The World is Too Much With Us

——William Wordsworth

Presenter: 蒙卉薇

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

British poet, credited with ushering in the

English Romantic Movement with the pub-

lication of Lyrical Ballads(1798) in colla-

boration with Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

William Wordsworth was born on April 17,

1770 in Cocker mouth, Cumberland, in the

Lake District. The magnificent landscape deeply

affected Wordsworth's imagination and gave him a love of nature. He lost

his mother when he was eight and five years later his father. In 1795 he met

Coleridge. Encouraged by Coleridge and stimulated by the close contact

With nature, Wordsworth composed his first masterwork, Lyrical Ballads.

About 1798 he started to write a large and philosophical autobiographical

poem, completed in 1805, and published

posthumously in 1850 under the title The Prelude.

Wordsworth's second verse collection, Poems,

In Two Volumes, appeared in 1807. Wordsworth's

central works were produced between 1797 and

1808. His poems written during middle and late

years have not gained similar critical approval.

Wordsworth's Grasmere period ended in 1813.

In later life Wordsworth abandoned his radical

ideas and became a patriotic, conservative public

man. In 1843 he succeeded as England's poet

laureate.

The World is Too Much With Us

The world is too much with us;

这世界对我们真够受的了； /

这尘世拖累我们可真够厉害；

late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:

早晚只营求和消耗，我们将精力荒废： /

得失盈损，耗尽了毕生精力；

Little we need in Nature that is ours;

我们在自然中很少能见到嘉惠； /

对我们享有的自然界所知无几；

We have given our hearts away ,a sordid boon!

白白把心神抛掷掉，鄙残的奋勉！ /

为了卑污的利禄，把心灵出卖！

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

海水的轻波仰对这月明呈裸袒； /

这大海，她向明月袒露着胸怀；

The wind that will be howling at all hours,

那渭风时时刻刻呼啸着向轰雷， /

这天风，他只想昼夜呼号不息，

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,

如今却恬静得有如半展的花蕾； /

如今却像熟睡的花朵般静寂；

For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

对此，对一切，我们都不协调，乖舛； /

对这些，对万物，我们都不能合拍，

It moves us not, ----Great god! I’d rather be

我们却无所谓。——天哪！我衷心但愿 /

都不能感应。——上帝呵！我倒情愿

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

是个信某一过时的信条的异教徒； /

当个异教徒，为古老信条所哺养；

So might I,standing on this pleasant lea,

那么，我能驻足于这愉快的草原， /

那么，在这片草地上，我就能瞥见

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

见闻些使我心情少凄茫的事物； /

异样的情景，宽慰这凄苦的心肠；

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

能叫到海里的多变神冒出波澜； /

看得见老普罗透斯现形于海面，

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

或听到幺龙王吹响他的弯号角。 /

听得见特里同把螺号悠悠吹响。

Tao Yuanming(AD 365-427) Tao Yuanming, also known as Tao Qian, is one of the greatest poets in Chinese literature.

Tao was open and straightforward, and had little patience with the conventions and elaborate ceremonial of his day. Tao's poems are mainly on rural life, he has always been considered a pastoral poet. Most of his poems were written in the five-character-a-line metre current at that time. This verse form had no strict rules. Though the number of words in each line was fixed, a poem could be of any length, and this was a good medium for lyrical poetry. Some of his verses describe natural scenery.

But we find expression of the poet's warm feelings, as well as praise of labour and the labouring people.

Such lines, we may claim, express the true sentiments of the peasantry. Because Tao shared their labours, he had genuine feeling for the peasants.

饮酒 Drinking Wine结庐在人境， Among the haunts of men I build my cot,

而无车马喧。 There’s noise of wheels and hoofs, but I hear not.

问君何能尔？ How can it leave upon my mind to trace?

心远地自偏。 Secluded heart creates secluded place.

采菊东篱下， I pick fence-side chrysanthemums at will,

悠然见南山。 And leisurely I see the southern hill,

山气日夕佳， where mountain air is fresh both day and night,

飞鸟相与还。 And where I find home-going birds in flight.

此中有真意， What is the revelation at this view?

欲辨已忘言。 Words fail me e’en if I try to tell you.

In 730, he wrote Hard is the Road to Shu and Hard is the way of the World which is supposed to be his most important work in the first period of his verse-making.

He express his love of nature in some of his poems, such as The Eastern Hill which epitomizes Tintern Abbey of Wordsworth, and White Clouds reminds us of Shelley’s Clouds.

Li Bai (701----762)

Li Bai is regarded as the greatest romantic poet of the Tang dynasty(618---907) and of China of all times. In 725, he traveled down the Yangzi River when he wrote The Moon over the eye-brow Mountains and Farewell beyond the Thorn-Gate Gorge, which reveal his deep love of nature as well as of his native land.

行路难 Hard is the road of the world

金樽清酒斗十千，

Pure wine in golden cup costs ten thousand coins, good!

玉盘珍馐直万钱。

Choice dish in a plate of jade is worth as much, nice food!

停杯投箸不能食，

Pushing aside my cup and chopsticks, I can’t eat;

拔剑四顾心茫然。

Drawing my sword and looking round, I stamp my feet;

欲渡黄河冰塞川，

I can’t cross Yellow River, ice has stopped its flow;

将登太行雪暗天。

I can’t climb Mount Taihang: the sky is blind with snow.

闲来垂钓坐溪上，

I can put poise a fishing pole beside a stream

忽复乘舟梦日边。

or set sail for the sun like a sage in a dream.

行路难 , Hard is the way,

行路难， Hard is the way,

多歧路， Don’t go astray!

今安在。 Whether today?

长风破浪会有时，

A time will come to ride the wind and cleave the waves;

直挂云帆济沧海。

I’ll set my cloud-ahite said and cross the sea ,which raves.

Li Bai’s poems frequently contains a strong element of fantasy and the supernatural, and are known for its lyrical, innovation imagery and great beauty of language.

Wordsworth defined poetry as the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings," intense "emotion recollected in tranquillity."

In the sonnet "The World Is Too Much with Us" the poet contrasts nature with the world of materialism and "making it." Because we are insensitive to the richness of Nature, we may be forfeiting our souls. To us there is nothing wonderful or mysterious about the natural world, but ancients who were pagans created a colorful mythology out of their awe of Nature.

Tao Yuanming’s poems concerns much about the nature, whose language is simple and delicate.

Thank You for Your Listening!