渡沙渚CrossingtheBar（AlfredTennyson）

ALFRED LORD TENNYSON Sunset and evening star， And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar, When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep, Too full for sound and foam,

When that which drew from out the boundless deep Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark!

And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark;

For though from out our bourne of Time and Place The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crossed the bar.

渡沙渚

阿尔费雷德•丁尼生

夕阳下，闪疏星， 召唤一声清朗！ 愿沙渚宁静， 我将出海远航； 潮汐如梦幻， 涛声似止，浪花息； 大海深处涌来， 又悄然退却。 暮霭钟鸣， 黑夜将笼罩！ 愿诀别无悲声， 登舟起锚;

千古洪流，时空无限， 滔滔载我至远方； 渡沙渚一线， 泰然见领航。

译文二： 越过海滩

太阳沉没，晚星闪烁， 一个清晰的呼声在召唤我！ 愿海滩不要哀泣呜咽， 当我出海的时刻。

浑然流动的潮水似已睡去， 潮太满了．反而无声无息， 从无边的海洋里汲取的， 如今又复归去。

暮色茫茫，晚钟轻轻． 接着是黑暗降临！

但愿不要有诀别的悲痛 当我启航的时辰；

虽然潮水会把我带到无限遥远， 越出我们的时间、空间， 我希望见到领航人，面对着面， 当我越过了海滩。 （飞白译）

Summary

The speaker heralds the setting of the sun and the rise of the evening star, and hears that he is being called. He hopes that the ocean will not make the mournful sound of waves beating against a sand bar when he sets out to sea. Rather, he wishes for a tide that is so full that it cannot contain sound or foam and therefore seems asleep when all that has been carried from the boundless depths of the ocean returns back out to the depths.

The speaker announces the close of the day and the evening bell, which will be followed by darkness. He hopes that no one will cry when he departs, because although he may be carried beyond the limits of time and space as we know them, he retains the hope that he will look upon the face of his \"Pilot\" when he has crossed the sand bar. Form

This poem consists of four quatrain stanzas rhyming ABAB. The first and third lines of each stanza are always a couple of beats longer than the second and fourth lines, although the line lengths vary among the stanzas.

Commentary

Tennyson wrote \"Crossing the Bar\" in 18, three years before he died. The poem describes his placid and accepting attitude toward death. Although he followed this work with subsequent poems, he requested that \"Crossing the Bar\" appear as the final poem in all collections of his work.

Tennyson uses the metaphor of a sand bar to describe the barrier between life and death. A sandbar is a ridge of sand built up by currents along a shore. In order to reach the shore, the waves must crash against the sandbar, creating a sound that Tennyson describes as the \"moaning of the bar.\" The bar is one of several images of liminality in Tennyson's poetry: in \"Ulysses,\" the hero desires \"to sail beyond the sunset\"; in \"Tithonushe main character finds himself at the \"quiet limit of the world,\" and regrets that he has asked to \"pass beyond the goal of ordinance.\"

The other important image in the poem is one of \"crossing,\" suggesting Christian connotations: \"crossing\" refers both to \"crossing over\" into the next world, and to the act of \"crossing\" oneself in the classic Catholic gesture of religious faith and devotion. The religious significance of crossing was clearly familiar to Tennyson, for in an earlier poem of his, the knights and lords of Camelot \"crossed themselves for fear\" when they saw the Lady of Shalott lying dead in her boat. The cross was also where Jesus died; now as Tennyson himself dies, he evokes the image again. So, too, does he hope to complement this metaphorical link with a spiritual one: he hopes that he will \"see [his] Pilot face to face.\"

The ABAB rhyme scheme of the poem echoes the stanzas' thematic patterning: the first and third stanzas are linked to one another as are the

second and fourth. Both the first and third stanzas begin with two symbols of the onset of night: \"sunset and evening star\" and \"twilight and evening bell.\" The second line of each of these stanzas begins with \"and,\" conjoining another item that does not fit together as straightforwardly as the first two: \"one clear call for me\" and \"after that the dark!\" Each of these lines is followed by an exclamation point, as the poet expresses alarm at realizing what death will entail. These stanzas then conclude with a wish that is stated metaphorically in the first stanza: \"may there be no moaning of the bar / When I put out to sea\"; and more literally in the third stanza: \"And may there be no sadness of farewell / When I embark.\" Yet the wish is the same in both stanzas: the poet does not want his relatives and friends to cry for him after he dies. Neither of these stanzas concludes with a period, suggesting that each is intimately linked to the one that follows.

The second and fourth stanzas are linked because they both begin with a qualifier: \"but\" in the second stanza, and \"for though\" in the fourth. In addition, the second lines of both stanzas connote excess, whether it be a tide \"too full for sound and foam\" or the \"far\" distance that the poet will be transported in death.