前几天又看了一遍这电影,WOA说che是真英雄,我觉得劳伦斯也可以算上一个。“沙漠,原是天才内在的气候”,说得棒极了!
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一个半世纪前,一个英国人企图扶助一个弱小民族,反抗雄踞在中、近东的土耳其帝国,他失败了。半世纪前,又有一个英国人做同样的尝试,凭了超人的智慧、毅力和体能,他成功了,结果是土耳其帝国的崩溃。前者是拜伦,后者是俗称阿拉伯的劳伦斯。两者还有一些类似之处:例如,都是成名甚早,都是英年夭逝,都是出身有名学府,都特立独行,和英国绅士社会格格不入。
但是两者有一个基本的差异。在私生活上,拜伦本是一个纨绔子弟,耽于逸乐,且顾影自怜,善于作态。劳伦斯的心中也有一株顾影水仙,但大任降身之际,他的灵魂能提升到史诗的高度,支持他的肉体,去忍受只有超人才能负担的痛苦和疲惫。多才的劳伦斯曾经翻译荷马的史诗,但他的名著《智慧的七大支柱》也已成为记述一次大战东战场的现代史诗,而他自己便是这篇史诗的主角。沙漠,沙漠的空廓和虚无,那种远离文明的原始的煎熬和晕眩,那种对内要克服大自然的多重压力,对于这位现代史诗的主角,是一种形而下的也是形而上的考验。沙漠,原是天才内在的气候。绝顶的天才,原就注定了要忍受绝对的寂寞。“天才恒侵袭,但凡人占据且拥有,”劳伦斯如是说。大漠中往返的长途跋涉,驼背上的日日夜夜,就劳伦斯的一生而言,正是一个缩影和一个象征。
而在舌敝唇焦之后,在摩顶放踵和出生入死之后,在肉体委顿和心灵颓丧之后,他成功了,因为他已名闻全球,而土耳其帝国也已经瓦解;但同时他也失败了,因为在内部的纠纷和协约国的阴谋下,阿拉伯非但不能独立,反而惨被瓜分。他曾站在协约国与阿拉伯之间,向后者保证战后的独立和自由。那些游牧民族曾如此相信他,崇拜他,视他为救世主,凡他至处,人群争挽他的衣衫,而他也隐隐然以现代的米赛亚自命。然而战后的现实令他幻灭,他感到自己像一个骗子。一切光荣都变成耻辱。人们的赞美和宣传只会加强他的自咎和厌憎。由于英国在法国压力下违背了战时对阿拉伯人的诺言,劳伦斯在英皇召见时当场拒绝了乔治五世的授勋,作为一种抗议。不久他又毅然谢绝出任英国海外某地总督,改名易姓,隐入行伍之间。
劳伦斯在阿拉伯的英雄史迹,尽人皆知,不用我来复述。他在战后的种种表现,也非这篇短文所能详谈。此地我只能提一提他异常复杂的个性,和他在一次大战后期及战后所表现的矛盾、沮丧、迷惘和自嘲自虐的心境。
许多传记家,甚至劳伦斯自己的朋友,对于他的独立特行都感到难以理解,而有所谓“劳伦斯之谜”一说。例如:劳伦斯在进入土耳其重镇大马士革之后,何以在自己胜利的巅峰突然引退﹖何以在战后,朝野同钦,而国家方欲委以重任之际,他要遁世逃名于士卒之间,且接受极其苛严的训练﹖身为大英雄和名作家的他,经常在书信中透露悲观和懊丧。在给母亲的信中,他诉苦说:“要安于无所事事,我还太年轻;要从头开始,我又太年长了。”在致诗人格雷夫斯的信中,他说:“我深深地感到,自己的生命,在真正的意义上,已然逝去。”
劳伦斯所以突然离开大马士革,除了因为阿拉伯仍四分五裂,而英法的政治阴谋令他心寒齿冷之外,尚有另一隐衷。据说他一直因为自己是私生子而深感羞辱,乃视性为一种不洁,非但终身未娶,即女友也鲜闻来往。尤为不幸的是,在阿拉伯战役的后期,他因潜入敌后刺探军情,在德拉被捕。土耳其司令官并不知道他就是劳伦斯,但惑于他的白皙肌肤,竟令四名兵勇鞭笞他之后,轮流将他奸污。此事对劳伦斯身心的摧残,是无可比拟的。在德拉受辱之前,他在别人和自己的想像之中,俨然是米赛亚再世。但经过了那次事件,他的自我神化和英雄气概便颓然崩溃了。
在德拉事件之后,他几乎用完了精神的燃料。他的使命感消逝了,余下来的是野心和权力的欲望。他变得嗜杀,但杀伐之后只感到怜悯,不感到胜利的喜悦。终于有一天,他发现,即使那种权力,也只是一个幻觉而已。他完全空虚地离开了大马士革。
但何以战后劳伦斯坚持要加入空军呢﹖何以他必须如此贬抑自己﹖论者尝谓他所以如此,是因为他患有同性恋。这是很不可靠的臆想。劳伦斯的朋友们,都证实绝无此事。同时,他先后在战车队和空军的纯男性团体中生活了十二年之久,亦未闻有任何可疑的纪录。事实上,劳伦斯对任何肉体上的接触,都会深感震骇。劳伦斯所以要自谪于行伍而听命于士官,第一,是因为他已厌倦于做一个名人,他要从自己的神话中解脱出来。第二,他在大战期间的超人表现,已经透支了自己的意志和定力。他曾经担当过太大的风险,负过太重的责任,现在,当一名二等兵,他可以仅仅服从命令,无论那命令有多愚蠢,而不用亲自负责了。第三,在沙漠的岁月中,他已惯于袍泽之情,惯于在艰苦的环境中分享单纯的同情。战后他深深怀念那种袒露的人性,他需要恢复那种安全感。第四,正如前面提起过的,他是一个受虐狂患者,他需要严格纪律的自惩和肉体的操劳。
同时,在军中他可以满足自己的另一个欲望——对速度的追求。他爱一切剧动而高速的东西。“速度是人性中第二种古老的兽欲,”他如此说过。他爱在浩浩的沙漠中驶车。在空军服役时,他促使空军当局注意海上救难的需要,且亲自设计并监造救难的快艇。最后的几年,劳伦斯一直以电单车去看萧伯纳和哈代,每星期平均驶四百到六百英里。如果路好,他每每超速到每小时八十至一百英里。最后竟因此丧生。
劳伦斯就是这样一个矛盾的复合体。他在沙漠中缓缓骑驼,也在文明里高速驶车。他的灵魂拥抱最单纯的自然,呼吸阿拉伯开阔的空间,同时也展望未来的世纪。他说:“在我看来,我们这一代惟一主要的任务,是征服最后的一个元素,大气。”他是一个超人成就的军事家和战士,但同时也是探索灵魂的作家和翻译家。他是世界上最大的冒险家之一,但同时又那样羞怯,内向,且患得患失。他的生命,繁复、矛盾胜过一千个人。他的灵魂究竟有多少窍呢﹖然则,一切伟大的灵魂不都是如此宏丽地充满了矛盾吗﹖
相关链接:《智慧的七大支柱》英T.E. 劳伦斯 著 团结出版社2003年第一版
- posted on 07/06/2007
ZT
2005月19日,是世界现代军事史上传奇人物“阿拉伯的劳伦斯”去世70周年纪念日。英国作家罗德尼·莱格提出了一个令人吃惊的观点:劳伦斯是被英国特工暗杀,而非通常所认为的那样死于一般车祸。莱格称,英国军情部门因担心丘吉尔让劳伦斯领导一个具有超级权力的新情报机构,所以谋杀了他。他称有证据表明劳伦斯出车祸前一直遭军情部门监视;目击者当时还看到一辆黑色汽车驶离现场。不管莱格的说法是否有根据,劳伦斯这位军事史上的神奇人物已留下了太多的谜团。
为身世感到苦恼
1888年8月16日,托马斯·爱德华·劳伦斯出生在英国威尔士,是大地主托马斯与女管家劳伦斯的私生子。劳伦斯很小就知道了身世,生性敏感的他感觉自己是个另类,意识到梦想只能靠自己的不懈努力来实现。18岁时,他考入牛津大学学习历史。虽然身高只有1.65米,他却勇于向自己的潜能发出挑战。他经常两三天不吃东西,在寒冬进行越野训练,训练骑车直至累倒在路旁。通过这种自虐式锻炼,劳伦斯不仅练就了强健的体魄,而且培养了吃苦耐劳精神,为日后的军旅生涯打下基础。他曾随考古队到过叙利亚,第一次世界大战前还在阿拉伯世界进行了旅行,学会了阿拉伯语,并迷上了阿拉伯文化。
投笔从戎成为“爆破先生”
一战爆发后,劳伦斯报名参军,到英军设在开罗的军事情报部任职。他不喜欢坐办公室,并很快等到了机会。1916年沙特阿拉伯西部哈桑王族的酋长谢里夫发动革命,反抗奥斯曼帝国的统治。奥斯曼帝国当时是英国的敌国,劳伦斯建议英国抓住机会与那些希望取得独立的阿拉伯部落联盟共同对付奥斯曼帝国。他的建议得到了英国军方的支持,同年12月,劳伦斯被派往吉达,出任阿拉伯军队首领费萨尔的联络官。
在劳伦斯的策划下,阿拉伯起义军多次深入敌军后方,炸毁铁路与桥梁,使土军的运输濒于瘫痪,阿拉伯人因此称他为“爆破先生”。攻占红海沿岸重要港口亚喀巴港一役,使劳伦斯成为英国军界的知名人物,也让英法等殖民主义大国第一次真正重视阿拉伯起义军的力量。劳伦斯在回忆录中写道:“在攻克亚喀巴之后,我不再是一个旁观者了,而是成为起义的领导者之一。”劳伦斯负伤32次,多次死里逃生,但从不居功自傲。他严格遵守阿拉伯人的风俗习惯,与他们同吃同住,并肩作战,胜利后总是把功劳归于各位酋长或部落领袖。战友评价他说:“他的话不多,但他注意研究周围的人。当争论结束,他提出行动计划时,往往能使每个人都满意。”在回忆录中劳伦斯写道:“我将散落在阿拉伯人中间的火花聚成一团熊熊大火。”
当同盟国与协约国在欧洲战场陷入僵局时,劳伦斯率领的非正规部落军却在阿拉伯半岛书写了传奇而浪漫的胜利诗篇,让敌军闻风丧胆。1918年劳伦斯与费萨尔率军攻入大马士革,使他的军事成就达到顶点。
拒绝接受英王授勋
一战结束后,劳伦斯作为英国代表出席了巴黎和会。他身穿阿拉伯长袍,竭力为阿拉伯国家争取利益。但英法等国只顾瓜分中东,根本无意履行给中东国家自由的承诺。劳伦斯愤而离席。由于他战功卓著,政府授予他“特殊贡献”勋章。但他不满英政府背信弃义而拂袖离去,颁奖的英王乔治五世无奈地说:“我捧着奖盒,他却拂袖而去。”
1919年,一位名叫劳维尔的记者开始用幻灯片的形式介绍阿拉伯独立战争,并把劳伦斯称为“未加冕的阿拉伯之王”,“阿拉伯的劳伦斯”这个称呼从此流传开来。此后劳伦斯曾在政府部门担任中东顾问,但终因不满政府对阿拉伯国家的背叛而辞职,并从此拒绝担任一切公职。
在追求速度中陨落
在生命的最后几年里,劳伦斯的文学天赋得到了充分体现。1926年他出版了《智慧的七柱石》一书,记录了他在中东地区的作战经历,被称为“描写阿拉伯起义的史诗性作品”。他还将《奥德赛》重新翻译出版,受到文学界的赞誉。但这时的劳伦斯已心力交瘁,他体重锐减,战争在他身上留下的几十处伤疤经常隐隐作痛。对生活感到厌倦的劳伦斯迷上了骑摩托车,他曾说“速度是人性中第二种古老的兽欲”。但对速度的疯狂追求要了他的命。1935年5月13日,他出了车祸,在医院昏迷了6天后离开了这个世界。
劳伦斯一生充满了矛盾。他曾渴望名誉,但当它到来时他却感到恐惧;他希望被人接受,同时又是一个坚定的个人主义者;他有数不清的朋友,内心深处却极其孤独;他的初衷是文学写作,命运却安排他戎马一生,驰骋大漠。也许正因如此,他的人生才变得精彩。 - Re: 阿拉伯的劳伦斯 文/余光中posted on 07/06/2007
演 Lawrence 的 Peter O'Toole 的蓝眼睛太迷人了。
玛雅,Lawrence of Arabia 选了第七位。 - Re: 阿拉伯的劳伦斯 文/余光中posted on 07/06/2007
劳伦斯本人比“呕吐儿”的干老头状神气多了。纪录片“阿拉伯的劳伦斯”比电影更有看头,其中涉及劳伦斯本人讳莫如深的“经历”。
呕吐儿还是演末代皇帝的老师庄士顿好。 - Re: 阿拉伯的劳伦斯 文/余光中posted on 07/06/2007
- posted on 07/06/2007
The sword means cleanness and death.
^^^^^^^^^^
Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph is the autobiographical account of the experiences of T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") while serving as a liaison officer with rebel forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turks of 1916 to 1918.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Title
* 2 Manuscripts and editions
* 3 Editions in print
* 4 External links
[edit] Title
The title comes from the Book of Proverbs, 9:1: "Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars" (KJV). Prior to World War I, Lawrence had begun work on a scholarly book about seven great cities of the Arab world, to be titled Seven Pillars of Wisdom. When war broke out it was still uncompleted and Lawrence says he later destroyed the manuscript. Nevertheless, he decided to reuse the evocative title for the memoirs he penned in the aftermath of the war.
Whilst the title might seem better suited to the former book than the latter, a line from the dedicatory poem at the start of the book helps explain Lawrence's interpretation of the Biblical "seven pillars" and their relevance to the Arab Revolt:
I loved you, so I drew these tides of men into my hands
and wrote my will across the sky in stars
To gain you Freedom, the seven-pillared worthy house,
that your eyes might be shining for me
When I came.
A variant last line of that stanza – reading "When we came" – appears in some editions; however, the 1922 Oxford text (considered the definitive version; see below) has "When I came".
[edit] Manuscripts and editions
Some Englishmen, of whom Kitchener was chief, believed that a rebellion of Arabs against Turks would enable England, while fighting Germany, simultaneously to defeat Turkey.
Their knowledge of the nature and power and country of the Arabic-speaking peoples made them think that the issue of such a rebellion would be happy: and indicated its character and method.
So they allowed it to begin...
– Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Introduction
Lawrence kept extensive notes throughout the course of his involvement in the Revolt. He began work on a clean narrative in the first half of 1919 while in Paris for the peace conference and, later that summer, while back in Egypt. By December 1919 he had a fair draft of most of the ten books that make up the Seven Pillars of Wisdom but, in an act of monumental absent-mindedness and misfortune, lost it (except for the introduction and final two books) when he misplaced his briefcase while changing trains at Reading railway station. National newspapers alerted the public to the loss of the "hero's manuscript", but to no avail: the draft remained lost. Lawrence refers to this version as "Text I" and says that had it been published, it would have been some 250,000 words in length.
In early 1920, Lawrence set about the daunting task of rewriting as much as he could remember of the first version. Working from memory alone (he had destroyed his wartime notes upon completion of the corresponding parts of Text I), he was able to complete this "Text II", 400,000 words long, in three months. Lawrence described this version as "hopelessly bad" in literary terms, but historically it was "substantially complete and accurate".
With Text II in front of him, Lawrence began working on a polished version ("Text III") in London, Jeddah, and Amman during 1921. Upon completion of its 335,000 words in February 1922, Lawrence burned Text II. He then proceeded to have eight copies typeset and printed on the presses of the Oxford Times, and this private edition became known as the "1922 Edition" or the "Oxford Text" of Seven Pillars. He made painstaking hand-written corrections to six of these copies and had them bound. (In 2001, the last time one of these rough printings came on to the market, it fetched almost USD $1 million at auction.) This time, instead of burning the manuscript, Lawrence presented it to the Bodleian Library.
By mid-1922, Lawrence was in a state of severe mental turmoil: the psychological after-effects of war were taking their toll, as were his exhaustion from the literary endeavours of the past three years, his disillusionment with the settlement given to his Arab comrades-in-arms, and the burdens of being in the public eye as a perceived "national hero". It was at this time that he re-enlisted in the armed forces under an assumed name (first the Royal Air Force, then the Royal Tank Corps), in an attempt to "lie fallow" and develop a new identity. Concerned over his mental state and eager for his story to be read by a wider public, his friends convinced him to produce an abridged version of Seven Pillars, to serve as both intellectual stimulation and a source of much-needed income. In his off-duty evenings, "Aircraftman Ross" – or, later, "Private Shaw" – set to trimming the 1922 text down to 250,000 words for what would be a very limited, exceedingly lavish subscribers' edition.
The Subscribers' Edition – in a print-run of less than 200 copies, each with a unique, sumptuous, hand-crafted binding – was published in late 1926. Copies occasionally become available in the antiquarian trade and can easily command prices of up to USD $100,000.
Unfortunately, each copy cost Lawrence three times the price the subscribers had paid. Intellectual stimulation it may have provided, but the cure for his financial woes it was not.
The Subscribers' Edition was 25% shorter than the Oxford Text, but Lawrence did not abridge uniformly. The deletions from the early books are much less drastic than those of the later ones: for example, Book I lost 17% of its words and Book IV lost 21%, compared to 50% and 32% for Books VIII and IX. Critics differed in their opinions of the two editions: Robert Graves and George Bernard Shaw preferred the 1922 text (although, from a legal standpoint, they appreciated the removal of certain passages that could have been considered libellous, or at least indiscreet), while E. M. Forster preferred the 1926 version.
Literary merits aside, however, producing the Subscribers' Edition had left Lawrence facing bankruptcy. He was forced to undertake an even more stringent pruning to produce a version for sale to the general public: this was the 1927 Revolt in the Desert, a work of some 130,000 words: "an abridgement of an abridgement," remarked George Bernard Shaw, not without disdain.
The public would have had to remain satisfied with Revolt in the Desert, however, were it not for Lawrence's death in a May 1935 motorcycle accident at the age of 46. "No further issue of the Seven Pillars will be made in my lifetime," Lawrence had said upon release of the Subscribers' Edition in 1926. Within weeks of his death, the 1926 abridgement was published for general circulation.
The unabridged Oxford Text of 1922 was not made publicly available until its UK copyright expired in 1997. - Re: 阿拉伯的劳伦斯 文/余光中posted on 07/06/2007
前段时间曾经动念头,想八卦一回劳伦斯,幸好玛雅转了这个,否则就在余光中面前耍大刀了。历史上的劳伦斯传奇色彩更浓,但个人气质远不及电影中的人物。他对阿拉伯的贡献,尤其对中东进程的远见,足以挣一个特级英雄的光荣称号(但肯定不是Che那样帅哥级别的)。
玛雅 wrote:
前几天又看了一遍这电影,WOA说che是真英雄,我觉得劳伦斯也可以算上一个。“沙漠,原是天才内在的气候”,说得棒极了!
- Re: 阿拉伯的劳伦斯 文/余光中posted on 07/07/2007
一直有听到朋友推荐这部电影,尤其是电影音乐,但至今未看,看来是要去淘张碟来看看。 - Re: 阿拉伯的劳伦斯 文/余光中posted on 07/08/2007
我知道希特勒崇拜劳伦斯,
此外,希特勒还崇拜斯文·赫定, ^_^ - Re: 阿拉伯的劳伦斯 文/余光中posted on 12/02/2010
顶个老帖,顺便提示一哈追星族, 电影《阿拉伯的劳伦斯》尽管美化了男主角,增加了看点,但这是一部唯一通篇没有一个女性角色的好莱坞大片。好像有几个女人的面孔出现,而且在远景,但绝对没有对话,看完失望的话休怪:) - RE: 阿拉伯的劳伦斯 文/余光中posted on 07/08/2022
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