Abstract:

The rarely discussed Middle English poem “Alas, quid eligam ignoro” might be read as an estates satire, but it takes the form of a complaint. Two young men (a clerk and a layman) describe their seeming paralysis in the face of an impossible choice. In contrast to the usual strategy of estates satire, the poem does not view the moral failures of the professions from some kind of objective distance but from the bottom-up perspective of two individuals who see choice as a kind of foreclosure or hopeless compromise. The crisis of “Alas, quid eligam ignoro” resembles similar crises faced by Will in William Langland’s Piers Plowman and by the speaker of a fragmentary poem known as “Why I Can’t Be a Nun.” In contrast to prevailing views of professional identity as a natural, inescapable destiny, these texts suggest that finding a profession might involve anxious introspection and that this search might be obstructed at every turn.

摘要：

鲜为人知的中古英语诗词“ las，quid eligam ignoro”可能被理解为庄园讽刺，但它以抱怨的形式出现。两名年轻男子（业务员和外行）描述了他们在面对一个不可能选择时的瘫痪状态。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。与通常的遗产讽刺策略相反，这首诗不是从某种客观距离看待职业道德上的失败，而是从两个人的自下而上的角度来看，他们将选择视为一种丧失抵押品赎回权或无望的妥协。“ A，乌拉圭无知”的危机类似于威廉·兰兰德（William Langland）在《码头的犁头人》中威尔所面临的类似危机。以及被称为“为什么我不能成为修女”的一首诗的演讲者。与普遍认同的职业认同是一种自然的，不可避免的命运相反，这些文本表明，寻找职业可能涉及焦虑的内省，并且这种搜寻可能随时受到阻碍。