The Persians

主題 Topic	The Persians
書刊名 Title	The Persians
作者 Author	Aeschylus (ca. 525-456 B.C.)
出版社 Publisher
出版年 Year
語言 Language	English
裝訂 Binding	□ 平裝 Paperback　　　　□ 精裝 Hardcover
頁數 Pages	92
ISBN (10 / 13)
Bibliography Reference	(STC, Duff, GW . . .)
來源網址 Web Link	http://ppt.cc/tnNq
劇本簡介撰稿者	王儀君
撰寫日期 Date	July 2014

A.   簡介 Introduction (within 100 words, Chinese or English)

      近年來，東方主義受到廣泛的重視，尤其是2013年的電影《波斯人》中誇大描述波希戰爭，希臘劇作家埃斯庫羅斯(Aeschylus)所著《波斯人》又重新受到學者青睞。《波斯人》是埃斯庫羅斯早期的劇本。故事的背景是薛西斯(Xerxes) 大舉進犯希臘，薛西斯的母親充滿焦慮，接著是使者對於薩拉米灣海戰(the Battle of Salamis 西元前480年)的描述，數百艘波斯戰艦被誘入雅典外的薩拉米灣，隨著使者的敘述，可以瞭解國族在希臘時代就已是個重要的主題。接著薛西斯的母親在大流士的墓前請求大流士的建言，大流士現身斥責薛西斯的魯莽，分析戰敗的原因，劇終時只有形單影隻的薛西斯。劇中值得注意的主題包括驕傲、尊嚴、同情還有文化記憶。

B.   文本摘錄 Extracts (4-6 Pages)

                              THE PERSIANS
 
   [The stage, or rather Orchêstra, is a large round space with no   scenery except a House Front at the back and an altar-like structure  in the centre. In the first division of the play (ll. 1-153) we are  before the Council Chamber at Susa, in the second (ll. 596-851) at the Tomb of Darius, in the third before the King's Palace.]
                                 Chorus.
Faithful to them that sailed o'ersea
To Grecian lands our name we hold,
"The Persians' Trust"; true guardians we
Of many a temple rich in gold
And holy, whom our Lord and King,
Xerxes, Darius-born,
For age and honour hath extolled
To watch his land forlorn.
And while we wait his homecoming,
For him and for his golden host
With fear and dark imagining
My spirit in a storm is tossed.
For all the strength of Asia born,
Like hounds at a young master's horn
Baying, away hath flown,
And now for long no royal post
Cometh, no rider from the host,
Back to great Persia's Throne.
From Agbatan, from Susa tall,[Pg 20   16-41]
From ancient Kissia's guarded wall,
We saw the horse and chariot go,
The gliding ships, the footmen slow,
In pomp of war far-thrown.
Among them men of mighty name,
Amistras, Artaphernes, came,
Astaspes, Megabâtes, Lords
Of Persia, kings beneath the Eye
Of the one King, most great, most high,
Ruling their subject hordes,
With trampling horse, with clanging bow,
Dread to behold and stern to know,
High hearts and faithful swords.
Then Artembar, glad knight in fray,
Imaios of the shafts that slay,
Masistras, Pharandâkes, yea,
And charioted Sosthânes
Rode past us. Many another king
Did Nile the many-childed bring,
To war; the Master of the Spring,
Egyptian Sousiskânes,
Arsam the tall, who holdeth guard
O'er holy Memphis, Ariomard
From ageless Thebes, with river men
Who bend the bow and stride the fen,
Multitudes dark and fell.
We saw the armies proud and gay
Of Lydia, who in thralldom sway
The tribes of Asia; them the wise[Pg 21   42-64]
Arcteus and Mêtrogâthes, Eyes
Of the Great King, from Sardis sent
With all her golden armament:
In fourfold aye and sixfold team
We saw their myriad chariots gleam,
Fearful to see or tell.
There marched the Tmolian mountaineer
Who vowed on Hellas' neck to cast
The bond slave's yoke. There Mardon passed
And Tharybis, anvils of the spear;
There, rank by rank, the Mysian lance
Flashed; and with trailing wide advance
There swept the golden Babylon
Her motley nations on and on;
Men of the river, men who know
The magic of the fearless bow,
And all the long-knived multitude
Of Asia's hidden valleys, rude
But faithful, followed, row on row,
King's men untameable.
 
—So hath the flower of Persia's youth
Departed, whom in strong desire
This Asian soil that nursed their growth
Lamenteth; and without avail
Full many a sire,
Full many a wife and mother stay
Waiting as day still followeth day,
And dread the lengthening tale.
 
[Strophe 1[Pg 22   65-86]
—They are gone, the great armies battle-proven,
City-quellers; they have reached the further side;
They have builded them a causeway flax-enwoven
O'er the strait where maiden Helle sank and died.
For they sought a path and found it,
And with many fetters bound it
For a yoke upon the shoulders of the tide.
 
[Antistrophe 1
And the dread King, his multitudes he guideth
As a flock God hath given to his hand.
In his stern true captains he confideth
To be masters of the water and the land.
From the shower of heavenly gold
Were his fathers sprung of old,
And god-like among mortals doth he stand.
 
[Strophe 2
In his dark eye is the glare of a serpent, flashing fear;
Many-handed, many-navied, he hath spurred his Syrian car;
He descendeth on the nations; he has baffled the strong spear
With the bow-shaft that slayeth from afar.
 
[Antistrophe 2[Pg 23   87-106]
In whom, then, confide ye, to withstand the armèd flood,
Put his gyves upon the storm and enchain the rushing tide?
For the armies of the Persian none living hath withstood,
And the land's heart laugheth in its pride.
 
[Strophe 3
So it hath been from of old; the o'erthrowing of strong towers
Is the birthright of the Persian, god-appointed to his trust;
And the thunder of the horsemen and their gladness, it is ours,
And the trampling of cities in the dust.
 
[Antistrophe 3
We have turned us to the sea, and no fear is in our mind;
With our bridges cable-woven we have climbed from steep to steep;
We have seen the waves whiten in the fury of the wind,
We have faced the holy places of the deep.
 
—But the deep craft of God, who shall 'scape from it or hide him?[Pg 24   107-127]
Can the runner run so swift, can the leaper leap so high?
Man seeeth but a smile, and lo, Atê is beside him,
With the net none outclimbeth till he die.
 
[Strophe 4
—Therefore doth my spirit mourn,
Robed in darkness, stabbed with fear,
Lest a cry the people hear,
"Woe, woe;
Woe for Persia's host forlorn,"
Ringing through the wide unmanned
Streets of Susa's lonely land.