Rilke

The Dream of Flight p34

For a soul as sincere as Rilke’s, oneiric incidents, however rare, are closely related to living substance. They are inscribed in the long dynamic past of our being. For isn’t the purpose of oneiric flight to teach us to overcome our fear of falling? Doesn’t that happiness carry the sign of our first successful attempts to conquer this primordial fear? What a role, then, it must have played in the consolation—the limited and rare consolations—of the Rilkean soul!

對於像里爾克這樣誠懇的靈魂，夢的意外儘管不多見，卻是與生活的經驗息息相關。他們被鐫刻在我們漫長的存在過往。難道夢幻飛翔的目的不是要教導我們去克服我們對於墬落的恐懼嗎？難道那種快樂不都帶有我們最初企圖的跡象：克服原始的恐懼？在舒慰里爾克的靈魂，儘管這種舒慰有限而罕見，夢幻飛翔當時一定扮演多麼重要的角色！

For one who suffered from the noise of a pin falling on the floor and from the terrifying noise of leaves falling in the fateful symphony of the fall of everything, what a pleasant surprise it must have been to greet beings with little wings on their feet in his dreams. If we truly experience the frequent connection between flight and fall in our dreams, we see how fear can change into joy. That is really a Rilkean turnabout.

一根針掉落在地板上都感受到噪音的痛苦，在必然來臨的秋季自然交響樂中，葉片飄搖，都讓人覺得是可怕噪音的人，能夠在夢幻中邂逅到兩腳上繫著翅膀的人物，該是多麼令人愉悅的驚喜！假如我們真實地經驗到夢幻中飛翔跟墬落其實密不可分，我們就能明白，恐懼如何轉化為歡樂。這真是里爾克式的的大逆轉。

The conclusion of the eleventh dream—which is so beautiful–shows this very clearly: “ Did you not know, then, that joy is, in reality, a terror whose outcome we don’t fear? We go through terror from beginning to end, and that precisely is joy. A terror about which you know more than the beginning. A terror in which you have confidence.” Oneiric flight, then, is a slow-motion fall, a fall from which you can get up easily with no damage done. Oneiric flight is the synthesis of falling and rising.

在美麗的最高層的夢的結語中，里爾克把這一點表現得淋漓盡致：「你難道不知道，歡樂其實就是我們不再恐懼其後果的恐懼？我們從頭到尾都應經歷恐懼，那確實就是歡樂。這種恐懼你還沒開始就知道。這種恐懼你深具信心。」因此夢幻飛翔是一種緩慢動作的墬落，你雖然墬落，卻能輕易起來，毫髮未傷。夢幻飛翔是墬落與上昇的綜合。

Only a soul as totally integrated as Rilke’s can retain in joy itself the terror that joy surmounts. Less integrated souls have only memory at their disposal to bring opposites together, to experience joy and pain in succession, as one causing the other. But this is an important revelation that we already owe to the dream: it shows us that terror can produce happiness.

只有像里爾克這樣全然完整的靈魂，才能在歡樂的本身保留歡樂所克服的恐懼。

比較不完整的靈魂只剩下記憶可供使用，來使兩個極端會合，輪流經驗到歡樂與痛苦，因為後者能夠引起前者。但這是一個很重要的啟示，我們已經歸功於夢幻。這個啟示是：恐懼能夠產生歡樂。

If, as I will show, one of our first fears is the fear of falling; if the greatest human responsibility—both physical and moral—is the responsibility for our verticality –then think how much we owe to the dream that makes us more erect, that makes us dynamically upright, that arches our body from heels to neck, that rids us of our weight, that gives us our first and only aerial experience! How salutary, comforting, marvelous, and moving this dream must be! What memories it must leave in a soul who knows how to make connections between nocturnal life and daytime poetic reverie!

其次，假如我們最初的恐懼是墬落的恐懼，假如人的最大責任，不論是生理方面或精神方面，都是昂首挺身，那麼想想看我們該多麼歸功於夢想。有夢想，我們才能抬頭挺胸，才能高視闊步，才能揚眉吐氣，才能悍然不畏壓力，才能給我們首次的鵬飛經驗。夢想是多麼令人肅然起敬，多麼令人欣慰，多麼神奇感人！

一個靈魂若知道如何將夜間夢境與白天詩意夢想結合在一起，可歌可泣的回憶真不知會有多少！

Psychoanalysts will repeat that the dream of flight is the symbol of voluptuousness, and that we purse it, as Jean-Paul says, “ to embrace beautiful figures.” If we need to love in order to loosen the hold of stifling anguish, then yes, the dream of flight can soothe at night an unhappy one. It can fulfill an impossible love with nocturnal happiness. But the dream of flight has more immediate functions: it is a reality of the night, an autonomous nighttime reality.

精神分析學反覆強調，飛翔之夢是性慾的象徵，我們追求它在於如Jean-Paul 所言「為擁抱佳人身驅」。假如我們需要愛只是為了舒散我們受到壓抑的痛苦，這樣說也沒錯。飛翔之夢能夠在夜晚安慰一個抑鬱不樂的人。它能夠以夜間的幸福實現一個不可能的愛情。但是飛翔之夢遠超這些顯見的功能，它是夜間的真理，是一個自動自發的夜間的真理。

If we approach it from the perspective of nocturnal realism, we will find that a daytime love satisfied by oneiric flight appears to be a special case of levitation. For certain souls whose nocturnal activity is very powerful, to love is to fly; oneiric levitation is a more profound, more essential, less complicated psychic reality than love itself. The need to become lighter, to be freed, to take great freedom from the night, appears as a psychic destiny and as the very function of normal nocturnal activity: of a restful night.

假如我們從夜間真理的角度來觀察，我們會發現到，以夢幻飛翔來滿足白天愛情似乎有飄渺不切實際之嫌。對於那些夜間活動力旺盛的靈魂，愛情就是飛翔。夢想的飄飄欲仙是更加深刻、更加根本、較不複雜的心理真實，遠超過愛情本身。需要變得更輕盈、更解放、從夜晚得到大量的自由，似乎是心理的宿命，是正常夜間活動的功能：休養生息。

P34

Air and Dream by Gaston Bachelard

Translated by Springhero 雄伯