Saturday, July 14, 2007

菲爾德: 希臘悲劇的永恆輪迴與當代震撼 (文研文)



Theatrum Issue 1 文研文 第一期 (June 2007)
多謝歐贊年 (Jeffrey Au) 的穿針引線及「修補」,得而為這文學作品沾上點邊兒。若Prof Jeremy Tambling懂得中文的話,希望他喜歡我的翻譯!
錯過了APA 的四月重演,唯有再期待!
http://www.actualvoice.com

簡介《菲爾德》
Jeremy Tambling, University of Manchester 英國曼徹斯特大學文學系教授
翻譯:譚情/譚心
《菲爾德》是法國著名編劇尚.哈辛的一齣悲劇,主題是關於嫉妒,尤其是女性的嫉妒,或羨慕(兩者有分別嗎?),當然也包括愛情這個元素來突顯其荒謬性。這種荒謬性亦透過戲劇探討的秩序與尊嚴呈現出來,當中的語言運用亦斷定了自控及受控的必須性 (這形式呈現了哈辛貫徹使用對稱詩句,與莎士比亞剛好相反)。秩序井然的劇情,不變的佈局:世間萬物跟隨定律運行,與劇中的澎湃激情形成對照。
** 哈辛 **
尚.哈辛 (1639-1699)曾編寫了十一齣舞台劇,被公認為法國古典悲劇的典範。他的作品曾在巴黎布爾崗戲院上演,劇院於1680年改為巴黎國家大劇院。哈辛自幼在Port-Royal修道院長大,接受詹森主義者的教導──雖然是天主教徒,詹森主義者信奉加爾文主義,認為凡夫俗子幹盡壞事,他們的惡行全都是不可原諒的。詹森主義者當然不會在戲劇上浪費時間,故詹森主義者對戲劇的反對也可能構成哈辛的分裂思想。哈辛創作了《菲爾德》後回到詹森主義者前,他們對哈辛的罪孽觀念大感興趣,如同菲爾德基本的性格 (她既沉迷其中又深感後悔),他們亦對無法獲得救贖感興趣。
** 神話 **
古希臘時代,菲爾德是雅典王泰西的妻子,Ariadne的姊妹。雅麗斯曾協助泰西在迷宮殺掉一頭半人半牛的怪物米諾托。泰西捨棄了雅麗斯而娶了菲爾德為妻。菲爾德當上皇后,什麼也垂手可得,可惜她迷戀繼子依保列德;他是泰西與前妻亞馬遜皇后安緹奧所生的太子。亞馬遜族人不會與任何人建立感情,直至泰西征服亞馬遜族人後。眾所周知,依保列德不會討好女人,他只醉心狩獵和策馬馳騁的樂趣。古希臘時代的人民,以駕馭馬匹的能力象徵成功控制一己的情感。哈辛從另一位希臘悲劇作家尤里庇得斯 (公元前484-407年)在《依保列德》一劇中(公元前428年)取得靈感。愛慾女神愛芙羅黛蒂懲罰依保列德,只因他拒絕了她的一往情深。在尤里庇得斯的悲劇中,依保列德因為情感帶來毀滅性力量而備受困擾,尤里庇得斯相信人類的感情失控是危險的,是一場禍害。相對於尤里庇得斯的悲劇世界而言,菲爾德就顯得微不足道。
環觀尚.哈辛的戲劇,神靈並沒有在其舞台上出現過,從特洛溱來的女人開場白亦沒有出現過,更沒有呈現幽閉恐怖症,如依保列德與雅典公主雅麗斯的相戀。她的國家一直與泰西皇朝競爭不斷。雅麗斯被禁止與依保列德戀愛,因她的家族與泰西家族是宿敵。諷刺的是,貫穿整齣戲劇的便是禁戀,像菲爾德對依保列德泥足深陷的迷戀也是另一段禁戀。

** 駭人的愛 **
戲劇甫開始,依保列德正打算從雅典南部的特洛溱逃離,因他邂逅了雅麗斯,害怕自己被她深深吸引。同時他卻逃避菲爾德的痴戀,他與她的家族亦是世仇。此時泰西已消失其蹤影,更有消息傳出他已死掉,菲爾德不顧危險把握機會向依保列德示愛。最震驚的時刻在第二幕第五場,當這女子是如斯離經叛道,向依保列德作出暗示;而年輕天真的他生性多疑如女生,不懂得如何招架,這或容許菲爾德挽回她的名聲。劇情高潮一刻,泰西忽然回來,菲爾德把自己推進一個極荒誕的死角位置。勇敢示愛似乎與隱藏愛慕同是災難性的行為。此刻的菲爾德,一生彷彿完蛋了,她甚至覺得她比以往更為道德敗壞。教她絕望的是,她發現依保列德不接受她不是因為他喜歡狩獵和享受馳騁,而是他已愛上雅麗斯。菲爾德發現這壞消息時說:「依保列德是有感情的,可惜他眼中從沒有我!」(第四幕第五場)。滿腔怒火、暴跳如雷的她得不到依保列德,轉向泰西誣蔑他的兒子,撒謊說他引誘她在先。泰西怒氣沖沖,即向海神海王星祈求懲罰他的兒子。海王星遂其所願,命令海怪驚嚇依保列德的馬兒,拉著馬車的馬兒與牠們的主人同被殺害。依保列德終死在自己馬兒的蹄下,是他控制範圍以外的事。

戲劇的尾聲,怪物己斷言它的權力。為什麼愛總被認為與禁忌、駭人、亂倫糾纏不清?為什麼去嘗試懺悔是被認為一大災難?

有所遺憾的,或許就是欠缺恩典讓眾角色得以逃脫。劇中常強調太陽的貞潔光芒,代表著理智和啟蒙。菲爾德的死亡,正如她最後的一句台詞,她將所擁有的純潔回饋給白天與太陽。人類,就像是陽光中顯露的污垢。誠然這是可怕的意念,透過菲爾德的父親米諾斯,她更堅稱她父親就是太陽的投射。作為太陽的女兒,她被父親排斥,正如依保列德被他父親詛咒一樣,是荒謬的象徵物。造物主可控制萬物秩序,可殘害怪物,也是一頭怪獸。
ORIGINAL: Phèdre: An Introduction
The subject of Racine’s tragedy, Phèdre (1677), is jealousy, female jealousy – or is it envy? (Is there a difference?) And the subject is also love, which seems to be monstrous. The monstrous contrasts with the play’s classical order and dignity. Its language asserts the necessity for self-control and shows control itself. (In that way, Racine’s constantly dignified, symmetrical verse, is the opposite of Shakespeare’s.) The action is continuous, and the setting is unchanging: everything is ordered, in contrast to the play’s violent passions.

Jean Baptiste Racine (1639-1699) author of some eleven plays, is the outstanding French tragic dramatist, his plays put on at the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris, the theatre which was to become France’s national theatre in 1680. Racine himself was brought up by the Jansenists at the abbey of Port-Royal: the Jansenists, though Catholics, taught a Calvinist view of man: that everything man did was damned, and that no deeds of man could ever be justified. Of course, the Jansenists had no time for the theatre, and this opposition to it must have caused a split in Racine’s mind. After Phèdre, he returned to the Jansenists, with their interest in guilt. This is basic to Phèdre’s character (she loves and feels guilty about it), and their interest in the impossibility of finding salvation.

Phèdre is the wife of Theseus, and the sister of Ariadne, who helped Theseus kill the monstrous Minotaur, half bull, half man, in the labyrinth. Theseus deserted Ariadne, and married Phèdre. The woman seems to have everything, but she has seen Hippolytus (Hippolyte, in French), also the son of Theseus, by another wife: Antiope, Queen of the Amazons. And she has fallen in love with him. And the Amazons had no time for any men, until Theseus conquered them. But Hippolytus is widely supposed to care for no woman: he is simply the man who loves the pleasures of hunting, and horses. For the Greeks, to be able to control horses is a sign of controlling passion. In the play by the Greek dramatist, Euripides (484-407 BCE), Hippolytus (428 BCE), from which Racine drew his inspiration, Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual love, punishes Hippolytus’ refusal to love. Hippolytus in Euripides’s tragedy is brought down by the destructive force of passion, which Euripides always thought was dangerous, and a disaster. In Euripides’s play, Phèdre has only a minor part.

In Racine’s play, which has no gods on stage, and no Chorus of women from Trozen, and so is much more tight, and more claustrophobic, Hipplytus falls in love with Aricie, a royal princess of Athens, and a rival to Theseus’s dynasty. Aricie is forbidden to Hippolytus, because she is of a rival family. Hence the irony that runs through the play. Phèdre falls in love with Hippolytus, who is forbidden to her. Hippolytus falls in love with Aricie, who is forbidden to him.

At the beginning of the play, Hippolytus wants to run away from Trozen, south of Athens, because he has seen Aricie, and fears loving her. And he avoids Phèdre, because she is of a rival dynasty to him. But Theseus has disappeared, and the news comes that he has died. Phèdre on the basis of this information, throws caution to the winds, and confesses to Hippolytus that she loves him. It is the most astonishing moment, in Act 2 scene 5, when the woman becomes completely transgressive, in the way she hints things to Hippolytus, and Hippolytus, young and naive and suspicious alike of women and of himself, does not know how to react sensitively, or in a way which allows Phèdre to save her reputation. At that climactic moment, Theseus comes back, and Phèdre has put herself into an impossible position. It seems that frank disclosure of feelings is as disastrous as concealing them: Phèdre is now completely ruined: she feels even more monstrous than she did before. But then she discovers that Hippolytus has rejected her, not because he loves horses, not women, but because he loves Aricie: her moment of discovery is her line: ‘Hippolyte est sensible, et ne sent rien pour moi!’ (Act 4 scene 5) – ‘Hippolytus has feelings, and feels nothing for me!’ In passionate rage and anger that she cannot possess Hippolytus, she tells Theseus that Hippolytus tried to seduce her. Theseus prays to the sea-god, Neptune, to punish his son: Neptune sends a sea-monster, which terrifies Hippolytus’s horses, which are pulling his chariot. Hippolytus is killed because of his own horses, which he cannot control.

By the end of the play, the monstrous has fully asserted its power. But why is love to be thought of as always forbidden, and always monstrous, and liable to be incestuous? Why is it that the attempt to make a confession is always a disaster?

What is missing, it seems, is any means of grace for the characters to escape. All that there is, frequently asserted in the play, is the hard light of the sun, which represents rationality and Enlightenment. Phèdre’s death means that, as she says in her last line, she gives back to the day, and so to the sun, all its purity. Humans, it seems, are the impure stains in the sunlight. It is a frightening idea, the more so as Phèdre can claim, through her father Minos, the sun itself as her father. As the daughter of the sun, she is rejected by her father, as Hippolytus is cursed by his own father, who is therefore himself a monstrous figure. The ruler who controls order, and the monster-slayer, is himself the monster.

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