历史系男生

I'm wild again
be geld again
a simipering,whimpering child again
bewiched, bothered and bewildered
I'm on...
couldn't sleep. I wouldn't sleep
when love came and told me I shouldn't sleep
bewiched, bothered and bewildered
I'm on...
lost my heart
but what of it
he is cold I agree
he can laugh but I love it
although the love saw me
I'll sing to him
each spring to him
and worship the trousers that cling to him
bewiched, bothered and bewildered
I'm on...

17、8岁的聪明学生，算得上真正意气风发，就要为实现人生第一个目标努力，结果也清晰可见。有那么点小烦恼小困惑，是今后无数烦恼困惑的开始和演习，但此时都还没有那么痛只是有点痒。

再来看看大人们的情况：Hector教学方法这样新奇，鼓励学生为兴趣而活，结果呢已婚的男人却是同性恋者；Irwin激发大家说得新奇，一击即中，但扯谎说自己来自牛津；Dorothy的大脑容量驱不散“History is woman following behind with a bucket”的想法；校长是所有被升学利益诱惑的典型。

人不管到不到中年都开始有自己的隐痛，哪像自以为成熟的孩子们样样都可以摊开来在阳光下晒，活得透明。回头看看走过的二十年，一开始也都个个明媚笑得灿烂，生活不知几时开始把每一人运送进不同轨道。或者，每一人不知几时开始把生活搞糟。

那又怎么样呢？这就是人生吧，要你尝遍每一种滋味，然后才有所体会，什么是酸什么是甜，还有所谓bittersweet，要你领会快乐总是比痛苦长存。

考据癖如我找了找片中提到的诗歌。
原诗在前，网上能找到的中文译本放在后面。这几首里我最喜欢是《鼓手霍奇》。

[No.1] 眠歌- []Lullaby

By W.H.Auden

Lay your sleeping head, my love,
Human on my faithless arm;
Time and fevers burn away
Individual beauty from
Thoughtful children, and the grave
Proves the child ephemeral:
But in my arms till break of day
Let the living creature lie,
Mortal, guilty, but to me
The entirely beautiful.

Soul and body have no bounds:
To lovers as they lie upon
Her tolerant enchanted slope
In their ordinary swoon,
Grave the vision Venus sends
Of supernatural sympathy,
Universal love and hope;
While an abstract insight wakes
Among the glaciers and the rocks
The hermit's carnal ecstasy.

Certainty, fidelity
On the stroke of midnight pass
Like vibrations of a bell
And fashionable madmen raise
Their pedantic boring cry:
Every farthing cost,
All the dreaded cards foretell,
Shall be paid, but from this night
Not a whisper, not a thought,
Not a kiss nor look be lost.

Beauty, midnight, vision dies:
Let the winds of dawn that blow
Softly round your dreaming head
Such a day of welcome show
Eye and knocking heart may bless,
Find our mortal world enough;
Noons of dryness find you fed
By the involuntary powers,
Nights of insult let you pass
Watched by every human love.

　摇篮曲

　　薛舟 译

放下你沉睡的头，我的爱，
在我背叛的臂弯里：
时间和热病烧掉了
个体的美丽，从
沉思的孩子身上，坟墓
证明那孩子的短命：
但在破晓之前，先让仅存的生者
躺在我的臂弯，
平凡、有罪，对我来说
却是彻底的美丽。

爱人们的灵魂和肉体没有界限：
当他们躺在
惯常的陶醉中那
被施以魔法的宽容的斜坡，
铭记下维纳斯送来
超自然的同情心、
以及普遍的爱和希望的幻象；
当一个抽象的顿悟
从冰河与岩石中
唤醒隐士世俗的狂热。

确定性，和忠诚
在午夜钟声的敲打中走开
像一个铃铛在颤动
时髦的疯子提高了
他们书生气的烦人的喊叫：
损失掉的每一法寻都要被偿还。
所有恐怖的纸牌的预言都要得到兑现。
但不是从这个夜晚
也不是一声耳语，一个想法
不是一个吻，更不是错过的一瞥。

美、午夜、幻象都将死去：
就让黎明的风吹着
轻柔地环绕你做梦的头
这样受欢迎的一天显示出
眼睛和搏动的心脏或许在祝福，
发现我们平凡的世界已经足够；
干燥的正午你已经被喂饱
被一种不经意的力量，
凌辱之夜允许你通过
在每一对世间爱人的注视下。
 

　



[No.2] 美术馆- []Musée des Beaux Arts

By W. H. Auden

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

美术馆

查良铮 译

关于苦难他们总是很清楚的，
这些古典画家：他们多么深知它在
人心中的地位，深知痛苦会产生，
当别人在吃，在开窗，或正作着无聊的散步的时候；
深知当老年人热烈地、虔敬地等候
神异的降生时，总会有些孩子
并不特别想要他出现，而却在
树林边沿的池塘上溜着冰。
他们从不忘记：
即使悲惨的殉道也终归会完结
在一个角落，乱糟糟的地方，
在那里狗继续过着狗的生涯，而迫害者的马
把无知的臀部在树上摩擦。

在勃鲁盖尔的《伊卡鲁斯》里，比如说；
一切是多么安闲地从那桩灾难转过脸：
农夫或许听到了堕水的声音和那绝望的呼喊，
但对于他，那不是了不得的失败；
太阳依旧照着白腿落进绿波里；
那华贵而精巧的船必曾看见
一件怪事，从天上掉下一个男孩，
但它有某地要去，仍静静地航行。

美术馆

余光中 译

说到苦难，他们从未看错，
古代那些大师：他们深切体认
苦难在人世的地位；当苦难降临，
别人总是在进食或开窗或仅仅默然走过；
当长者正虔诚地、热烈地等，
等奇迹降临，总有孩子们
不特别期待它发生，正巧
在林边的池塘上溜冰：
大师们从不忘记
即使可怖的殉道也必须在一隅
独自进行，在杂乱的一隅
一任狗照常过狗的日子，酷吏的马匹
向一颗树干摩擦无辜的后臀。

例如布鲁果的《伊卡瑞斯》，众人
都悠然不顾那劫难，那农夫可能
听见了水波溅洒，呼救无望，
但是不当它是惨重的牺牲；阳光灿照，
不会不照见白净的双腿没入碧湛
的海波；那豪华优雅的海舟必然看见
一幕奇景，一童子自天而降，
却有路要赶，仍安详地向前航行。
 

ABOUT THE POEM:

meaning:
The basic premise of the poem is response to tragedy, or as the song goes "Obla Di, Obla Da, Life Goes On." The title refers to the Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels. Auden visited the museum in 1938 and viewed the painting by Brueghel, which the poem is basically about. Generalizing at first, and then going into specifics the poem theme is the apathy with which humans view individual suffering.
    Auden wrote that "In so far as poetry, or any of the arts, can be said to have an ulterior purpose, it is, by telling the truth, to disenchant and disintoxicate."
The poem juxtaposes ordinary events and exraordinary ones, although extraordinary events seem to deflate to everyday ones with his descriptions. Life goes on while a "miraculous birth occurs", but also while "the disaster" of Icarus's death happens.

background info:
For those cultural barbarians who don't know the story of Icarus, here it is, in condensed form. Icarus was a Greek mythological figure, also known as the son of Daedalus (famous for the Labyrinth of Crete). Now Icarus and his dad were stuck in Crete, because the King of Crete wouldn't let them leave. Daedalus made some wings for the both of them and gave his son instruction on how to fly (not too close to the sea, the water will soak the wings, and not too close to the sky, the sun will melt them). Icarus, however, appeared to be obstinate and did fly to close to the sun. This caused the wax that held his wings to his body to melt. Icarus crashed into the sea and died.

hints:
Some have even claimed to find hints of Auden's eventual reconversion to Christiantiy in the poem. Richard Johnson, author of "Man's Place: An Essay on Auden", believes there is a touch of Christian awareness in the poem, especially the timeline. The reader of the poem is placed in front of the Breughel painting in a museum, and at the same time is expected to project those images and truths to the world outside. There is also a sort of continuity through the poem as you read it and are allowed to see what the poet means. This allows a reader to become aware of his human position.
    The poem first discusses a "miraculous birth", and at the end "the tragedy" of a death. The theme in the poem is human suffering. If you add these things together, and stir really well you might even get some hints at religion, mainly at Christianity
    Also, the poem suggest a religious acceptance of suffering (example: eating your morning breakfast while watching coverage of a serious trainwreck on CNN). Religious acceptance basically means coming to terms with the ways of the world.




[No.3] 西罗普郡少年- []A SHROPSHIRE LAD

XXXI. "On Wenlock Edge the wood's in trouble..."

by A. E. Housman (1859-1936)
On Wenlock Edge the wood's in trouble;
His forest fleece the Wrekin heaves;
The gale, it plies the saplings double,
And thick on Severn snow the leaves.

'Twould blow like this through holt and hanger
When Uricon the city stood:
'Tis the old wind in the old anger,
But then it threshed another wood.

Then, 'twas before my time, the Roman
At yonder heaving hill would stare:
The blood that warms as English yeoman,
The thoughts that hurt him, they were there.

There, like the wind through woods in riot,
Through him the gale of life blew high;
The tree of man was never quiet:
Then 'twas the Roman, now 'tis I.

The gale, it plies the saplings double,
It blows so hard, 'twill soon be gone:
To-day the Roman and his trouble
Are ashes under Uricon.

               

A.E.Housman简介：

Alfred Edward Housman was born in a village in rural Shropshire, England in 1859. As a student at Oxford, he distinguished himself as a promising scholar of classics, though crises of a personal nature caused him to fail his final exams. Housman was determined to overcome this failing. When not working at the British Patent office Housman wrote scholarly articles, and published many of them to very high regard from those in academic circles. He was invited to teach at the University of London as a professor of Latin, and soon stepped up to Cambridge University, to retire to the life of a shy academic. He published only two volumes of poetry --A Shropshire Lad in 1898 and Last Poems in 1922 -- yet these were instantly and enormously popular. However successful he was, the tone of his poems remained that of the Latin poets he admired: that life is short and often, inexplicably, comes to a bad end.
         

另外，八十多年前郁达夫也曾提到过A Shropshire Lad：

   啊呵，去年六月在灯火繁华的上海市外，在车马喧嚷的黄浦江边，我一边念着Housman的A Shropshire Lad里的
    Come you home a hero
    Or come not home at all，
    The lads you leave will mind You
    Till Ludlow tower shall fall

  几句清诗， 一边呆呆的看着江中黝黑混浊的流水，曾经发了几多的叹声，滴了几多的眼泪。你若知道我那时候的绝望的情怀，我想你去年的那几封微有怨意的信也不至于发给我了。——啊，我想起了，你是不懂英文的，这几句诗我顺便替你译出吧。

    “汝当衣锦归，
    否则永莫回，
    令汝别后之儿童
    望到拉德罗塔毁。”


摘自：《茑萝行》（原载一九二三年五月一日《创造季刊》第二卷第一号，据《达夫短篇小说集》上册）



[No.4] 鼓手霍奇- []Drummer Hodge

by Thomas Hardy

They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest
  Uncoffined – just as found:
His landmark is a kopje-crest
  That breaks the veldt around;
And foreign constellations west
  Each night above his mound.

Young Hodge the Drummer never knew –
  Fresh from his Wessex home –
The meaning of the broad Karoo,
  The Bush, the dusty loam,
And why uprose to nightly view
  Strange stars amid the gloam.

Yet portion of that unknown plain
  Will Hodge forever be;
His homely Northern breast and brain
  Grow to some Southern tree,
And strange-eyed constellation reign
  His stars eternally.


 鼓手霍奇

 托玛斯·哈代

                         吕志鲁译

 鼓手霍奇被扔进坑里掩埋，
 正如找到时那样，没有棺材：
 他的坟地是南非的一座小山，
 把周围的平原稍稍撕开；
 这坟墓上空的每个夜晚，
 异国的星座在西边摆开。

 刚从威塞克斯老家来到这里，
 年轻的鼓手霍奇弄不明白，
 灌木丛丛，沃土扬尘，
 广阔干旱的高原意义何在？
 昏暗的黑夜茫茫一片，
 闪烁的星座好生奇怪。

 正是这无名平原的一角，
 霍奇将要长眠，永不离开；
 他将长成一棵南方的大树，
 带着北方质朴的头脑、胸怀，
 任凭星星闪烁陌生的眼睛，
 把他的命运永远主宰。



[No.5] 不言的渴望- [] Leaves of Grass

289. The Untold Want

By Walt Whitman (1819–1892)

THE untold want, by life and land ne’er granted,
Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find.

浑浑噩噩的熬夜看完由同名话剧改编的影片《历史系男生》。作为一部在伦敦国家剧院票房火爆、风靡百老汇，并一举取得多项托尼奖的话剧，妙语连珠的台词无疑为其叫座叫好立下了汗马功劳。摘抄几句，留个爪印。

1、
As for truths, scripts, forget it.
Knowledge, pursuit it for its own sake.
 
Irwin所倡导的学习历史的方法，反映出东西方教育的本质差异。

对公认的史实，没有任何记诵的必要，因为所有人都知道。学习历史的方法是，选择一个新的角度，用新的方法，新的逻辑来重新观察、挖掘、分析和思考。从同一段历史中，找到不同的地方，这样的研究才具有价值。

Irwin的主张与国人惯常理解的“历史就是死记硬背”完全是背道而驰的。历史是浩瀚宏大的，没有任何人能够真正全面的看得清楚。保持开放的心态，不断的研究；或者盖棺定论，僵化为教条，这便是区别。

背诵，教科书上记录着的唯一真理。对于人文学科，这样的学习方式等同于毁灭。

2、
Take it, feel it and pass it on.

历史的意义在于传承。从一个人，到另外一人，再到另外一些人。从地球上的一个地方到另外一个地方，从线性时间轴的一个时间段到后续的另外一个时间段。文化在重复的被解读着，变化着，传递着，这个就是历史的意义。文化的价值，就是这样靠一个个人传递下去而逐渐积累起来的。

Hector动情的说着，当你读书的时候，与另外一个的人相遇，被他捕获。他抓住了你，你感受到他。这就是文化的传递，需要沉下来，慢下来，用心，去接受。然后，它又会以你的方式传播出去。

在大发展的年代，我们每个人不甘落后的高速奔跑着。文化，正在被忽视和遗失。急功近利的人是浮躁的，To Feel，也许可以是一个很短暂瞬间，但是To Feel，需要把心真正的平静下来。这个传递的过程，光靠互联网上晃几眼八卦新闻是做不到的，努力背几本的教科书或者附庸名家大作也是徒劳。

国人就要成为贫穷得只剩人民币了！

3、
How does histry happen？History is just one fucking thing after another, nothing special, ordinary stuff.

历史由一连串的偶然事件组成，这些偶然最后形成一个结果。像蝴蝶扇动的翅膀，或者王佳芝心里打起的小鼓，这些无法确定的因素共同导致一个结果。无所谓对错，发生了的都叫做必然。而过程当中，任何一项的改变，都可能形成别样的结局。

这个论断中学课本告诉过我，并无新意，不过Hector的教学方式很有新意。虚拟形态——Hector用这样的语句来设想过去的种种可能，以及结果。课堂上的角色扮演应该是很有趣的教学模式，学生可以沉浸到历史里面，享受时空变换的戏剧体验。角色和道具，一连串的事件和选择下来，最后形成历史。

于是更加深刻的体会到，一切存在的种种都是可变的，所以，将来永远都是不确定的！哪怕是半小时以后也是不确定的。只有发生过的偶然才叫做必然，只有过去的才是真正已经确定的东西。

在过去的那么多偶然，那么多巧合，那么多选择之后，才有了今天。
再从今天走向变化莫测的将来，那里还有无数的偶然在等待着发生。
原来，我们的今天竟是如此的珍贵！

我一定会好好珍惜和把握现在的。

Quotations and References: Act One

(Page numbers refer to the 2004 paperback Faber & Faber edition. List compiled by Tudor Economic Documents.)

p5
"All knowledge is precious whether or not it serves the slightest human use." - Hector
A.E. Housman

"Loveliest of trees, the cherry now." - Hector
A Shropshire Lad, A.E. Housman

p6
"Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire!" - Hector
Othello, Othello, William Shakespeare, Act V, Scene 2

"I have put before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live." - Hector
Deuteronomy 30:19

p7
"Look up, My Lord."
"Vex not his ghost. O let him pass. He hates him
That would upon the rack of this tough world
Stretch him out longer."
"O, he is gone indeed."
"The wonder is he hath endured so long.
He but usurped this life..."

"...I have a journey sir, shortly to go;
My master calls me, I must not say no." - Hector
"The weight of this sad time we must obey
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say."
- Edgar (Posner), Kent (Timms/Hector), King Lear, William Shakespeare, Act V, Scene 3

Hymns Ancient and Modern - a Church of England hymnal.

p9
Renaissance Man - answers.com: "A man who has broad intellectual interests and is accomplished in areas of both the arts and the sciences."

p12
Although the script does not make it clear, Posner here sings the chorus of L'Accordéoniste, a song popularised by Edith Piaf.

p13
La Vie en Rose - 1946 song, Edith Piaf's signature song. (lyrics)

p23
The Catcher in the Rye - a novel by J.D. Salinger.

"Let each child that's in your care-"
"Have as much neurosis as the child can bear." - Hector and Mrs Lintott
W.H. Auden, Letter to Lord Byron

Hecatomb - like holocaust, a word associated with sacrifice. In this sense, 'holocaust' refers to an animal sacrifice by fire.

p24
"...since Wilfred Owen says men were dying like cattle, [hecatombs] is the appropriate word." - Dakin
Referring to Wilfred Owen's famous WWI poem, Anthem for a Doomed Youth.

Trench warfare - static lines of defence in war, with each side basing soldiers in trenches as a means of defence.

Haig - Field Marshal Douglas Haig, nicknamed 'Butcher of the Somme', one of the more controversial figures in WWI.

"The humiliation of Germany at Versailles." - refers to the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, a formal peace treaty with Germany at the close of WWI. It included that Germany take full responsibility for the war and imposed several restrictions of territorial, military and economic matters.

"Ruhr and the Rhineland." - refers to the Ruhr Crisis. France sent forces to occupy the Ruhr, an area in the north of the Rhineland, in an effort to force Germany to once again make reparation payments, which they stopped in 1923. Britain and the United States did not support this action.

"The collapse of the Weimar Republic" - in the late 1920s and early 1930s, towards the beginning of depression in Germany, the Weimar Republic saw the rise of the popularity of the Nazi party.

p25
The Cenotaph - The Cenotaph in Whitehall, London is where the national ceremony takes place on Remembrance Sunday (11th November, the day hostilities ceased in the First World War).

The Last Post - a bugle call used to commemorate those who have died in war. It is sounded on Remembrance Sunday following the two minutes' silence.

Passchendaele - refers to the 1917 battle of Passchendaele. Dakin is referring to Haig's controversial campaign, in which damage was inflicted to the German Army at great expense to the lives of British troops.

The Somme - refers to the 1916 Battle of the Somme. Exact casualty figures vary, but several hundred thousand were killed in battle, a large proportion of these on the first day. Again, blame was laid upon Haig's leadership.

The Unknown Soldier - the Unknown Soldier is an unidentified soldier killed in battle, buried with full military honours as a symbol of all the unidentified soldiers killed in battle. The British tomb dedicated to the 'Unknown Warrior' is found in London, and contains the body of an unidentified soldier killed in the First World War.

Siegfried Sassoon - an English poet famous for his anti-war poetry.

"If any question why we died,
Tell them because our fathers lied." - Irwin
Common Form, Rudyard Kipling

Rembrandt - Dutch painter, 1606 - 1669.

p27
"Those long uneven lines
Standing as patiently
As if they were stretched outside
The Oval or Villa Park,
The crowns of hats, the sun
On moustached archaic faces
Grinning as if it were all
An August Bank Holiday lark..."

"...Never such innocence,
Never before or since,
As changed itself to past
Without a word--the men
Leaving the gardens tidy,
The thousands of marriages,
Lasting a little while longer:
Never such innocence again." - Scripps, Lockwood, Akthar, Posner, Timms.
MCMXIV, Philip Larkin.

p28
Western Front - the term used in WWI and WWII to describe the frontier between the Allied Forces and Germany.

p29
Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered - 1940s song with lyrics by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rogers. Features in the musical Pal Joey.

p30
"O villainy! Let the door be locked!
Treachery! Seek it out." - Hector
Hamlet, William Shakespeare, Act V, Scene 2

The Trial - a novel by Franz Kafka, about a man arrested and charged with a crime he knows nothing about.

"The person from Porlock" - a reference to the story of the visitor to Coleridge during the writing of Kubla Khan, resulting in the poem's incomplete status.

"Don Giovanni: the Commendatore" - Don Giovanni is an opera by Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte. Il Commendatore is a significant character in the work.

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock." - Scripps
Revelation 3:20

p31
"Did the knights knock at the door of Canterbury before they murdered Beckett?" - Hector
Thomas Beckett, the Archbishop of Canterbury (1162 - 1170) was assassinated inside Canterbury Cathedral. He was later canonised in 1173.

Now, Voyager - a 1942 film starring Bette Davis and Paul Henreid, about a woman who falls in love whilst in therapy after a nervous breakdown.

p32
"The untold want by life and land ne'er granted,
Now voyager sail thou forth to seek and find." - Hector
Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman.

p33
The Carry On films - a series of British comedy films, parodies of famous historical and literary events or people. They are famous for their excessive use of double entendres in dialogue and slapstick comedy.

p34
George Orwell - an English author and journalist, who was famous for his political and social commentary in his essays and novels.

p35
Stalin - First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Part from 1922 to 1953, effectively becoming a dictator by the late 1920s.

Henry VIII - Second Tudor King of England, reigning from 1491 - 1547. Responsible for the introduction of Protestantism to England.

"Mrs Thatcher" - Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister from 1975-1990. She was the first (and, thus far, only) female Prime Minister in Britain.

Pearl Harbour - the attack on Pearl Harbour took place in 1941, when the Japanese attacked the American naval base at that location. Franklin Roosevelt, the President at the time, delivered the Infamy Speech condemning the attack.

Francis Bacon - English philosopher, knighted by James I in 1603.

p36
"Turner, then, or Ingres." - Irwin
J. M. W. Turner was an English painter in the Romantic movement. Jean Ingres was a French painter working in the 1880s.

"About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters...
how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window..." - Timms
Musée des Beaux Arts, W. H. Auden.

p37
"Breaking bread with the dead, sir. That's what we do." - Akthar
- from the statement "Art is breaking bread with the dead", by W. H. Auden.

The Mikado - an opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, first opening in 1885.

"The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing."
Pensées, a philosophical work by Blaise Pascal.

p38
"We're not just a hiccup between the end of university and the beginning of life, like Auden are we, sir?" - Lockwood
Auden was a schoolteacher.

"Lay your sleeping head, my love,
Human on my faithless arm." - Dakin
Lullaby, W. H. Auden

"England, you have been here too long,
And the songs you sing are the songs you sung
On a braver day. Now they are wrong." - Lockwood
Voices Against England in the Night, Stevie Smith

Not Waving But Drowning - a poem by Stevie Smith, published in 1957.

p40
Brief Encounter - a 1945 film starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, telling the story of a couple, both married, who meet in a railway station and soon fall in love. This scene takes place at the end of the film, when Laura (Celia Johnson) returns to her husband, rather than the man she has just fallen in love with.

p44
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross - a hymn written by Isaac Watts.

p45
Matins - Early morning or late night prayers, a feature of many Christian denominations.

"A painter of the Umbrian school
Designed upon a gesso ground
The nimbus of the Baptized God.
The wilderness is cracked and browned
But through the water pale and thin
Still shine the unoffending feet
And there above the painter set
The Father and the Paraclete." - Scripps
Mr Eliot's Sunday Morning Service, T. S. Eliot

Piero della Francesca - an Italian Renaissance artist.

p47
Nietzsche - a German philosopher, writing in the 1800s.

p51
"After such knowledge, what forgiveness?" - Hector
Gerontion, T.S. Eliot.

p52
"The tree of man was never quiet:
Then 'twas the Roman, now 'tis I." - Hector
On Wenlock Edge, A. E. Housman

"To think that two and two are four
And neither five nor three
The heart of man has long been sore
And long 'tis like to be." - Hector
A Shropshire Lad, A. E. Housman

p53
Plato - an ancient Greek philosopher, who wrote about the teachings of Socrates. The notion of Platonic love is found, in one example, in his discussion of the relationship between Socrates and the young Alcibiades.

Michelangelo - Italian Renaissance artist. He is famous focus upon the aesthetic of male beauty and the homoeroticism which may be found in his work.

Oscar Wilde - English playwright and poet of the nineteenth century. He was famously tried and sentenced for his homosexuality.

p54
Rupert Brooke - an English poet, most famous for his First World War poetry. Posner here quotes the opening of his poem The Soldier.

p55
"The Zulu Wars" - a reference to the war between the Zulus and the United Kingdom in the 1870s.

"The Boer War" - refers to either the first or the second Boer wars, fought between the British Empire and the Boer Republics in the late 1800s.

p57
"The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo." - Hector
Love's Labour's Lost, William Shakespeare, Act V, Scene 2

---------------------------
以上是quote的quote=)
from: http://www.subjunctive-history.co.uk ,是这部剧的专门网站

      刚好是前几天听的lecture里，说的是美国大学的 law in history，提到the most dramatic change is the way teaching was done,which is followed the Socrqtic questioning style，并且一直沿用至今。而在那之前的一个星期，刚好有南周评论版一哥们儿写苏格拉底的死写得风姿勃发。
 
    下午看了《The history boys》，戏剧改电影，演员台词功底实在了得，用词华丽流畅，书袋也吊得无迹可觅，看完了想想差不多题材老美的《死亡诗社》确实够烂，不论老师学生都只能念几句惠特曼的“Oh，captain，my captain”，怪不得欧洲文化中心论到现在也是如此地有市场。
 
    背景是80年代文法男校，出场人物有三位历史老师、八名学生和一个校长。
 
    喜欢在骑摩托车时把手放到后座男生ball上面去的Hector老师为人风趣随和不拘小节，教学方式散漫又无章法，他热衷于培养学生对诗歌修辞的好感，八个学生经常会在法语课上模拟妓院的对话场景以巩固对虚拟态语气词汇的掌握……然而学生并非会被这种慢节奏无绩效的老式教学方式所迷惑——他们的目标是牛津或剑桥的历史系。校长请来了牛津毕业的年轻教师Irwin，这位老师的教学犀利、深刻而充满激情，与Hector的方法刚好形成良性互补，最终八名学生全部得偿所愿。
 
    被我说的若无其事的概括底下大概是一般中国学生难以理解的种种情感及其处理方式。当我将Darkin对Irwin的表白与Clive对Maurice的进行对照时，发现了相类似的各种要素。因此感情是激励我观看然而我却不愿予以多说的东西，我对苏格拉底感兴趣。
 
    Hector的教学方式是苏格拉底式的吗？校长对这个做了肯定的回答，那么看起来新潮锋利的Irwin呢？我倒觉得也是。
 
    片中开头一幕很有意思，也有可能是我想多了：一个学生骑车去了教堂，神父正在说着祷词：“神所赐出人意外的平安，必在基督耶稣里保守你们的心怀意念。全能之主的祝福，圣父、圣子和圣灵，会保佑汝等，并与汝共存，现在如此，今后亦然，阿门。”再看到后面分别出场的三位老师，总有一种隐隐对照着trinity的感觉。刚好三位老师采取的是三种不同的教学方法，于是就想当然了。
 
    Dorothy作为唯一的女教师，她的教学严谨而深具批判意识。Hector则并非是散漫无目的教学方法令学校不能令人接受，相反，校长说过“有效”这样的话，只不过因为他摸ball的动作被女巡查员看到了而被迫退休。新来的Irwin则能够最大地调动学生的求知热情，三个性格、方式各异的老师凑在一起，教出了八个牛津剑桥的学生其实也顺理成章。
 
    Hector是要求在长期的教学中对学生潜移默化，注重文学素养并依赖这样的基础，喜欢吊书袋的他何尝不是在白发苍苍的时候才能够“随心所欲”的呢？他深信时间能够带给人最大的安慰，然而他又确实被时间伤害不浅这样的矛盾体现在他出场发言的每时每刻，并且他是以此为享受的。崇拜安逸是懦夫的行为，他在花甲之龄仍然以一种浮士德式的姿态战斗着，一点儿也不美观，但却让人心生好感——这不能够称之为同情，同情该是对他以及对我们这些心生好感的人的嘲笑。它不会让人愤怒，但它不应该用在Hector的身上，即便他壮士断腕般今朝酒醉明日赴死。Hector是个纯粹的、天生的老师，他不需要用校规或者其他东西包括道德来约束自己，因为他认为对于一个真正的教师来说，“教师”的身份就应该是最大的约束，除此之外，百无禁忌。
 
    Irwin则简单得多，他是个已经被急功近利的现代性给弄得别别扭扭的那种家伙，可是，无奈地，非常招人喜欢。无论是观众还是学生，更或者是万人迷的Darkin。他的尖酸和深刻一样惹人怜爱，犹如他的自信和自卑，那般恰到好处地融合，使他既嚣张又惶惑。凉薄的双颊代表自制，眼镜的遮掩则又精光四溢，每个人都爱他爱得不行，爱到连他漏洞百出的字体也被了解和模仿。Irwin上课时的passion很强大，相当吸引人，赚得的眼球使他既得意又恐惧。以至于到最后，连我都以为他真的会跪在地上，suck Darkin……Irwin是这样的一位老师，他不止像Hector那样简单的传递与索取，更多的时候他将两者融为一体，使自己犹如禁欲的僧侣一般脆弱到不堪一击，而揭开寡陋的面具攻击他的人总是存在。我们都爱Irwin，学生爱，老师同样爱，他自己也爱，所以在最后他对与Darkin之间约会的忘却是那样的无理但含情脉脉。Irwin本身没有做教师的自觉，所以，他越来越是那种需要随时提醒自己有所自觉的讨厌状。他太年轻，经不起考验，故而不如舍弃考验，这一点我们既爱又恨。
 
    Dorothy的出场份额短暂但并非无效，她对历史的看法犹如历史自身一样地充满了偏见但使人不得不敬畏。她是隐者，但并不低调，她在合适的时候绽放，容易教人忽然陷入无所适从地尴尬，因为她居然那么简单又真实，就好像近代史手册一样，却又最容易受到无数观点的左右而易于摇摆。Dorothy应该起调和的作用，但事实上她往往最为激动，学生记得这样的老师的存在，正因为记得她偶尔的雷霆万钧。
 
    三位老师其实共同体现的都是苏格拉底的智慧与责任，因为这一点避无可避，又因为——there it is。短短两个小时的电影，反映出了如此多的道理，却并不拥挤逼仄，相反倒有一种天性的诗意缓缓淌过，简直是最好的英式教育白皮书，不得不感叹，一个好的戏剧，张力的确能够做到文学性与表演性的极致，或者说是能够找准那个最佳平衡点，从而在任何情况下赢得时间和空间。
 
    电影看完了，有人醒悟说，原来自始至终强调的居然不是那句“history is just one fuckin' thing after another.”而是Hector说的，education needs “Take it, feel it and pass it on”。
 
    所以，这部影片其实从头到尾都是在向雅典公民苏格拉底先生致以最崇高的敬意。包括那无处不在的洋溢在年轻与老朽的肉体之中的爱与责任。

"The best moment in reading are when you come across something...a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things that you'd thought special, particular to you, and here it is, set down by someone else, a person you've never met, maybe even someone long dead. And...it's as if a hand...has come out...and taken yours."-- From Hector.
 
       一个六十岁的老男人，是一所中学的老师，和八个年轻的男孩在一起念诗歌读文学。唯一的安慰，可能就是每次借带他们回家的名义，给他们自己的“benedictions".
       他原本想有一辆装满书的车，环游世界。却最终在一次车祸中离开人世。或许，这就是他的一生。
       求而不可得，漫无边际的孤独，唯有书本能给自己安慰。
       可是，那始终不是柔软的，有温度的，真实的手，不是吗？