• Reading and Listening to Stevens's Letters:"The delicatest ear of the mind"
• Lisa Goldfarb

TO PREPARE FOR MY TOPIC, let me start with a few short passages from Wallace Stevens's letters, two early and two late:

The piping of flamboyant flutes, the wriggling of shrieking fifes with rasping dagger-voices, the sighing of bass-viols, drums that beat and rattle, the crescendo of cracked trombones—harmonized, that is Innes band. Red geraniums, sweet-lyssoms, low, heavy quince trees, the mayor's lamps, Garrett playing on the organ, water-lilies and poultry—that is Ivyland.

To his mother, July 31, 1896 (L 8)

Now, I wish we could rest after so much disquisition and listen to what we have never heard. The wind has fallen. The moon has risen. We are where we have never been, listening to what we have never heard.

To Elsie, July 20, 1909 (L 149)

Hartford is quiet. There is a loneliness and a thoughtfulness about everything which I like, as if all interruptions had come to an end. Time will stand still for a few weeks as the weather itself stands still in August before it removes to Charleston, where it will stand still a little longer before it removes to some place in South America like Cartagena, which is, I suppose, its permanent abode—the place where all the catbirds go, not to speak of the other birds which live in our garden for a while.

To Barbara Church, July 27, 1949 (L 642)

Again, when you say that parts of my book baffle you and that you feel as if you did not know English when you read those parts and sit and look into space and despair, content yourself with the thought that every poet's language is his own distinct tongue. He cannot speak the common language [End Page 31] and continue to write poetry any more than he can think the common thought and continue to be a poet.

To Peter H. Lee, February 17, 1955 (L 873)

I begin my essay—which, as my title suggests, will take up what it means to listen to Stevens's letters—with these few excerpts to highlight Stevens's unmistakable voice. It is a voice that we recognize in all the different forms in which he wrote—in poetry, essays, aphorisms, and letters. In the first letter, the sixteen-year-old Stevens writes to his mother from Ivyland, Pennsylvania, in exuberant tones detailing with exactness both the sounds of a neighborhood band—the fifes are "shrieking," the bass-viols "sighing," the drums "beat and rattle"—and the abundant summer vegetation, with its red geraniums, sweet alyssums, and low-hanging quince trees. A little over a decade later, in his letter to Elsie, Stevens writes with a tender voice, inviting her to share in his desire to hear the barely audible sounds of the unknown—"what we have never heard." In his last decade, in the letter to Barbara Church, he writes with a more sober voice, appreciating the seeming stasis of the month of August, one of his favorite months to which he devotes some of his most memorable poems. He cannot help but add a whimsical touch, as he imagines how the apparent stillness of the month travels at different moments to various locales. Finally, in his letter to Peter H. Lee, the young Korean scholar and poet with whom Stevens enjoyed corresponding in his final years, he is at his most direct as he reflects on the particular language that each poet possesses—a language that is as unchangeable and continuous as the features of the natural world in which he took so much delight. What we recognize in these passages is Stevens's "distinct tongue"—as present in his letters as in his verse. To Bernard Heringman, in another late letter, dated October 13, 1950, Stevens writes in appreciation of Heringman's readings of his poems, "To have a few right readers is worth everything else" (L 695).

What does it mean to "have a few right readers"? How do Stevens's letters contemplate the relationship between poet and reader? And how might we hear Stevens practicing...

• 阅读和聆听史蒂文斯的来信：“心灵最细腻的耳朵”
• 丽莎·戈德法布

为了准备我的主题，让我从华莱士·史蒂文斯的来信中简短地摘录一下，分别是早两点和后两点：

华丽的长笛管道，颤抖的横笛和匕首的声音在颤抖，低音鼓的叹息，敲打和嘎嘎作响的鼓声，长号破裂的长音渐渐融合在一起，这就是Innes乐队。红色的天竺葵，甜甜的香s，低矮沉重的木瓜树，市长的灯，加勒特在管风琴上演奏的花，睡莲和家禽-这就是常春藤。

致他的母亲，1896年7月31日（L 8）

现在，我希望我们经过如此多的讨论后可以休息，听听我们从未听说过的事情。风已经落了。月亮升起了。我们是我们从未去过的地方，听听我们从未听到过的声音。

1909年7月20日致爱西（L 149）

哈特福德很安静。我喜欢的每件事都有一种孤独和体贴，好像所有的打扰都已经结束了。时间将静止数周，因为八月的天气本身保持静止，然后才移至查尔斯顿，在那里它将停留更长的时间，然后移至南美的某个地方，例如卡塔赫纳，我想这是永久的居所-所有猫咪都会去的地方，更不用说在我们的花园中生活了一段时间的其他鸟类了。

致芭芭拉教堂（Barbara Church），1949年7月27日（L 642）

再说一遍，当您说我的书的某些部分令您感到困惑时，当您阅读这些部分并坐着看着太空和绝望时，感觉好像不懂英语，这让自己感到满足，认为每位诗人的语言都是他自己独特的语言舌头。他无法说通用语言[第31页]，并且继续写诗超出了他能想到的通用思想，并且继续成为诗人。

致Peter H.Lee，1955年2月17日（L 873）

我开始我的文章（正如我的标题所暗示的那样，它将占用听史蒂文斯的来信的意义），并摘录这几段摘录，以突出史蒂文斯明确的声音。我们以他所写的所有不同形式（包括诗歌，散文，格言和信件）认出了这种声音。在第一封信中，十六岁的史蒂文斯（Stevens）给宾夕法尼亚州艾维兰郡（Evyland）的母亲写了一封充满生气的音调，准确地详述了邻居乐队的声音-横笛在“尖叫”，低音在颤抖“在叹息”，鼓声“拍打，嘎嘎作响”，还有丰富的夏季植被，还有红色的天竺葵，甜的香雪球和低矮的木瓜树。十年多一点后，史蒂文斯（Stevens）在给爱西（Elsie）的信中用温柔的声音写道：邀请她分享他渴望听到未知的几乎听不见的声音的愿望-“我们从未听到过的声音”。在过去的十年中，他在致芭芭拉·教堂（Barbara Church）的信中写道，他的语气更加清醒，欣赏了8月的停滞，这是他最喜欢的几个月中献身的诗之一。他不禁增加了异想天开的感觉，因为他想象着当月的明显静止状态如何在不同的时刻传播到各个地方。最后，在写给史蒂文斯在他最后几年与之相处的年轻韩国学者和诗人彼得·李的信中，他是最直接的，因为他在反思每位诗人所拥有的特定语言。不变和连续，这是他在其中感到非常高兴的自然世界的特征。我们在这些段落中认识到的是史蒂文斯的“分明的舌头”，正如他在他的书信中和在他的诗句中一样。在1950年10月13日的另一封晚信中，史蒂文斯致伯纳德·黑灵曼（Bernard Heringman），赞赏黑灵曼对他的诗歌的读物，他写道：“拥有一些正确的读者是值得的。”L 695）。

“拥有一些合适的读者”是什么意思？史蒂文斯的来信如何思考诗人与读者之间的关系？我们怎么会听到史蒂文斯在练习...