Pyramis and Thisbe。

看莎士比亞，大概初中時代，那種給孩子讀的節錄版本吧。英國 Royal Shakespeare Company 近日出了一本厚厚的莎士比亞 Complete Works （Macmillan, 2007），依據 1623 First Folio 編成。出版社送來一冊樣書，翻開 A Midsummer Night's Dream（仲夏夜之夢）讀，有一段源自羅馬詩人Ovid（奧維德）的劇中劇，講述一對本來是鄰居的年輕戀人，因為父母反對，所以一直在牆壁上的小洞傾訴：

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THISBE[FLUTE] O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans,
For parting my fair Pyramus and me.
My cherry lips have often kissed thy stones,
Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee.

PYRAMUS[BOTTOM] I see a voice; now will I to the chink,
To spy an I can hear my Thisbe's face. Thisbe?

THISBE[FLUTE] My love thou art, my love I think.

PYRAMUS[BOTTOM] Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace
And like Limander am I trusty still.

THISBE[FLUTE] And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill.

PYRAMUS[BOTTOM] Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.

THISBE[FLUTE] As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.

PYRAMUS[BOTTOM] O, kiss me through the hole of this vile wall!

THISBE[FLUTE] I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all.

PYRAMUS[BOTTOM] Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway?

THISBE[FLUTE] 'Tide life, 'tide death, I come without delay.

******

《仲夏夜之夢》是喜劇。而 Ovid 寫的，本來是悲傷得很的故事。

19 世紀英國畫家 John William Waterhouse 不是有一幅作品畫這個場景嗎。



Thisbe
painting date: 1909
medium: Oil on canvas

提起 John William Waterhouse，他另外一幅作品我是比較喜歡的：



The Soul of the Rose
painting date: 1908
medium: Oil on canvas


(Source: The Art and Life of John William Waterhouse 1849-1917)