The Exeter Book Riddles - Crossley-Holland, Kevin

The Exeter Book Riddles

Crossley-Holland, Kevin

出版社

出版时间

2009-03-01

ISBN

9781904634461

评分

★★★★★
书籍介绍

The ninety-six Anglo-Saxon riddles in the eleventh-century "Exeter Book" are poems of great charm, zest, and subtlety. Ranging from natural phenomena (such as icebergs and storms at sea) to animal and bird life, from the Christian concept of the creation to prosaic domestic objects (such as a rake and a pair of bellows), and from weaponry to the peaceful pursuits of music and writing, they are full of sharp observation, earthy humour and, above all, a sense of wonder. The main text of this volume contains Kevin Crossley-Holland's newly-revised translations of seventy-five fascinating and discursive riddles - all those not very badly damaged or impenetrably obscure - while a further sixteen are translated in the notes. These translations are very widely anthologised in Britain and the USA. Sir Arthur Bliss and William Mathias set some of them to music, Ralph Steadman has illustrated them and Michael Fairfax has incorporated them in his Riddle Sculpture.

用户评论
无名诗人对于海洋的水元素和灵魂休憩、净化、擢升的隐喻把握得非常精妙(对于阿尔比恩西南部Exeter的minstrels来说,海洋碧波的呼啸就如同礼拜仪式时圣杯内圣水的清越激荡,冲刷着他海螺一样柔软复杂又暗藏隐秘罪孽的虔诚灵魂):body and soul submerged in the water; dived under watered languid amongst fishes, I had a living spirit; water become bones... 另一大亮点是吟游时对女性形象的刻画,不同于其他早期盎撒文学将女性比作春日玫瑰的优美爱欲精神,诗人塑造出有着乌鸦般黑发却流浪的威尔士奴隶女孩,她们孤独又陷入迷惘的沉思,‘brooding’一词可谓有着极强的神秘象征色彩。
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