Widely regarded as the finest poet of his generation, Seamus Heaney is the subject of numerous critical studies, but no book-length portrait has appeared before now. Through his own lively and eloquent reminiscences, "Stepping Stones "retraces the poet's steps from his first exploratory testing of the ground as an infant to what he called his "moon-walk" to the podium to receive the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. It also fascinatingly charts his post-Nobel life and is supplemented with a number of photographs, many from the Heaney family album and published here for the first time. In response to firm but subtle questioning from Dennis O'Driscoll, Heaney sheds a personal light on his work (poems, essays, translations, plays) and on the artistic and ethical challenges he faced during the dark years of the Ulster Troubles. Combining the spontaneity of animated conversation with the considered qualities of the best autobiographical writing, "Stepping Stones "provides an original, diverting, and absorbing store of reflections and recollections. Scholars and general readers alike are brought closer to the work, life, and creative development of a charismatic and lavishly gifted poet whose latest collection, "District and Circle," was awarded the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2007. ""Stepping Stones"--a conversation-style response to questions submitted over the years by Dennis O'Driscoll--is an outspoken oral work of art."--Karl Miller, "The Times Literary Supplement" ""Stepping Stones: Interviews With Seamus Heaney," poet Dennis O'Driscoll's extraordinary book, takes its title from the place in Heaney's Nobel lecture where he observes that both his writing and his life can be seen as 'a journey where each point of arrival . . . turned out to be a stepping-stone rather than a destination, ' and the emphasis on continuing process informs it from beginning to end. The book's form is that of extended interviews, conducted (largely in writing) over a period of years, in which the interviewer, O'Driscoll, defines his role as that of prompter rather than interrogator. Its purpose--in the continuing absence of any substantial biography--is to present interviews, freed from space limitations, that might come to comprise 'a comprehensive portrait of the man and his times'--and, of course, of the work itself. (Heaney's only stipulation was that he would not speak in analytic detail of any of the poems, though he does cite particular aspects of many, and to dazzling effect.) O'Driscoll calls the book 'a survey of Heaney's] life, often using the poems as reference points, ' thus providing 'a biographical context for the poems and a poetry-based account of the life.' For this reason he is right to find the result 'very much a book for readers of Heaney's] oeuvre.' But it is much, much more. Many-leveled, it is a book that rearranges itself according to the angle of the reader's questioning, and while it will surely send many readers to the poems themselves, whether for the first or the dozenth time, it has, as great autobiography must have, stand-alone value as well. Some of this value is documentary, whether detailing the nuances of Irish cultural politics during the Troubles of the late '60s, or trenchantly evoking the writers and writings that assumed a place in Heaney's development. Richly deployed, this is the stuff of cultural history, and it is inevitably central to Heaney's probing account of his formation as man and poet. What I want to stress here, however, is that the book is more than simply an account of experience; it is itself "an agency of" experience. You come away from it--at least you can: I did--moved, enlarged and deepened. "Stepping Stones" consists of three sections, the first evoking in magical detail the poet's childhood on the family farm (Mossbawn) in County Derry--'a small, ordinary, nose-to-the-grindstoney place'--and his subsequent schooling in Belfast. The long central section organizes the intertwinings of life and work through the successive collections of the poems; and the third--the briefest--brings the account up to date, describing the poet's stroke in 2006, his recovery, and his view of the world on the eve of his 70th birthday . . . This is not only a radically original book; in its own quiet way it is also a great one."--Donald Fanger, "Truthdig"" " "Popular contemporary Irish poet O'Driscoll began work on this book of interviews with Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney in September 2001. Interestingly, aside from some transcriptions in Chapters 13 and 15, these interviews were conducted in writing and through the mail. This format allowed Heaney to pick which questions to answer and to rearrange their order as he chose, and O'Driscoll sees his role as 'prompter rather than interrogator, ' giving Heaney a good deal of influence on the final book. The result is not a comprehensive biography (nor is it meant to be) but rather 'a survey of his life, using the poems as reference points.' Though Heaney has been interviewed by many others, this collection's unique method of creation makes it a worthy addition to literature collections."--Felicity D. Walsh, "Library Journal ""There is no shortage of writing by or about Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet Heaney. Yet this big book is a unique and useful addition to the Heaney canon: beginning in 2001, the Dublin-based poet, essayist and anthologist O'Driscoll entered into an extended correspondence with Heaney for the purpose of collaboratively constructing a kind of autobiography-in-interviews. The result is a collection of 16 discreet interviews, the first two of which discuss Heaney's childhood and poetic growth. Then there is one interview-chapter for each of Heaney's celebrated books (except the last two, which are grouped together), followed by a summing up. In conversation, Heaney comes across as extremely friendly, expansively intelligent and in possession of the groundedness in the details of his environ

【作者简介】

谢默斯·希尼(Seamus Heaney，1939-2013)，享誉世界的伟大诗人、剧作家、评论家、翻译家。1939年生于北爱尔兰德里郡，1961年毕业于贝尔法斯特女王大学，当过中学教师，后回母校任文学教师。二十多岁即以诗集《一位自然主义者之死》闻名诗坛。1972年和家人移居爱尔兰都柏林。曾任美国哈佛大学修辞学教授，英国牛津大学诗学教授。获艾略特诗歌奖、毛姆文学奖、史密斯文学奖等重要奖项，1995年因“其作品饱含抒情之美以及对伦理的深刻理解，凸显了日常生活的奇迹和历史的现实性”而获诺贝尔文学奖，被称为“继叶芝之后最伟大的爱尔兰诗人”。

【译者简介】

雷武铃， 诗人，译者，文学批评家。1968年生，湖南人。北京大学外语学院文学博士，现为河北大学文学院教授。出版诗集《赞颂》《蜃景》《地方》，研究专著《自我、宿命与不朽:伊克巴尔研究》，诗歌翻译《区线与环线》（希尼）、《踏脚石：希尼访谈录》等作品。另有零散诗歌、评论、翻译多篇发表。