It's fitting that the first poem of Milton's that we study in this class is "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity."

这节课我们首先学弥尔顿的,《圣诞清晨歌》是很合适的“

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选

When in 1645 Milton finally publishes that first volume of poetry, the first poem that he places in this volume is the Nativity Ode, our poem today.

当1645年出版了首个诗集，他把《圣诞清晨歌》放在最前面，就是我们今天看到的这首诗。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选

It could be purely instrumental but it's called "Buy a song," But we don't want to use that sort of parlance.

可能买的是纯器乐,却被称为"买首歌",但我们不想用那种说法

耶鲁公开课 - 聆听音乐课程节选

And then we'll see exactly what it is that he's doing here so we're going to try to lock in on the bass.

现在我们来听一下这首歌究竟是什么样的，然后我们来尝试专攻它的低音部分。

耶鲁公开课 - 聆听音乐课程节选

He was long in choosing the subject of his heroic song and, as we know from all of -- and we've encountered a number of them - all of those protestations of delay Milton began his epic late.

他久久未能确定他要写的英雄之歌的主题，这我们从从弥尔顿多次声言,自己的史诗动笔很晚就能看出。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选

We'll talk about verse and chorus when we get to the issue of form.

我们会谈到主歌和副歌,等我们遇到那种曲式的类型再说

耶鲁公开课 - 聆听音乐课程节选

Milton clearly wants us to know that this Nativity Ode was written by a young Londoner in 1629, but it's a poem that is at the same time deliverable to the infant Christ by some extraordinary violation, of course, of all of the established laws of temporal sequence.

显然弥尔顿想让我们了解这首《圣诞清晨歌》,是在1629由一位伦敦年轻人写的，但是它同时也是一首,通过非同寻常的方法能够交到圣婴手里的诗，当然这就需要他违反现有的一系列法律。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选

We remember this song.

我们记得这首歌。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选

Now we recognize the song. This is the song from Revelation of the virgins who could learn and sing the new song before the throne of the Lord, but Milton has obviously taken John's image here and exploded the implications of its erotic potential.

我们知道这首歌是指哪首了，是《启示录》中,处子们能在上帝宝座跟前学习演唱的那首歌，但很明显，弥尔顿将圣约翰描绘的这景象,所包含的的感性含义都大大扩大化了。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选