2016年6月22日功课

The Greek Theatre

古希腊戏剧

THE ORIGINS OF THE THEATRE, THE FIRST FORM OF PUBLIC AMUSEMENT

戏剧的起源，最早的公共娱乐形式。

AT a very early stage of their history the Greeks had begun to collect the poems, which had been written in honor of their brave ancestors who had driven the Pelasgians out of Hellas and had destroyed the power of Troy. These poems were recited in public and everybody came to listen to them. But the theatre, the form of entertainment which has become almost a necessary part of our own lives, did not grow out of these recited heroic tales. It had such a curious origin that I must tell you something about it in a separate chapter。

希腊人在很早的时期就开始收集诗歌了，这些诗歌都是为歌颂他们勇敢的祖先而创作的。他们的祖先曾把佩拉斯基人(史前居住在希腊及小亚细亚一带的人)驱赶出希腊，并粉碎了特洛伊人的政权。这些诗篇被当众诵读，每个人都来倾听。但是我们今天生活中已经不可或缺的艺术形式——戏剧，却不是从那些被传诵的英雄赞美诗发展而来的。希腊戏剧有一个非常奇特的起源，所以我必须单列一章来为你讲述。

2016年6月23日功课

The Greeks had always been fond of parades. Every year they held solemn processions in honor of Dionysos the God of the wine. As everybody in Greece drank wine (the Greeks thought water only useful for the purpose of swimming and sailing) this particular Divinity was as popular as a God of the Soda-Fountain would be in our own land.

希腊人总是很喜欢游行。每年他们都举行盛大的游行仪式来纪念酒神狄厄尼索斯。希腊的每个人都喝酒（因为希腊人认为水只有在航行和游泳时才用得到）。这个特别的神就像在我们国家发明饮料机的那个牛人那么受欢迎。

2016年6月24日功课

And because the Wine-God was supposed to live in the vineyards, amidst a merry mob of Satyrs (strange creatures who were half man and half goat), the crowd that joined the procession used to wear goat-skins and to hee-haw like real billy-goats. The Greek word for goat is “tragos” and the Greek word for singer is “oidos.” The singer who meh-mehed like a goat therefore was called a “tragos-oidos” or goat singer, and it is this strange name which developed into the modern word “Tragedy,” which means in the theatrical sense a piece with an unhappy ending, just as Comedy (which really means the singing of something “comos” or gay) is the name given to a play which ends happily.

因为希腊人认为酒神居住在葡萄园里，与一群萨提尔（一种奇怪的半人半兽的生物）混杂在一起。所以希腊人在参加游行时，通常会披着山羊皮还学驴叫，就像真的公山羊。山羊用希腊语说是“特拉哥斯”，歌手在希腊语中是“oidos”。一副山羊音唱腔的歌手就叫做“tragos-oidos”或者山羊歌手，就是这个奇怪的词汇发展成了“悲剧”这个现代词汇，意思是戏剧中以悲伤结尾，就像戏剧（真实意义是歌唱关于“comos”或者放荡的事情）是指以欢快结尾的演出。

2016年6月25日功课

But how, you will ask, did this noisy chorus of masqueraders, stamping around like wild goats, ever develop into the noble tragedies which have filled the theatres of the world for almost two thousand years?

不过，现在你会问确定是那些站立在四周化妆成野山羊样子的人们，制造的重复的嘈杂合唱，发展成了今天的高雅的悲剧——那些在剧院里传唱了近两千年的剧目。

The connecting link between the goat-singer and Hamlet is really very simple as I shall show you in a moment.

山羊歌手与哈姆雷特（莎士比亚著名悲剧剧名及该剧的主人公）之间的联系非常简单，我一会儿就给你讲清楚。

The singing chorus was very amusing in the beginning and attracted large crowds of spectators who stood along the side of the road and laughed. But soon this business of tree-hawing grew tiresome and the Greeks thought dullness an evil only comparable to ugliness or sickness. They asked for something more entertaining. 

刚开始这种唱法非常有趣，吸引力一大帮人站在路旁边看边笑。但很快人们就感到厌烦，感到无趣并认为这种打扮很丑陋、恶心。希腊人呼唤真正能让人娱乐的东西。

2016年6月26日功课

Then an inventive young poet from the village of Icaria in Attica hit upon a new idea which proved a tremendous success. He made one of the members of the goat-chorus step forward and engage in conversation with the leader of the musicians who marched at the head of the parade playing upon their pipes of Pan. This individual was allowed to step out of line. He waved his arms and gesticulated while he spoke (that is to say he “acted” while the others merely stood by and sang) and he asked a lot of questions, which the bandmaster answered according to the roll of papyrus upon which the poet had written down these answers before the show began.

突然，在阿提卡地区的伊卡里亚镇上的一个富有创意的年轻诗人想到一个新主意，他的想法引发了巨大的成功。他从山羊歌手里挑出一个人站到前面，让他专门与游行队伍前面演奏排笛的乐师领队对话。这个人被允许站到队列外面。他一边讲话（也就是说，当别人仅仅是站在哪里或者唱歌时，他在“表演”），一边手舞足蹈的提问问题，乐队指挥依据那个诗人在演出之前在稿纸上写好的答案来回答他。

This rough and ready conversation–the dialogue–which told the story of Dionysos or one of the other Gods, became at once popular with the crowd. Henceforth every Dionysian procession had an “acted scene” and very soon the “acting" was considered more important than the procession and the meh-mehing.

这种粗糙的事先准备好的对话讲述狄关于厄尼索斯（希腊神话中的酒神）或者其它什么神的故事，突然在人群中流行起来。从此，每界酒神节游行都会有一出“表演剧目”，很快“演出”被认为比游行和山羊歌唱还重要。

2016年6月28功课

AEschylus, the most successful of all “tragedians” who wrote no less than eighty plays during his long life (from 526 to 455) made a bold step forward when he introduced two “actors" instead of one. A generation later Sophocles increased the number of actors to three. When Euripides began to write his terrible tragedies in the middle of the fifth century, B.C., he was allowed as many actors as he liked and when Aristophanes wrote those famous comedies in which he poked fun at everybody and everything, including the Gods of Mount Olympus, the chorus had been reduced to the role of mere bystanders who were lined up behind the principal performers and who sang “this is a terrible world” while the hero in the foreground committed a crime against the will of the Gods.

埃斯库罗斯（希腊的诗人及悲剧作家）是最成功的“悲剧作家”，他一生（从公元前526年到公元前455年）至少创作了80部戏剧，他进行了大胆的革新——引入两个“演员”替换原来的一个。比他晚一代的索福克勒斯（古希腊悲剧诗人）将演员数目增加到三个。当欧里庇得斯（希腊的悲剧诗人）在公元前四世纪创作他的经典悲剧时，他肆意地增加演员数目。当阿里斯多芬尼斯（古希腊早期喜剧代表作家、诗人）创作他的著名戏剧时，他把所有人和事都拿来开玩笑，包括奥林匹斯山的诸神。合唱队已经沦落为只能做配角了，当英雄在前台违背神的意愿实施罪恶时，他们在主唱的后面站成一排唱“这是一个悲惨的世界”。

2016年6月29日功课

This new form of dramatic entertainment demanded a proper setting, and soon every Greek city owned a theatre, cut out of the rock of a nearby hill. The spectators sat upon wooden benches and faced a wide circle (our present orchestra where you pay three dollars and thirty cents for a seat). Upon this half-circle, which was the stage, the actors and the chorus took their stand. Behind them there was a tent where they made up with large clay masks which hid their faces and which showed the spectators whether the actors were supposed to be happy and smiling or unhappy and weeping. The Greek word for tent is “skene” and that is the reason why we talk of the “scenery” of the stage.

这种新形式的戏剧娱乐方式需要一个合适的表演环境，很快每个希腊城市都有了一个剧院，从附近的山上开采石材建成。观众们坐在长条登上，面向一个广阔的圆形（就像现在你掏3块3买张票去听管弦音乐会）。在这个半圆形上就是舞台，演员与合唱队就站在哪里。在他们后面是一个帷幕，他们在帷幕里用巨大的陶制面具装扮自己，隐藏自己的面目，让观众觉得他们是高兴的在笑或者不高兴在哭。希腊语帷幕是“skene”，所以我们也称舞台为“scenery”。

2016年6月30日功课

When once the tragedy had become part of Greek life, the people took it very seriously and never went to the theatre to give their minds a vacation. A new play became as important an event as an election and a successful playwright was received with greater honors than those bestowed upon a general who had just returned from a famous victory.

当观看悲剧一旦成为希腊人生活的一部分，希腊人非常严肃的看待这个事情，他们从来不会为了消遣而到剧院看演出。一个新的剧目推出就像一次大选那么重要，一个成功的剧作家享有的荣誉要超过一个刚参加著名战役凯旋归来的将军。