伊麗莎白·畢肖普在詩裏說，是的。
她是壹位特立獨行的美國詩人，壹生動蕩不安。她是壹位同性戀，在詩中將愛情娓娓道來。她經歷過常人未曾體會過的痛苦，她也得到過舉世的贊美與殊榮。
接下來，就讓我們在閱讀中了解這位女詩人，以及她眼中的the art of losing。
The art of losing
［1］ELIZABETH BISHOP did not like to give much away about herself. While others were writing confessional poetry, she ensured that she wrote at a distance. Poems which in original drafts mentioned characteristics of a lover were revised, sometimes as many as 17 times, in order to make the final work as polished and as impersonal as possible. She was a lesbian who never publicly admitted to the term, even as younger gay poets in the 1970s embraced it (partners were friends or even a “secretary”). She was an alcoholic who was ashamed of her drinking, but never sought long-term treatment. Poetry was a way of "thinking with one’s feelings”, but those feelings were often obscured, hidden within a parenthesis or written from the perspective of someone very different from herself. This is why she makes a fascinating subject for a biographer.
confessional：懺悔室，（教堂內的）告解室;懺悔的; 自白的; “confession”的派生;
impersonal：沒有人情味的; 非個人的，和個人無關的; 不具人格的，壹般性的; [語] 非人稱的;非人稱動詞; 非人稱代名詞; 不具人格的事物;
lesbian：女同性戀的; 萊斯博斯島的;女同性戀者; 萊斯博斯島人;
alcoholic：酒精的，含酒精的；酒精中毒的;酗酒者，酒鬼; 酒精中毒者;
obscured：使…模糊不清，掩蓋(obscure的過去式和過去分詞);[例句]The veil she was wearing obscured her features.她罩的面紗遮掩了她的面容。
parenthesis：圓括號;插入語;插入成分;間歇;[例句]In parenthesis, I'd say that there were two aspects to writing you must never lose sight of.插壹句，關於寫作，我認為有兩個方面妳絕不能忽視。
biographer：傳記作者;[例句]She's a successful novelist and biographer.她是壹個成功的小說家和傳記作家。
伊麗莎白·畢肖普不願意交待太多自己的事。當其他人都在寫自白詩時，她卻堅持自己和寫出的詩保持距離。初版裏提到情人特征的詩都會被修訂17次之多，為了保證最終版本盡可能的完美和無關乎個人。她是壹個女同性戀，但未曾公開承認過。即使是20世紀70年代，更年輕的同性戀詩人公開擁抱著另壹半（伴侶是朋友甚至是壹個“秘書”）的時候。她是壹個為自己的貪飲而深感羞愧的酗酒者，但壹直沒有尋求長期治療。詩歌是壹種“用情感思考”的方式，但是那些情感常常被掩蓋，隱藏在壹個括號裏，或是寫自與她自己非常不同的視角。這也是為什麽她對於傳記作者來說非常有吸引力。
［2］ “A Miracle for Breakfast”, the first full-length biography in two decades, ably manages to bring Bishop to life. Megan Marshall, who was taught by the poet at Harvard in 1976, recalls how she could seem prim and aunt-like to her students: “a grimmer, grayer, possibly even smaller woman than I’d remembered…dressed smartly but uncomfortably” Yet beneath this prim veneer of control was a rich, turbulent personality. Bishop herself was aware of the contrast, writing to one lover while she was teaching at the University of Washington in 1966: “Everyone treats me with such respect and calls me Miss B—and every once in a while I feel a terrible laugh starting down in my chest…how different I am from what they think, I’m sure.”
ably：巧妙地; 熟練地; 精明強幹地; 靈巧地;[例句]He was ably assisted by a number of other members.他得到其他壹些成員的鼎力相助。
prim：整潔的; 循規蹈矩的;（人）壹本正經;循規蹈矩地，整潔地;[例句]On her blonde wavy hair, the white hat looked nicely prim.這頂白色的帽子戴在她金色的卷發上顯得非常雅致。
grim：冷酷的，殘忍的; 嚴厲的; 陰冷的; 可怕的，討厭的;[例句]They painted a grim picture of growing crime他們描繪了犯罪率上升的嚴峻情形。
veneer：飾面，護面; 外飾，虛飾; 表層飾板; 薄木片;膠合; 給…鑲以飾片; 虛飾，粉飾; 鑲蓋;
turbulent：騷亂的，混亂的; 激流的，湍流的; 吵鬧的; 強橫的;[例句]They had been together for five or six turbulent years of rows and reconciliations他們在壹起生活了五六年，壹直吵吵鬧鬧，分分合合，沒有片刻安寧。
給早餐的壹個奇跡，二十年來第壹部長篇傳記，巧妙地把畢肖普帶到生活中。1976年在哈佛大學師從這位詩人的摩根·馬歇爾回憶她對於她的學生來說她看起來如何整潔，像阿姨壹樣：比我記憶的更加嚴厲，更加蒼白，更小的女人，穿得很精致但不舒服。但是在這嚴謹之下，是壹個豐饒動蕩的性子。畢肖普自己知道這種反差，1996年當她在華盛頓大學教書時，給壹個戀人的信中這樣寫：每個人都非常尊敬我，，叫我畢小姐，每次我想放聲大笑時，就覺得，我和他們以為的樣子是多麽不同啊，我敢保證。”
［3］Bishop’s past was indeed more complicated than many knew, even those close to her. Ms Marshall has had access to a previously unknown trove of letters that Bishop wrote to her psychiatrist and to various lovers, which became available after the death of her executor and last lover, Alice Methfessel, in 2009. These depict an unsettled, unhappy childhood. When Bishop was just three her mother was hospitalised for mental illness. She was brought up by a series of relatives. One uncle molested her and was violent, grabbing her by the hair and dangling her over of the railing of a second-floor balcony. “Maybe lots of people have never known real sadists at first hand,” Bishop later wrote to her psychiatrist. “I got to thinking that they [men] were all selfish and inconsiderate and would hurt you if you gave them a chance.”
trove：（物主不明的）發掘出來的金銀財寶;[例句]This Islington shop is a treasure trove of beautiful bridalwear.這家位於伊斯靈頓區的商店裏匯聚了各種漂亮的新娘服裝。
psychiatrist：精神病醫生; 精神病專家，精神病醫生;
executor：遺囑執行人; 執行者; 實行者;
molest：妨害; 騷擾，幹擾; 調戲，（對女性）動手動腳;
dangle：懸蕩，垂著擺動; 尾隨，追逐;使搖晃地掛著或擺蕩; 懸而未定;[例句]A gold bracelet dangled from his left wrist壹只金手鐲在他的左手腕上晃來晃去。
balcony：陽臺; 包廂; （電影院等的） 樓廳，樓座;[例句]She led us to a room with a balcony overlooking the harbour她把我們領進了壹個帶陽臺的房間，從那裏可以俯瞰海港。
sadist：（性）施虐狂者;
inconsiderate：輕率的; 不替別人著想的; 不體諒別人的; 考慮不周的;
畢肖普的過去實際上比很多人知道的更復雜，即使是那些和她很親近的人。馬歇爾女士已經接觸到了之前不為人知的信件，這些信件是畢肖普寫給她的心理咨詢師和不同的情人的，這些信件在2009年她的遺囑執行人和她最後壹個愛人愛麗絲·梅思費塞爾死後流傳出來的。這些信描述了壹個居無定所的不幸童年。當畢肖普僅僅三歲時，她的母親就因為精神問題住院了。她是被許多不同的親戚撫養長大的。壹個叔叔猥褻她，非常殘暴，曾抓著她的頭發並將她吊在二樓陽臺欄桿上。“也許許多人從沒和性虐狂直接接觸過”，畢肖普不久寫給她的精神醫生說：我開始認為他們都很自私，不體諒別人，只要妳給他機會就會傷害妳。
［4］Bishop’s adult life was no less tumultuous. A man she briefly dated committed suicide a year after she rejected his marriage proposal. He sent her a postcard as a suicide note: “Elizabeth, Go to hell.” One of her lovers managed to crash a car carrying Bishop and one of her friends (whom she was also in love with); Bishop and her lover were fine, but her friend, who had been a painter, lost her arm and could not paint again. Bishop often drank herself into a stupor, starting “the hour before dawn” and sometimes continuing even until she was hospitalised. Her partner of over a decade, Lota de Macedo Soares, a Brazilian self-taught landscape designer, overdosed after a breakdown partly caused by Bishop’s infidelity.
tumultuous：騷亂的; 吵鬧的; 狂暴的; 激烈的;
stupor：昏迷; 恍惚; 目光呆滯; 驚愕;[例句]He fell back onto the sofa in a drunken stupor他爛醉如泥，癱倒在沙發上。
overdosed：使…用藥過量(overdose的過去式和過去分詞);[例句]The city, he concluded, had overdosed on design.他的結論是這座城市過分重視規劃設計了。
infidelity：無信仰; 不忠實; 不貞的行為;[例句]George ignored his partner's infidelities喬治對伴侶的不忠行為視而不見。
畢肖普的成人生活也很混亂。壹個她短期約會過的男人，在她拒絕他的求婚的壹年後自殺身亡。他給她送了壹張明信片作為自殺信條：“伊麗莎白，下地獄去吧。”她的壹個情人撞車了，車上帶著她和她的壹個朋友（也是壹個她愛的人）；她和她的愛人沒事，但是她的朋友，原本是個畫家，失去了她的胳膊再也不能畫畫了。畢肖普常常喝的不省人事，從“黎明前的那壹刻”甚至到她住院時。她的伴侶，壹個巴西的自學成才的景觀設計師，由於畢肖普不忠而崩潰服藥過量。
［5］Ms Marshall’s skill prevents this narrative from becoming depressing. The Bishop that emerges from her telling may be at times morose or ashamed of her drinking (wishing, as she wrote to Methfessel, that she could be more like writers who “drink worse than I do, at least badly & all the time, and don’t seem to have any regrets or shame—just write poems about it”). But she also appears vivacious, attractive and full of life. Even the worst heartbreak brought out wonderful poetry, such as her most famous poem, “One Art”, which starts: “The art of losing isn’t hard to master;/so many things seem filled with the intent/to be lost that their loss is no disaster.”
narrative：故事; 記敘文; 敘述，記事; 敘述手法;敘述的，敘事體的; 善於敘述的;
morose：悶悶不樂的，陰郁的;
vivacious：活潑的，快活的;快活地，活潑地;
馬歇爾女士的寫作技巧使這篇故事不那麽沈悶。她的講述中出現的畢肖普有時悶悶不樂或因酗酒而羞愧（像她寫給愛人的信中提到，畢肖普希望自己能更像那些“比我喝的更嚴重，至少很沈迷，或者壹直，沒有任何羞愧——只是寫相關的詩”）的詩人。但這個畢肖普也顯得活潑，迷人，充滿活力。即使是最糟糕的心碎也帶來了美妙的詩歌，就像她最著名的詩歌《壹種藝術》所描繪的：“失去這種藝術並不難掌握；這麽多事物似乎充滿被丟失的意圖，那失去它們也就不算災禍”。
［6］Three relationships in particular illuminate a lighter side to Bishop: her time with Soares in Brazil, which inspired some of her finest work (“Hidden, oh hidden/in the high fog/the house we live in,/beneath the magnetic rock…”); her later years with Methfessel; and her friendship with Robert “Cal” Lowell, the one other writer with whom she immediately felt at ease.
illuminate：照亮，照明; 闡明，說明; 裝飾; 使燦爛;照亮;[例句]No streetlights illuminated the street這條街上沒有照明的路燈。
三段關系對畢肖普而言比較輕松：她和索爾斯在巴西的日子，激勵了她壹些最好的作品（躲了又躲，隱藏在高高的霧裏，我們棲居的房子，上邊是磁性的巖石……）她接下來幾年和梅思費塞爾在壹起的日子，和她和羅伯特·羅威爾的友誼——另壹位能讓她感到輕松自在的作家。
［7］Bishop first met Lowell in 1947 at a dinner party in New York. They stayed in touch for the rest of their lives, writing over 400 letters to one another. Lowell supported her and helped her find grants and postings, and praised her work. He carried around a poem of hers in his wallet as a talisman. They were so different; Lowell wrote hundreds of confessional poems, often quoting from other people’s letters to him.
postings：任命，委派(posting的名詞復數);
talisman：護身符; 法寶; 驅邪物; 有不可思議的力量之物;
畢肖普是在1947年紐約壹次晚餐上首次遇到羅威爾的。他們余生壹直保持聯系，彼此來信有400多封。羅威爾支持幫助她查找基金和任命，並表揚了她的作品。他總是隨身帶著她的壹首詩在錢包裏作為護身符。他們是如此的不同，羅威爾寫了幾百首自白詩，常常引用別人寫給他的信中的話。
［8］The relationship between the two is one of the joys of this book. As Ms Marshall puts it: “Elizabeth would always remember the younger poet’s endearingly ‘rumpled’ dark-blue suit and the ‘sad state of his shoes’ on the night of their first meeting, how handsome he was despite needing a haircut, and, most of all, ‘that it was the first time I had ever actually talked with someone about how one writes poetry’.”
endearingly：討人喜歡地;[例句]Rather endearingly, Mr Goh admitted he did not quite know what people wanted.有點可愛的是，吳作棟承認，他不太清楚人們的需求。
rumpled：弄皺，使淩亂(rumple的過去式和過去分詞);
這兩人的關系是這本書壹個趣味所在。就像馬歇爾女士所說：“伊麗莎白將會永遠記住第壹次見面的晚上，年輕詩人穿的討人喜歡的皺巴巴的深藍西裝和臟臟的鞋子，雖然沒有理發但是依然各種帥氣，還有最重要的是他是第壹個她可以真正討論如何寫詩的人。”
［9］Ms Marshall intersperses chapters about Bishop with chapters of memoir, which touch upon her time as Bishop’s student. This gives the biography a sense of authenticity, but it interrupts the flow of the narrative. It also seems in sharp contrast with her intensely private subject. But this is a small price to pay for a biography which at last illuminates one of America’s finest, and most elusive, poets.
intersperse：點綴; 散布，散置;
memoir：回憶錄，自傳; 記事錄;
Authenticity：可靠性，確實性，真實性;[例句]The entire production evinces authenticity and a real respect for the subject matter整部作品表現出真實性以及對主題的真正尊重。
elusive：難以捉摸的; 不易記住的; 逃避的; 難以找到的;
馬歇爾女士 的回憶錄散布有關於畢肖普的章節，當她還是畢肖普學生的那段時間。這給了傳記真實感，但它打斷了敘事的流程。這也與她強烈的私人話題形成鮮明對比。但是對於壹部記錄了美國最優秀的也最難以捉摸的詩人之壹的傳記，這點代價實在是太微不足道了。
當畢肖普寫下失去是壹種藝術，是不是想著自己半生的坎坷，幼年流離，疾病纏身，感情周折，也許，她把這些痛苦的經歷都看作對自己的磨練，那獨特的靈魂從中升騰起來，化到詩中流傳於世，這就是the art of losing。
英文原文：
/news
講解：霞姐 / Tiassa / Angel
編排 / 校對：Angel