Tiger! tiger! In the forest at night
The bright fire is burning,
What kind of divine hand or eye
created such a mighty person like you?
How far in the sky or abyss does the fire in your piercing eyes burn?
On what wings does he fight?
What kind of hand is used to seize the flame?
What kind of physical strength, what kind of skills,
Knead the muscles of your heart into shape?
When your heart starts to beat,
How hard do you use your wrists and shins?
What kind of mallet is it? What kind of chain?
In what furnace was your brain forged?
What kind of anvil is it? What kind of iron arms
dare to catch this terrible evil god?
The stars dropped their spears,
Wet the sky with their tears.
Does he smile and admire his work?
He created you and also the Lamb?
Tiger! tiger! In the dark forest at night
The bright fire is burning,
What kind of divine hand or eye
created such a mighty person like you?
(Translated by Guo Moruo)
Appreciation
During his lifetime, William Blake had a lonely literary reputation and was called a "madman". This is related to the fact that he was haunted by hallucinations throughout his life. It is said that this hallucination can reach such an intensity that it is difficult for him to distinguish the difference between imagination and reality. But critics point out that it is this extraordinary power of illusion that allows him to penetrate the curtain of daily experience and integrate it with the dark and chaotic primitive experience of prehistoric times, thereby creating a profound sense of history and revelation. The symbolic world of power has become the "prophet" and "prophet" of modern industrial society.
"The Tiger" is a famous piece of Blake's short lyric poems, selected from the collection of poems "Songs of Innocence and Experience". The purpose of this collection of poems, as the poet reveals in the subtitle, is to demonstrate "the two opposing states of the human mind" - innocence and experience. In "Song of Innocence", the poet uses "Lamb" as the central image to form a happy, kind and harmonious picture of agricultural civilization: The shepherd boy plays the happy piccolo, and the song ripples on the green grass; the child is lost in the wilderness , God incarnated as a father and sent him home; the little ant lost its way, and the firefly sent it home with a lantern; the lamb was eating grass, and the lion wandered around the sheepfold for a while, leaving "golden tears." , and finally lay down to sleep with it... In "Song of Experience", the poet uses "tiger" as the central image, showing a growing picture of painful, evil, and divided modern industrial civilization: Field It is desolate and the roads are overgrown with thorns; children are reduced to the streets, sweeping chimneys from house to house; soldiers are bleeding and sighing, and policemen are cursing on the streets in the middle of the night; streets and rivers are "patented", "cruelty, jealousy, terror and secrets" ” instead of “love, kindness, mercy and peace.”
According to Christian tradition, the "lamb" is a symbol of the goodness of human nature, so obviously, the "tiger" is the embodiment of the evil of human nature. It symbolizes desire, lust, violence and sin. But Blake does not believe that evil has no value and should be completely denied. On the contrary, he believed that both good and evil were the works of God, and neither could exist without the other. The good (sheep) can form a kind and fully moralized "innocent" society, but lacks the motivation for progress; the evil (tiger), although it causes pain, unrest and division in society, releases human energy and creativity, Can promote social progress. Good and evil, sheep and tigers, morality and libido are all essential to human survival, and they all have their own rationality for existence. People often only see the negative aspects of evil and ignore its positive aspects. Therefore, in this poem, Blake focuses on praising the sublime beauty of the tiger - passion, desire. It is like a "bright fire" burning in the unconscious layer deep in the human soul ("in the forest of night"). It both creates and destroys, and has a "mighty and majestic" feel.
In addition to the tiger, there is another image worth noting in this poem, which is the image of God who created the tiger. It was man who transformed the Christian tradition by portraying God as an animated blacksmith. "He" is like the Kunpeng in "Zhuangzi Xiaoyaoyou" who spreads his wings, ascends to the sky and enters the earth, and takes the fire of life; and with his own will, imagination and physical strength, he overcomes the limitations of hard materials and uses the hammer in his hand to A lifeless, formless block of iron is forged into a living work. This image embodies Blake's ideals. He believes that the perfect person in the future society should be a creative artist, a "giant" who harmoniously integrates soul and senses, will and imagination, wisdom and physical strength.
The original text of this poem is written in iambic (i.e., a meter that is heavy first and then light), which is rare in English poetry. The tone is sonorous and powerful, like a hammer hitting an anvil. It is called "Music of the Anvil". The whole poem adopts the posture of "Heavenly Questions", asking 14 questions in one breath, pursuing them step by step, and advancing layer by layer, which further enhances the power and sublime feeling of the poem.
(Zhang Deming)