Hamlet is an enigma. No matter how many ways critics examine him, no absolute truth emerges. Hamlet breathes with the multiple dimensions of a living human being, and everyone understands him in a personal way. Hamlet’s challenge to Guildenstern rings true for everyone who seeks to know him: “You would pluck out the heart of my mystery.” None of us ever really does.
哈姆雷特是一个独特而神奇的人物。无论批评家们用何种手段审视他，仍旧无法从中得出绝对真实的结论。他的身上具备了人类的多重性，每个人都可以通过自己的方式来理解他。哈姆雷特对盖登思邓的挑战给了每一个试图了解他的人机会：“你可以找出我身上一切秘密的中心”。但却没有一个人成功。
The conundrum that is Hamlet stems from the fact that every time we look at him, he is different. In understanding literary characters, just as in understanding real people, our perceptions depend on what we bring to the investigation. Hamlet is so complete a character that, like an old friend or relative, our relationship to him changes each time we visit him, and he never ceases to surprise us. Therein lies the secret to the enduring love affair audiences have with him. They never tire of the intrigue.
真正的难题就在于哈姆雷特来源于现实，我们每次一都会对他产生不同的印象。理解文学形象和理解现实人物一样，我们的视角取决于我们采用何种方式来探究。哈姆雷特的形象是如此完整，就好像一位老友或亲属，我们彼此的关系随着每一次的拜访而发生改变，而他总是能带给我们惊喜。这也就是使观众们热爱这个人物的原因，对情节的永不厌烦。
The paradox of Hamlet’s nature draws people to the character. He is at once the consummate iconoclast, in self-imposed exile from Elsinore Society, while, at the same time, he is the adulated champion of Denmark—the people’s hero. He has no friends left, but Horatio loves him unconditionally. He is angry, dejected, depressed, and brooding; he is manic, elated, enthusiastic, and energetic. He is dark and suicidal, a man who loathes himself and his fate. Yet, at the same time, he is an existential thinker who accepts that he must deal with life on its own terms, that he must choose to meet it head on. “We defy augury. There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow.”
哈姆雷特自身的矛盾性让人们更贴近这个任务。他是一个坚定的革新者，强迫自己远离埃尔西诺；同时他也是丹麦人民崇拜的偶像，人民的英雄。除了霍拉旭以外他没有朋友。他愤怒、沮丧、失落，并且忧伤；他狂躁、欢喜、热情且活力四射。他阴暗而赋有毁灭性，自我憎恶而仇视命运。但与此同时，他是一个存在主义思想者，勇于直面和承担生命中的一切际遇。“我们蔑视占卜，万事自有其存在之道。”
Hamlet not only participates in his life, but astutely observes it as well. He recognizes the decay of the Danish society (represented by his Uncle Claudius), but also understands that he can blame no social ills on just one person. He remains aware of the ironies that constitute human endeavor, and he savors them. Though he says, “Man delights not me, ” the contradictions that characterize us all intrigue him. “What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god!”
哈姆雷特不仅积极行动于自己的人生，并且长于巧妙地观察生活。他意识到了丹麦社会的腐化（以他的叔父克劳迪斯为代表），同时明白任何社会顽疾都不能单纯的归咎于一个人身上。他认识到人类的劳动并不总与收获并存，尽管他说：“人不能使我欢喜”，但我们身上的矛盾之处也激发了他的兴趣。“人是何等巧妙的一件天工！理性何等的高贵！智能何等的广大！仪容举止是何等的匀称可爱！行动是多么像天使！悟性是多么像神明！”
As astutely as he observes the world around him, Hamlet also keenly critiques himself. In his soliloquys he upbraids himself for his failure to act as well as for his propensity for words.
在巧妙观察周遭世界的同时，哈姆雷特还乐于自我批评。在他的独白中，他谴责自己行动的失败和措辞的倾向性。
Hamlet is infuriatingly adept at twisting and manipulating words. He confuses his so-called friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern—whom he trusts as he “would adders fang’d”—with his dissertations on ambition, turning their observations around so that they seem to admire beggars more than their King. And he leads them on a merry chase in search of Polonius’ body. He openly mocks the dottering Polonius with his word plays, which elude the old man’s understanding. He continually spars with Claudius, who recognizes the danger of Hamlet’s wit but is never smart enough to defend himself against it.
哈姆雷特在玩弄和操纵文字方面的技巧令人嫉妒。他迷惑他所谓的朋友罗生克兰和盖登思邓——他“只能当做有齿的毒舌那样信任”的朋友——通过对理想的描述来转移他们的注意力，好像他们对乞丐的赞赏甚至超过了国王。并且带领他们去寻找波洛涅斯的尸体。他通过巧妙的语言，公开嘲笑波洛涅斯的古板陈腐干扰了他的理性。他不断地同克劳迪斯进行争辩，后者尽管意识到了哈姆雷特智慧的威胁，却在自我保护方面显得聪明不足。
Words are Hamlet’s constant companions, his weapons, and his defenses. In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, a play that was later adapted into a film, playwright and screenplaywright Tom Stoppard imagines the various wordplays in Hamlet as games. In one scene, his characters play a set of tennis where words serve as balls and rackets. Hamlet is certainly the Pete Sampras of wordplay.
文字是哈姆雷特坚定地伙伴，他的武器，他的防御。在《君臣人子小命呜呼》中，一部戏在之后被搬上了大银幕。戏剧家和影视剧作家汤姆·斯托帕想象了《哈姆雷特》中的各种文字游戏。在其中一幕，他的角色挥舞一付由文字组成的网球与球拍。哈姆雷特毫无疑问堪称文字界的皮特·桑普拉斯。
And yet, words also serve as Hamlet’s prison. He analyzes and examines every nuance of his situation until he has exhausted every angle. They cause him to be indecisive. He dallies in his own wit, intoxicated by the mix of words he can concoct; he frustrates his own burning desire to be more like his father, the Hyperion. When he says that Claudius is “ . . .no more like my father than I to Hercules” he recognizes his enslavement to words, his inability to thrust home his sword of truth. No mythic character is Hamlet. He is stuck, unable to avenge his father’s death because words control him.
但与此同时，文字也是哈姆雷特的禁锢。他审视和分析了自己所处情境的每一个细微之处却因此贻误时机。这使他犹豫不决，优柔寡断。他浪费了自己的智慧，陶醉于自己一手造出的文字组合之中；为了与自己的父亲，太阳神许珀里翁更为相像，他将自己的热情和欲望燃烧殆尽。当他指责克劳迪斯“毫不和我父亲相像，如我之不与赫鸠里斯相像一般”时，他认识到自己被文字束缚，无法将真实的剑转刺回去。哈姆雷特依然是凡人，由于文字的控制他身处困境，无法为自己被杀的父亲报仇雪恨。
Must like a whore unpack my heart with words,
“我真是一条蠢驴！慈父被人杀害，我这个为人子者，受了天地的鼓励要去为父报仇，如今竟像娼妇似的空言泄愤，像村妇贱奴似的破口咒骂，这未免太勇敢了！”（第二幕第二景）
Hamlet’s paradoxical relationship with words has held audiences in his thrall since he debuted in 1603 or so. But the controversy of his sexual identity equally charms and repels people.
自大约1603年《哈姆雷特》首次公演之日起，他同文字之间充满矛盾对立的关系就深深吸引了观众。而关于他性别身份的争论同样或吸引或赶走了人们。
Is Hamlet in love with his mother? The psychoanalytic profile of the character supports Freud’s theory that Hamlet has an unnatural love for his mother. Hamlet unequivocally hates his stepfather and abhors the incestuous relationship between Claudius and Gertrude. But whether jealousy prompts his hatred, whether his fixation on his mother causes his inability to love Ophelia, and whether he lusts after Gertrude all depend on interpretation. And no interpretation is flawless.
哈姆雷特是否爱上了自己的母亲？他角色中精神分析的侧面支持了弗洛伊德的理论即哈姆雷特对母亲怀有非正常的感情。他对继父的厌恶之情极其明显，并且对继父和母亲的乱伦关系深恶痛绝。但他的恨意是否来源于嫉妒，他对母亲的依恋是否影响了他同奥菲利亚的感情，这种恋母情结是否只是臆断。没有哪个推断是毫无破绽的。
Hamlet’s love life could result from his Puritanical nature. Like the Puritans whose presence was growing in England of the time, Hamlet is severely puritanical about love and sex. He is appalled by Gertrude’s show of her pleasure at Claudius’ touch, and he clearly loathes women. His anger over Claudius’ and Gertrude’s relationship could as easily result from a general distaste for sexual activity as from desire to be with his mother.
哈姆雷特的爱情世界受到他禁欲主义和清教徒属性的影响。同当时生活在英国的清教徒们一样，哈姆雷特在爱情和性爱方面持禁欲主义。乔特鲁德对克劳迪斯的抚慰所表现出的喜悦让哈姆雷特深感震惊，而他对女性明显怀有鄙夷之意。他对克劳迪斯和乔特鲁德的关系所爆发出的愤怒来源于他对性行为的疏远，也来源于他的母子之情。
Hamlet could be, at heart, a brutal misogynist, terrified of love because he is terrified of women. He verbally abuses Ophelia, using sexual innuendo and derision, and he encourages her to get to a nunnery. Another play on words, nunnery, in this instance, symbolizes both sexual abstinence and sexual perversity. In a cloister, Ophelia would take a vow of chastity, and in a brothel, she would serve as the basest sexual object.
哈姆雷特的内心深处可能是一个极端厌恶女性的人，害怕爱情就是由于对女性的恐惧。他利用性别上嘲笑和讽刺的语言伤害奥菲利亚，并且指使她进修道院。这又是一个文字游戏，在这里修道院隐含了节欲和堕落。在修道院中，奥菲利亚要立誓保持贞洁；而在妓院，她则会成为下贱的性工具。
Can concluding whether Hamlet is mad or merely pretending madness determine all the questions about Hamlet’s nature? Could a madman manipulate his destiny as adeptly as Hamlet turns the tables on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern? Perhaps he is crazy like a fox . . . calculated and criminal. Or perhaps his own portrayal of madness—his “antic disposition”—that he dons like a mask or a costume actually drives him.
是不是弄清楚哈姆雷特究竟是真疯还是装疯就能彻底了解他的本性呢？一个疯子是否能自如操纵命运，就好像哈姆雷特利用罗生克兰和盖登思邓扭转局面一般？或许他像狐狸一般，工于算计而心思狡黠。再或者他自己对疯狂的想象——他古怪的性情——看似面具或伪装实际上却是他的真性。
|
