This essay examines the recurrent and polysemic image of the sunlight and its underside darkness in W.S. Merwin’s later writings such as Opening the Hand (1983), The Rain in the Trees (1988), The Vixen (1996), Present Company (2005), and The Shadow of Sirius (2008). Sunlight represents the transient object that prompts Merwin to contemplate time, origin, grief, and death. Merwin’s father-complex, I argue, plays an indispensable role in the formation of sunlight imagery in his recent poetry, as the Sun, according to Freud’s study on psychosis, symbolizes paternal authority. Largely foreclosing the Lacanian Name-of-the-Father in search of fluid and infinite realizations, Merwin has incurred a strong sense of guilt through the years, which finally erupts into a poetry of endless mourning after his father’s death. To overcome grief, Merwin evokes ancestral origins and memory traces from childhood; his yearning for anonymous origins to surpass the paternal function summarizes his lifelong pursuit of the infinite Other outside the socio-symbolic order.

中文翻译：

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在光的世界中醒来：WS Merwin 后期作品中的记忆、悲伤和时间

这篇文章考察了 WS Merwin 后期作品中阳光及其背后黑暗的反复出现和多义的形象，例如张开手 (1983)、树中的雨 (1988)、泼妇 (1996)、现在的公司 (2005)、和天狼星的影子（2008）。阳光代表了促使默温思考时间、起源、悲伤和死亡的瞬态物体。我认为，默温的父亲情结在他最近的诗歌中对阳光意象的形成起着不可或缺的作用，因为根据弗洛伊德对精神病的研究，太阳象征着父亲的权威。默温在很大程度上排除了拉康式的父亲之名以寻求流动和无限的实现，多年来一直产生强烈的内疚感，最终在他父亲去世后爆发出无尽哀悼的诗歌。为了克服悲伤，Merwin 唤起了童年的祖先起源和记忆痕迹；他对超越父系功能的匿名起源的向往总结了他对社会象征秩序之外的无限他者的毕生追求。