世紀的沉思——《空間的馳想》釋讀

Meditation of the Era: An Exegesis of A Spiritual Gallop in the Spatial Realm

Abstract

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.

林庚先生的晚年詩作《空間的馳想》由“空間之思”與“生命之思”兩部分組成。詩人以20世紀出現的相對論、宇宙學爲知識背景，對時間與空間作出新的思考，彰顯了不要以時間感遮蔽空間感的思想感悟。詩中對空間的弘揚以及對時間虛化的藝術處理，融入了詩人對當下時代精神貧困的現實感受。科學不僅啓發了詩人的靈感，而且被詩人點化爲核心的隱喻。生命之思則闡發了詩人獨特的青春美學的意蘊，並在對藝術和美的思索中，指明生命的真諦乃在於對物的超越、對世界的覺醒，在於精神的自由和解放。詩章秉承了浪漫主義的詩學傳統，對深陷於物質主義之中的世紀病進行了批判性的反思，呼籲突破物的滯累與羈絆，邁向物質與精神、科技與文藝平衡的澄明之境。全詩體現了科學精神與人文精神的統一、邏輯語言與詩性語言的統一，是詩性的沉思録，是從詩美學出發的一種宇宙觀的掃描。

In his final years, Professor Lin Geng (1909-2006) composed a poem entitled A Spiritual Gallop in the Spatial Realm. This poem is comprised of two parts, namely “Meditation on Space” and “Meditation on Life”. The poet uses Relativism and Cosmology, two scientific theories that appeared in the twentieth century, as the intellectual background in his poem and presents new findings of his contemplation on the theme of time and space. The main thrust of this is “not letting the sense of time overshadow the sense of space”. The artistic arrangements of praising space and demeaning time are derived from the poet's sentiment on the common lack of spirit in the era that he lived. Science was not only the poet’s inspiration but also treated as the core metaphor in the poem. His philosophy of life expresses the significant meaning of what he terms “aesthetics of youth.” In his contemplation on art and beauty, moreover, the poet points out that the real meaning of life lies in Iwo aspects: transcendence of material goods and awakening in the secular world. In other words, it relies fully on the freedom and liberation of one’s spirit. The poem inherits the poetics of romanticism. It criticizes and reflects on people’s indulgence in material enjoyments, a common trend that is regarded as “illness of the era” by the poet. He calls to break free from the entanglement and impediment of materialism, whereby one may enter a limpid realm where one finds the balance between the material and the spirit, and the balance between science and the arts. The poem illustrates the unity of scientificity and humanity, as well as the unity of logical language and characteristic language. It is a record of poetic meditation and a scanning of the cosmologic landscape triggered by a poetical aesthetics.