Nhớ ngày xưa mài đủng quần ở ghế nhà trường nôm na thi phú Việt nam tui cứ tưởng thơ phú bên nhà mới có 'mưỡu đầu mưỡu hậu" hay vần thanh TRẮC BẰNG v. v.và vân vân.
Qua xứ người ta học văn chương xứ người té ra "mắt xanh mũi lỏ" cũng vần cũng khổ cũng trắc cũng bằng nào có kém chi ai!?
Tui còn nhớ khi học qua thơ ông thi sĩ Robert Lee Frost thầy tui (dĩ nhiên là ông Mỹ chánh gốc đàng hoàng) bắt tui phân tích và bình giảng bài thơ ông Robert Frost có đề là:
THE AIM WAS SONG
bài này làm tui "chúi mụi chúi lái" mấy ngày mới xong. May thay thầy thương tình tui vừa già vừa người Việt nên cho điểm "pass" có nghĩa là đủ điểm.
Thú thiệt tui cũng thích thơ ông Robert Lee Frost nên trước đây có dịch của ông 1 bài:
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
ĐÊM LẠNH BÊN RỪNG
Rừng ơi, ta đứng bên rừng
nhà ai thấp thoáng cuối làng xa xa
rừng ơi, có thấy ta chăng
ngàn cây ta ngắm tuyết đầy cõi hoang
ngựa yêu bỗng thấy lạ lùng
tại sao vó nghỉ chẳng gần thôn trang
Cây xanh băng giá mặt hồ
đêm đen tối nhất trong năm nơi này
rung yên chuông ngựa bồn chồn
vẫn trông vó nhịp gõ đều dặm đêm
chỉ nghe tiếng gió mơn man
tuyết rơi nhè nhẹ không gian yên bình
rừng đêm bỗng thấy thân thương
nhưng đời réo gọi giục ta lên đường
dặm xa chẳng dám giấc nồng
bước chân viễn khách giữ lời thề xưa .
Qua bài này THE AIM WAS SONG
Tui mới có bình giảng và phân tích thôi chứ chưa có hứng thú dịch ra Việt ngữ; Có lẽ khi nào "thi hứng" nổi lên mới được.
Tui cũng post lại nguyên văn bài thơ và bài làm của tui vào đây làm kỷ niệm .
Cùng dành thì giờ khi rảnh rỗi sẽ dịch bài thơ của ông Frost và bài làm của tui.
Dinh hoa Lu
====================================================
Robert Frost -
The Aim was Song
Before man came to blow it right
The wind once blew itself untaught,
And did its loudest day and night
In any rough place where it caught.
Man came to tell it what was wrong:
It hadn't found the place to blow;
It blew too hard--the aim was song.
And listen--how it ought to go!
He took a little in his mouth,
And held it long enough for north
To be converted into south,
And then by measure blew it forth.
By measure. It was word and note,
The wind the wind had meant to be--
A little through the lips and throat.
The aim was song--the wind could see.
************************************************************************
PHẦN BÌNH THƠ
Phuc Dinh
ENGL 001B
Professor: Mr. Valter
due date: May 13th 2010
The Aim Was Song
According to the editors Sylvan Barnet, William Burto, and William E. Cain in
An Introduction to Literature, Robert Frost was born in California in 1874, but he began his teenager’s years in New England where his mother taught in some high schools in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Frost grew up in New England, did some irregular jobs including teaching. He also attended Harvard for two years. He farmed in New Hampshire, published poems in some infamous newspapers, taught again and left for England in 1912. Before he came back America in 1915, he had become a well known poet in England. Resettling in the homeland, Frost lived in a farming land in Massachusetts, and he continued to write more famous poets. Frost’s poems were often affected by the nature; for example, “The Pasture” in 1913, “The Wood-Pile” in 1914, “The Oven Bird” in 1916, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” in 1923, “The Aim Was Song” in 1923 etc.
Since Frost’s mother taught in schools and Frost did himself a part of living by teaching, I see a teacher’s image and hear his voice in “The Aim Was Song” (838). Before I come to an analysis, I should primarily find out its meaning and prosody to obtain a deepest comprehension from the advices in his poem.
When I begin to read the first line of the poem “Before man came to blow it right”, I may misunderstand that the man came to learn the wind to blow his own right. Contrarily, when I finish reading the first stanza, I understand that before the man comes, the wind blows without a master, lack of control and orientation because “The wind once blew itself untaught”. Without mastering, the wind becomes brutal and violent with “loudest day and night…in any rough place”. The man actually comes to tell the wind what are the mistakes like the wrong place and the fierce power because Frost writes in the second stanza: “It hadn’t found the place to blow” and “It blew too hard”. The man reminds the wind in line 7 that “the aim was song”, and he tells the wind “how it ought to go” in line 8. In the third stanza the man now practices artfully to conduct the wind to become a “song”. He doesn’t need too much strength but patience; furthermore, the correct orientation and direction can make the song continuously progressed to the future successfully. Finally, in the last stanza the man gives a lesson to the wind that it ought to change its living style to a certain formality like “word and note” including a meaningful life which “had meant to be” with adjustments with “a little through lips and throat” to harvest a beautiful aim.
“The Aim Was Song” wouldn’t enough for me if I read it only for the meaning. Coming to the prosody, I see it has four quatrain stanzas. First, I recognize these four stanzas have perfect rhymes (exact rhymes); for examples, right/night, untaught/caught in the first stanza. Also, for the metrical rhymes, the poem is written in the iambic tetrameter; it means each line has four iambic feet. To explain this point, for example I name the letter b for each unaccented syllable and the letter
a for each accented syllable, then I type the accented syllables in the bold ones; thus, each line of the poem is seen like ba ba ba ba. Hence, the first stanza I read like this:
b /
a b /
a b /
a b /
a
Be /
fore man /
came to /
blow it /
right
The /
wind once /
blew it /
self un /
taught
And/
did its /
lou dest /
day and /
night
In /
an y /
rough place /
where it /
caught
In addition, all the sixteen lines have the masculine endings; it means the last syllable of each line is stressed syllable. I also find out caesuras in the four lines 7, 8, 13, and 16; for example, “By measure. // It was word and note,” in line 13. The poem has six lines which end with clear syntactical pauses at the six lines: 4,6,7,12,15, and 16. Thus, the remaining lines are the run on lines (enjambments) because each of them goes to the next line without a distinct syntactical pause; for examples, “Before man came to blow it right”/“The wind once blew itself untaught,” and “Man came to tell it what was wrong:” they don’t have any clear syntactical pause. In each stanza, the first line rhymes with third line, and the second line rhymes with the fourth line; for instance, in the first stanza: “right” / “night”, “untaught”/ “caught”. Hence, each stanza has a different rhyme scheme. If I named the last syllable of each line with a capital letter, the rhyme scheme would look like: ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH.
The appearance meaning and the prosody explained above are only technicalities; therefore, I need to continue exploring the depth of the poem. For the literary aspects, “the wind” is used as a metaphor for problems involving control, domination, alternating, redirecting because “the wind” is personified with human senses and motions like “untaught” “loudest” “caught” in the first stanza”, “wrong” “listen” “go” in the third stanza, and “lips and throat”, “see” in the last stanza. I am also aware of some conflicts implying in the poem when the man wants to harness or to oppress the freeness of the wind; for example, “untaught” and “loudest” are understood as a freedom situation which is set to a certain restriction situation. The man represents for a mastering society of human kind who comes to witness for the wrong things of untamed natural forces in the world like “what was wrong”, “place to blow”, “blew too hard-the aim was song”, and “listen-how it ought to go!” as I read in the third stanza. These conflicts should be understood that for those who are uneducated must be commented, tamed, and finally educated to the best situation.
There is an educational tone which is confirmed by “right”, “untaught” in the first stanza; it helps me easily understand the advisory tone with “aim was song”, and “how it ought to go!” in the second stanza. I also feel an academic tone as “a little in his mouth”, “held it long”, and “by measure blew it forth” in the third stanza, finally the optimistic tone is felt in the last line as “The aim was song – the wind could see”. Frost writes the poem in the third-person point of view as “man”, “wind”, and “it”; however, the “He” in line 9 is vague because the wind might be the “He” instead of “the man”. Finally, “the aim was song” can become a motif throughout the poem because it appears in the line 7 and repeats in the last line.
After exploring two previous parts of the poem, I figure out Frost desires to address a theme that people should always learn, direct, and monitor things of life to a beneficial aim. “The Aim was Song” is a myth rather than a story because the wind is actually a metaphor for the human issues which relate to control, oppression of imagination, and endless mastering willingness. Under God, Frost would like to honor human superiority against the natural freeness. Because the wind is untamed, brutal, and fierce, people would defeat it by taming, organizing, and teaching. The man in the poem probably is a teacher who will teach the wind because the wind is “untaught” as in line 2. The “right” in the opening line is that the man (the teacher) will come to correct the wind to follow what the man did right. In my point, the wind should give up its “untaught” world, and listen to the man’s comments as I reread the second stanza:
Man came to tell it what was wrong:
It hadn’t found the place to blow:
It blew too hard-the aim was song.
And listen-how it ought to go!
Obviously, the teacher never wants the wind cries or screams too loud “day and night” when it dares to challenge with “any rough place” because it lacks of order and principles that are always uneducated things in the teacher’s view. To agree with Frost, I select this poem because I think people should work ordinarily with discipline and rules to create a beauty in life.
However, the “He” in the third stanza makes me confused. I am not sure whether “He” is “man” or “wind”. If “He” were the man, he would teach the wind with his professional motions like in the third stanza. In other hand, if “He” were the wind, it would practice “right” like what it learned from the man (the teacher). To a more profound thought, the wind not only blows a song but also blows with poetic or artful word. From this point, the idea may reach to a universal meaning that if people would like more nice words, they had to think before speak.
Although, Robert Frost is a poem, he seems being a philosopher; either way I think his works are great. Frost’s poem “The Aim Was Song” stands for the educational advices which are spoken by an experienced teacher instead of a famous poet. I really enjoy reading it with a fully agreement. In my opinion, I would like to suggest that we need to control ourselves out of fierceness, brutality, and violence. Remember, the state of being of over or unruly freedom may bring us failure rather than success. We would reach a glorious “aim” if we knew how to live according to principles and adjustments which are given by social educational institutions. Adjusting and monitoring are details of educational principles, and by which the teacher’s advices are highly appreciated to the aim of goodness for our lives.
Works Cited
Barnet, Sylvan, William Burto, and William E. Cain, Eds. An Introduction to Literature. 15th ed. New York: Longman, 2008.
Frost, Robert. “The Aim Was Song.” Barnet, Burto, and Cain 838.
phuc dinh
*******************************************************************
Đây chỉ là mới vở lòng vào chốn thi văn mẹo luật Hoa kỳ . Còn, còn nữa mấy lớp trên đang hứa hẹn cho tui nhiều thứ mệt "bở hơi tai" nữa!
Ui chao, nhớ khi xưa :
" bể thánh sâu cố gia công lội
Rừng nho gai thẳng lối xông pha"
chữ nghĩa thi văn đâu phải ở xứ Á Đông mình. Qua xứ người mới thấy có nhiều điều mình cần phải học.
*******************************************************************
TRANSLATION
THE AIM WAS SONG
Đời Là Khúc Hoan Ca
Trước khi có khúc hoan ca nhân thế
Gió một mình chỉ biết thổi vu vơ
Gầm thét huyên thiên cho hết tháng ngày
Qua ghềnh thác qua bao đồi hoang dã
Người tới gần ân cần bảo gió
Gió chưa tìm ý hướng cho đời
Gào thét làm chi--đời là nhạc
Gió có nghe--tiếng sáo Nghê Thường
Người chỉ cần làn hơi điệu nghệ
đi khắp nơi hát xướng giúp đời
Đem niềm vui bốn phương tám hướng
cùng trọn vẹn niềm vui chung thủy
Và cứ thế, muôn ngàn nốt nhạc
Gió nghe người góp tiếng ca vang
Mấp máy môi, lời vàng thỏ thẻ
Nhạc cho đời--có gió từ nay.
DHL JAN 16TH 2011
