion :literatura y literaridad, Tusquets, 1990)中,他翻譯了唐宋一些詩人的作品。帕斯的詩歌與散文具有融合歐美,貫通東西,博採眾長、獨樹一幟的特點。」(diversión f 1. (entretenimiento) entertainment 2. (pasatiempo) pastime 3. MIL diversion
(from Diccionario Cambridge Klett Compact) )
hc案:《東山坡》(1969)應是錯誤的翻譯,這是獻給蘇東坡、李後主等的詩集。
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生平簡介: http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/opaz.htm
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從甜蜜的辛苦: 譯詩雜記 http://www.hgjh.hlc.edu.tw/~chenli/ontranslation.htm 進入
帕斯詩選 陳黎‧張芬齡 譯 http://www.hgjh.hlc.edu.tw/~chenli/Paz.htm
本文之附文有英文選介
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感覺一下Paz之英文翻譯
Octavio Paz Translations by Eliot Weinberger http://www.geocities.com/poesiamsigloxx/paz/paz2.html<帕斯/博普羅夫斯基><在印度的微光中> (Vislumbres de la India 1995)﹐蔡憫生譯, 馬可孛羅, 城邦文化, 2000。
太陽石 (Piedra del sol)﹐朱景冬等譯﹐桂冠圖書﹐1993。 【這是三百來頁的選集】;《太陽石》 趙振江譯,廣州:花城出版社,1992(小本多的選集)。
Paz 主要詩作有《太陽石》(1957)、《假釋的自由》(1958)、 《火種》(1962)、《東山坡》(1969)、《清晰的過去》(1974)、《轉折》(1976)、《向下生長的樹》(1987)等。其中《太陽石》是 他的代表作,曾轟動國際詩壇。散文作品有《孤獨的迷官》(1950)、《EL ARCO Y LA LIRA, 1956 - The Bow and the Lyre;弓與琴;弓と竪琴》(1956)、《榆樹上的梨》(1957)、《交流》(1967)、《連接與分解》(1969)、《仁慈的妖 魔》(1974)、《索爾 •胡安娜•伊內斯或信仰的陷附》(1982)、《人在他的世紀中》(1984)、《印度紀行》(1995)等。在《翻譯與消遣》(1973)中,他翻譯了 唐宋一些詩人的作品。
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Octavio Paz日文詩之翻譯:
RENGA, 1972 (with others)
ペルーのカトリカ大学の出版局から芭蕉の『奥の細道』のスペイン語訳が送られてきた。
*****
In the countryside one night, years ago, as I contemplated the stars in the cloudless sky, I heard the metallic sound of the elytra of a cricket. There was a strange correspondence between the reverberation of the firmament at night and the music of the tiny insect. I wrote these lines:
The sky's big.
Up there, worlds scatter.
Persistent,
unfazed by so much night,
a cricket: brace and bit.
Stars, hills, clouds, trees, birds, crickets, men: each has its world, each is a world, and yet all of these worlds correspond. We can only defend life if we experience a revival of this feeling of solidarity with nature. It is not impossible: fraternity is a word that belongs to the traditions of Liberalism and Socialism, of science and religion.
-- Octavio Paz – Banquet Speech
Paz draws strength from the original Indian poetry of his country in his striving for the "sensuous intelligence" indicated by the prize citation. "Reason is incarnated at last," as he says in a poem from 1948. By welding together thinking and sensuousness Paz can give an immediate palpability to his continuous reflection on poetry, both when he participates in the mission of "spelling" the world, giving it a name and thereby a visibility, and when, as a reader, he finds himself watched from the whispering "foliage of the letters" (Pasado en claro清晰的過去). With such a method he can depict time in all its obtrusive ominousness, and give love power to surmount it.
*****
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.
Paz, Octavio (oktä´vy päs´) (KEY) , 1914–98, Mexican poet and critic. A diplomat, he lived abroad many years. Paz’s books—revealing depth of insight, elegance, and erudition—place him among his generation’s ablest writers. His works include the poetry collections La estación violenta (1956), Piedra de sol (1957), Alternating Current (tr. 1973), Configurations (tr. 1971), Early Poems: 1935–1955 (tr. 1974), and Collected Poems, 1957–1987 (1987); the volumes of essays The Labyrinth of Solitude (tr. 1963), The Other Mexico (tr. 1972); and El arco y la lira (1956; tr. The Bow and the Lyre, 1973); criticism; and studies of Claude Lévi-Strauss and Marcel Duchamp (both, tr. 1970). In 1971–72 Paz delivered the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard; they are collected in Children of the Mire: Modern Poetry from Romanticism to the Avant-Garde (1974). In 1990 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. 1
See I. Ivask, ed., The Perpetual Present (1974).
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Octavio Paz 嘉言
Art is an invention of aesthetics, which in turn is an invention of philosophers... What we call art is a game.
If we are a metaphor of the universe, the human couple is the metaphor par excellence, the point of intersection of all forces and the seed of all forms. The couple is time recaptured, the return to the time before time.
Literature is the expression of a feeling of deprivation, a recourse against a sense of something missing. But the contrary is also true: language is what makes us human. It is a recourse against the meaningless noise and silence of nature and history.
Man does not speak because he thinks; he thinks because he speaks. Or rather, speaking is no different than thinking: to speak is to think.
Social criticism begins with grammar and the re-establishing of meanings.
Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone.
What distinguishes modern art from the art of other ages is criticism.
Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two.
奥克塔维奥·帕斯做过六年墨西哥驻印度大使。他在那里的经历改变了他的生活。现在,在帕斯迄今最具个人性的这部散文作品中,他把诗意的洞察力与丰富的知 识瞄准了一个不同寻常的巨大主题:印度的文化、风景与本质,一个已经回响了数千年的大陆与文化。帕斯以令人叹服的明晰性,唤起了孟买的声与光;呈现了对于 印度光彩夺目的历史与多语种社会的一种令人信服的观察与诊断;并探究了印度的艺术、音乐与社会。其结果必定会把读者深深地拽进一个充满了令人惊奇的美与力 量的世界。 一切语言中最富才气、最富独创性的随笔作家之一。 ——Washington Post Book World 帕斯是一位令人沉醉的诗人;而作为思想者的帕斯却又确保这种沉醉不以理性和公正为代价。他用理性让人沉醉。 ——Agha Ali,《洛杉矶时报》 这部颇富雄心的书中的篇章当然不是众多的“一瞥”;它们是长期的体验与研究的... (展开全部) 奥克塔维奥·帕斯做过六年墨西哥驻印度大使。他在那里的经历改变了他的生活。现在,在帕斯迄今最具个人性的这部散文作品中,他把诗意的洞察力与丰富的知 识瞄准了一个不同寻常的巨大主题:印度的文化、风景与本质,一个已经回响了数千年的大陆与文化。帕斯以令人叹服的明晰性,唤起了孟买的声与光;呈现了对于 印度光彩夺目的历史与多语种社会的一种令人信服的观察与诊断;并探究了印度的艺术、音乐与社会。其结果必定会把读者深深地拽进一个充满了令人惊奇的美与力 量的世界。 一切语言中最富才气、最富独创性的随笔作家之一。 ——Washington Post Book World 帕斯是一位令人沉醉的诗人;而作为思想者的帕斯却又确保这种沉醉不以理性和公正为代价。他用理性让人沉醉。 ——Agha Ali,《洛杉矶时报》 这部颇富雄心的书中的篇章当然不是众多的“一瞥”;它们是长期的体验与研究的结果,以具有巨大迷人魅力的回忆开始,接着却导向关于印度的历史、宗教、哲学,以及诸如印度的种姓制度、梵语色情诗、雕塑与建筑的专题讨论。 ——Raleigh Trevelyan,《纽约时报书评》
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