William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". His visual artistry has led one contemporary art critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced". Although he lived in London his entire life except for three years spent in Felpham he produced a diverse and symbolically rich corpus, which embraced the imagination as "the body of God", or "Human existence itself".
The Tyger alnalyze
In the first verse, the author compares the fierceness of a tiger to a burning presence in dark forests. He wonders what immortal power could create such a fearful beast.
Here the author compares the burning eyes of the tiger to some transplanted distant fire that only someone with wings could reach and only with impermeable hands could seize. The author wonders where such a powerful fire could have come from? Hell, possibly?
In this verse we have a metaphor giving us a vision a skillful and powerful blacksmith creating the tiger's beating heart awakening a powerful beast. The phrase "...twist the sinews of thy heart" is also an allusion to a hardheartedness that a beast of prey must have towards the creatures it kills.
This verse continues the allusion to a creator, who, having made the fearsome best, must confront with the sheer terror of a tiger's nature. Did the tiger's creator have to retrieve the tiger's fearsome brain from an evil, hot place?
Here the author, with beautiful rhetoric, describes a marvelous creation process likening starlight to a symbolic destructive process. The author wonders whether the creator of the fierce and predatory tiger could also make the docile, gentle lamb. He sees a conflict between the creation of heartless, burning predator and its potential victim, the lamb
The final verse is but a reprise, almost a chorus. It serves the purpose of repeating the wondrous question of the tiger's creation and gives the reader another chance to enjoy the rhetorical, and already answered question, "What immortal hand or eye?"
The answer lies in the reader's interpretation of creation: Did God create the fearsome along with the gentle? Why does He allow the tiger to burn in the dark forest, while the lamb gambols in the glen under the stars of that very creation? The author leaves it up to the reader to decide. The important thing is the question, not the answer.
Tłumaczenie:
Tygrys
Tygrys! Tygrys! Jasno płoniesz Jaką siłą i sposobem Gdy się gwiazdy skier pozbyły,
Wnocnych lasów ciemnej toni, Twego serca zwarto obieg, Łzami Niebo napoiły,
Nieśmiertelne jakież oko Aby w piersi bić poczęło? Czy uśmiechnął się do siebie?
Twą symetrię mogło począć? Jakich strasznych rąk to dzieło?
W jakiej głębi, nieb przeźroczu Jaki łańcuch? Jakie młoty Jak Baranka stworzył ciebie?
Płonął ogień twoich oczu? Twego mózgu kuły sploty? Tygrys! Tygrys! Jasno płoniesz
Jakich skrzydeł się nie lękał? Jaki kowal, w jakiej kuźni W nocnych lasów ciemnej toni,
Jaka ogień skradła ręka? Śmiał nań cęgów zewrzeć uścisk? Nieśmiertelne jakież oko
Twą symetrię śmiało począć?