《麦克白》——野心之后
English
Macbeth is the shortest of the four great tragedies, and the fastest. Where Hamlet meditates and delays, Macbeth acts — almost immediately. The play is not interested in hesitation. It is interested in what comes after the act: in what a person becomes when they have done what they knew they should not do, and in whether anything — conscience, identity, the capacity for feeling — survives the crossing of that line.
中文
《麦克白》是四大悲剧中最短、节奏最快的一部。哈姆雷特沉思并拖延，麦克白则行动——几乎是立即。这部戏对犹豫不感兴趣。它感兴趣的是行动之后的事：一个人在做了他知道自己不应该做的事之后变成了什么，以及是否有任何东西——良知、身份认同、感受的能力——在跨越那条线之后得以幸存。
The Story
故事
English
Macbeth, a Scottish general, encounters three witches who prophesy that he will become king. Encouraged by his wife, he murders King Duncan, who is his guest. He then finds that the throne does not bring security but its opposite: every potential threat becomes a target. He has his friend Banquo murdered; he sends assassins to kill Macduff’s family. Lady Macbeth, who seemed made of iron, begins to sleepwalk, unable to wash imaginary blood from her hands. She dies, apparently by suicide. Macbeth himself is killed in battle by Macduff — who was not “born of woman” in the usual sense but delivered by caesarean section, fulfilling the witches’ ambiguous prophecy.
中文
麦克白，一位苏格兰将领，遇到三位女巫，预言他将成为国王。在妻子的鼓励下，他谋杀了作为客人的邓肯国王。他发现王位带来的不是安全感，而是其对立面：每一个潜在的威胁都成了目标。他命人谋杀了朋友班柯；派刺客杀死麦克德夫的家人。麦克白夫人，这个看似由铁铸成的人，开始梦游，无法洗去想象中手上的血迹。她死了，显然是自杀。麦克白本人在战斗中被麦克德夫杀死——麦克德夫并非“从女人身上出生”的常规意义，而是剖腹产出生，从而应验了女巫模棱两可的预言。
Lady Macbeth
麦克白夫人
English
Lady Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most compelling figures, and one of the most misread. She is often presented as simply evil — the cold manipulator. But Shakespeare shows a person who deliberately suppresses everything in herself that might prevent the act — and then discovers that the suppressed parts do not stay suppressed. Her sleepwalking scene is the hinge of the play. The woman who scorned her husband’s qualms now moves through the night unable to stop washing her hands, saying things she would never say conscious. The blood that she could not see in the moment of the murder has accumulated in her mind, and she cannot wash it away.
中文
麦克白夫人是莎士比亚最令人信服的人物之一，也是最常被误读的之一。她常被呈现为简单的邪恶——冷酷的操控者。但莎士比亚展示的是一个刻意压制自己内心一切可能阻止那个行为的东西的人——然后发现被压制的东西并没有保持被压制的状态。她的梦游场景是剧情的枢纽。那个蔑视丈夫良心的女人，现在在夜间梦游，无法停止洗手，说着她清醒时绝不会说的话。那血——在谋杀当时她看不见的血——在她的心里累积，她无法洗去。
The Anatomy of Ambition
野心的解剖
English
Macbeth is often described as a play about ambition. More precisely, it is about what ambition does to a person after they act on it. Macbeth wanted to be king. He became king. Then: nothing followed that he had imagined. Security did not come. Ease did not come. Instead came fear — proliferating, self-perpetuating fear that generated more violence, which generated more fear. He could not sleep. He envied the dead their peace. He had gained the crown and lost everything the crown was for. This insight — that obtaining what you want through means that make wanting it worthless — is recognizable across cultures and eras.
中文
《麦克白》常被描述为一部关于野心的戏剧。更准确地说，是关于野心在人付诸行动之后对人做了什么。麦克白想成为国王。他成为了国王。然后：他想象中会随之而来的一切都没有随之而来。安全感没有来。轻松自在没有来。取而代之的是恐惧——增殖的、自我延续的恐惧，产生更多的暴力，从而产生更多的恐惧。他无法入睡。他羡慕死者的平静。他获得了王冠，失去了王冠所为之存在的一切。这一洞见——通过使欲望变得毫无价值的方式获得了自己想要的东西——在每种文化和每个时代都是可以辨认的。
Closing the Four Tragedies
四部悲剧的终篇
English
Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth: one person, six years, four complete worlds. Hamlet asks why a person cannot act on what they know. Othello asks how trust is destroyed. King Lear asks what remains when everything is stripped away. Macbeth asks what a person becomes after crossing the line they should not cross. Taken together, they constitute an examination of the conditions under which human beings fail themselves and each other — not through weakness alone, but through the very qualities that make them significant: intelligence, love, authority, capability, ambition. The capacities that make people great are not separable from the capacities that destroy them. This is not pessimism; it is precision.
中文
哈姆雷特、奥赛罗、李尔王、麦克白：一个人，六年，四个完整的世界。哈姆雷特追问为什么一个人无法对自己所知晓的事付诸行动。奥赛罗追问信任如何被摧毁。李尔王追问当一切都被剥夺后什么留了下来。麦克白追问一个人在跨越了不应跨越的那条线之后变成了什么。合而观之，它们构成了对人类辜负自己和彼此的条件的审视——不仅仅通过软弱，而是通过使他们重要的那些品质本身：智识、爱、权威、能力、野心。使人伟大的能力与摧毁他们的能力是不可分割的。这不是悲观主义；这是精确。