But heaven and earth was teeming around them, and how should this cease? They felt the rush of the sap in spring, they knew the wave which cannot halt, but every year throws forward the seed to begetting, and falling back, leaves the young born on earth. They knew the intercourse between heaven and earth, sunshine drawn into the breast and bowels, the rain sucked up in the daytime, nakedness that come under the wind in autumn, showing the birds’ nests no longer worth hiding…They took the udder of the cows, the cows yielded milk and pulse against the hands of the men, the pulse of the blood of the teats of the cows beat into the pulse of the hands of the men. They mounted their horses, and held life between the grip of their knees, they harnessed their horses at the wagon, and, with hand on the bridle-rings, drew the heaving of the horses after their will.
这种韵律的美,是非读原文不得的,特别是那一句the cows yielded milk and pulse against the hands of the men, the pulse of the blood of the teats of the cows beat into the pulse of the hands of the men,完全可以读出血脉涌动的节奏,完全令人沉醉在两种血脉相互冲撞的肉感之中。为此有批评家把劳伦斯和哈代对自然的描写说成是“性感的风景描写”(sexualization of landscape),这个短语也可用现在时髦的“什么什么化”的西式句法来翻译成“性化风景”。他们所“性化”的是浪漫主义诗人华兹华斯笔下的英国土地。在华诗人的笔下,英国的风景是审美客体,诗人面对客体吟咏风花雪月的诗篇,美则美矣,但能感到审美的主客体是分离的,如《水仙辞》中 I wandered lonely as a cloud / That floats on high o’er vale and hills 的诗句,甚至颇为矫情做作。而到了劳伦斯这一代诗人,风景和自然俨然是主体,诗人要揭示其内在的诗性,体现在诗化的散文中,就有了这种自然的节奏生发于此。这种美,源自浪漫主义,但已经是浪漫主义诗歌望尘莫及的了。浪漫主义的特点是感发,而劳伦斯的诗文转向自然的生发。
在《查泰莱夫人的情人》中对黑暗龌龊的矿区,劳伦斯发出的几乎是咬牙切齿的恨恨然之声,这声音几乎可以通过朗读下面的段落发自肺腑,当然我指的是英文原文,不仅是节奏,用词几乎都有咬牙切齿之音响效果,如连用几个black,几个utter和几个ugly,这样的几个短音节词不断跳跃在字里行间,发自牙缝和舌间,听上去完全是掷地有声的咒符: