An_Irish_Airman_foresees_his_Death赏析.doc

1 An Irish Airman foresees his Death 一位爱尔兰飞行员预见自己的死 I KNOW that I shall meet my fate ? Somewhere among the clouds above; ? Those that I fight I do not hate ? Those that I guard I do not love; ? My country is Kiltartan Cross, ??????5 My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor, ? No likely end could bring them loss ? Or leave them happier than before. ? Nor law, nor duty bade me fight, ? Nor public man, nor cheering crowds, ??10 A lonely impulse of delight ? Drove to this tumult in the clouds; ? I balanced all, brought all to mind, ? The years to come seemed waste of breath, ? A waste of breath the years behind ??15 In balance with this life, this death. 我知道我将要遭逢厄运在头顶上的云间的某处；我对所抗击者并不仇恨，我对所保卫者也不爱慕；我的故乡是在基尔塔坦，那里的穷人是我的同胞，结局既不会使他们损减，也不会使他们过得更好。不是名人或欢呼的群众，或法律或义务使我参战， 10是一股寂寞的愉快冲动长驱直入这云中的骚乱；我回想一切，权衡一切，未来的岁月似毫无意义，毫无意义的是以往岁月，二者平衡在这生死之际 ?  Rhyme-scheme: This short sixteen-line poem has a very simple structure: lines metered in iambic tetrameter, and four grouped quatrains of alternating rhymes: ABABCDCDEFEFGHGH, or four repetitions of the basic ABAB scheme utilizing different rhymes. Other schemes: there is an immense amount of verbal patterning in the poem. Individula words are repeated: ‘i’ in lines 1, 3, 4 (suggests ‘lonely impulse of delight’): ‘those’ in lines 3 and 4; ‘my’ in lines 5 and 6; ‘nor’ in lines 9 and 10; ‘all’ in line 13. The poem’s schemes can be marked as follows: Lines 3-4: ‘a ...b/a...b’ Lines 5-6: ‘a...b../a...b..’ Lines 9-10: ‘a...a../a...a..’ Line 13: ‘...a...a...’ Lines 14-15: ‘a...b/b...a’ Line 16: ‘...a, a...’ The verbal patterning is ____________. The poem is an organic whole. ? Commentary This simple poem is one of Yeats’s most explicit statements about the First World War, and illustrates both his active political consciousness (“Those I fight I do not hate, / Those I guard I do not love”) and his increasing propensity for a kind of hard-edged mystical rapture (the airman was driven to the clouds by “A lonely impulse of delight”). The poem