What makes a poem … a poem? - Melissa Kovacs

譯者: Judy Kuo 審譯者: Haocun Yu

穆罕默德·阿里花了很多年訓練

Muhammad Ali spent years training to become the greatest boxer

才成為了世上最偉大的拳擊手，

the world had ever seen,

but only moments to create the shortest poem.

卻只用頃刻就寫出最短的詩：

阿里用他歌頌團結和友誼的演說

Ali captivated Harvard's graduating class in 1975

with his message of unity and friendship.

迷倒了 1975 屆的哈佛畢業生。

When he finished, the audience wanted more.

當他演說結束後， 觀眾並不滿意於此。

他們想要一首詩。

They wanted a poem.

阿里送了他們一首史上最短的詩

Ali delivered what is considered the shortest poem ever.

"Me, we."

「我，我們。」

Or is it "me, weeee"?

或者是：「我，啊啊啊啊」？

沒有人可以確定。

No one's really sure.

Regardless, if these two words are a poem, then what exactly makes a poem a poem?

不管這個，如果兩個字 也可以是一首詩，

那究竟是什麼讓一首詩 真正成為一首詩？

詩人們也為這個問題苦惱了很久，

Poets themselves have struggled with this question,

常常用寓意來詮釋詩的定義。

often using metaphors to approximate a definition.

Is a poem a little machine?

詩是一台小機器嗎？

A firework?

一束煙火？

An echo?

一聲回音？

A dream?

一場夢？

一般來說，詩有以下明顯特色。

Poetry generally has certain recognizable characteristics.

一：詩會強調語言的音樂性。

One - poems emphasize language's musical qualities.

This can be achieved through rhyme, rhythm, and meter,

這通常會透過押韻、節奏和格律呈現，

from the sonnets of Shakepeare,

從莎士比亞的十四行詩，

to the odes of Confucius,

到孔子的「詩經」，

to the Sanskrit Vedas.

再到梵語的吠陀經，都有這個特色。

Two - poems use condensed language,

二：詩使用濃縮式的語言，

like literature with all the water wrung out of it.

就像脫水過後的文學。

Three - poems often feature intense feelings,

三：詩通常帶有強烈的情感，

from Rumi's spiritual poetry

從魯米充滿靈性的詩歌

to Pablo Neruda's "Ode to an Onion."

或是巴勃·羅聶魯達的「洋蔥頌」。

詩，如同藝術本身，很難被簡短地定義。

Poetry, like art itself, has a way of challenging simple definitions.

While the rhythmic patterns of the earliest poems

雖然早期的詩都帶有節奏

但那只是在「寫作」出現之前， 一種記錄故事的方式，

were a way to remember stories even before the advent of writing,

詩本身並不需要帶有歌詞性抒情性。

a poem doesn't need to be lyrical.

Reinhard Döhl's “Apfel”

雷恩哈德•多爾的「蘋果 」

格姆•林格的「沉默」

and Eugen Gomringer's "silencio"

toe the line between visual art and poetry.

在視覺藝術與詩之間 畫了一條模糊的界線。

同時，E•E•卡明斯創作了許多

Meanwhile, E.E. Cummings wrote poems whose shapes were as important

形式和文字本身同樣重要的詩，

as the words themselves,

in this case amplifying the sad loneliness of a single leaf falling through space.

在這個例子中，卡明斯用圖像凸顯了 一片葉子落於孤寂的意象。

If the visual nature of poetry faded into the background,

如果詩的視覺性淡化於背景之中，

perhaps we'd be left with music,

或許我們只能品嚐它的音樂性，

and that's an area that people love to debate.

而這也是人們喜愛辯論的問題。

Are songs poems?

歌曲是詩嗎？

Many don't regard songwriters as poets in a literary sense,

在文學的認知中， 大家並不會視作曲家為詩人，

但出自如藝術家保羅•賽門，

but lyrics from artists like Paul Simon,

Bob Dylan,

巴布•狄倫，

and Tupac Shakur

吐派克•夏庫爾之手的歌詞，

often hold up even without the music.

就算沒有音樂還是能保有詩歌性。

In rap, poet elements like rhyme, rhythm, and imagery

詩中常有的押韻、節奏和意象的元素

在饒舌中也是不可或缺的形式。

are inseparable from the form.

Take this lyric from the Notorious B.I.G.

看看聲名狼藉先生曲子裡的一段歌詞：

「我聽到你臉頰滴落的汗珠，

"I can hear sweat trickling down your cheek

Your heartbeat sound like Sasquatch feet

你的怦怦心跳有如巨人的脚步，

電閃雷鳴，震撼著大地。」

Thundering, shaking the concrete."

So far, all the examples we've seen have had line breaks.

目前爲止，舉的所有例子都有換行。

We can even imagine the two words of Ali's poem organizing in the air -

我們甚至能夠想像在空氣中 架構阿里的詩的那兩個字：

我，我們。

Me, We.

詩通常都有一種我們可以認出來的形狀。

Poetry has a shape that we can usually recognize.

Its line breaks help readers navigate the rhythms of a poem.

透過換行，讓讀者知道這首詩的節律。

但如果這些換行消失了呢？

But what if those line breaks disappeared?

Would it lose its essence as a poem?

這會使詩喪失本質嗎？

或許不會。

Maybe not.

Enter the prose poem.

看看散文詩。

散文詩通常運用生動的意象和雙關語，

Prose poems use vivid images and wordplay

but are formatted like paragraphs.

但卻是由段落所組成的。

當我們把詩更看作一種「概念」 而非一個「形式」，

When we look at poetry less as a form and more as a concept,

we can see the poetic all around us:

我們會發現身邊充滿詩意：

靈性的讚美詩歌，

spiritual hymns,

the speeches of orators like Martin Luther King, Jr.,

演說家的演說， 像是來自馬丁•路德•金恩，

甘迺迪總統，

JFK,

and Winston Churchill,

以及溫斯頓•邱吉爾。

and surprising places like social media.

甚至是如社群媒體等意想不到的地方。

In 2010, journalist Joanna Smith tweeted updates from the earthquake in Haiti.

2010 年，記者喬安娜•史密斯 用推特更新海地大地震的情況：

「我在臥房換衣服時 聽到有人叫了我的名字。

"Was in b-room getting dressed when heard my name.

顫抖著，從拉門倉促逃生。

Tremor. Ran outside through sliding door.

All still now. Safe. Roosters crowing."

現在一切歸於平靜。平安。雞啼。」

Smith uses language in a way that is powerful, direct,

史密斯使用強而有力且直接的語言，

並建構出一幅鮮明的圖畫。

and filled with vivid images.

相較之下，日本古典詩歌

Compare her language to a haiku,

the ancient Japanese poetic form that emphasizes bursts of brief intensity

俳句強調簡短密集的力道，

with just three lines of five, seven, and five syllables.

單單只用三行，五七五的音節。

The waters of poetry run wide and deep.

詩的學問且深且廣。

Poetry has evolved over time,

詩歌經過了長時間的演化，

and perhaps now more than ever,

並且當下尤其如此，

詩、散文、歌曲和視覺藝術間的界限

the line between poetry, prose, song, and visual art has blurred.

已不再分明。

However, one thing has not changed.

但有一件事是自古至今不曾改變的。

詩（poetry）這個字原本是動詞，

The word poetry actually began in verb form,

coming from the ancient Greek poiesis, which means to create.

來自古希臘文的 poiesis， 意思是創造。

Poets, like craftsman, still work with the raw materials of the world

詩人，如同工藝家，

仍舊用這世上的原材料 來精煉出新的理念

to forge new understandings

and comment on what it is to be human in a way only humans can.

並且用只有人類能辦到的方式， 闡述「身為人」這件事。

Dartmouth researchers tested this idea by asking robots to pen poetry.

達特茅斯學院的學者讓機器人寫詩 來驗證這個觀點，

A panel of judges sorted through stacks of sonnets

測試評審們是否能 從一疊疊的十四行詩中，

to see if they could distinguish those made by man and machine.

判別出哪些是人所寫， 哪些是機器人所寫。

You may be happy to know that while scientists have successfully

你可能很欣慰於 儘管科學家們已將人工智慧

used artificial intelligence in manufacturing,

成功運用在製造業，

醫療，

medicine,

甚至是新聞行業，

and even journalism,

poetry is a different story.

但詩完全是另一回事。

The robots were caught red-handed 100% of the time.

評審們準確地抓出 機器人所寫的哪些詩，

屢試不爽。