泰德·休斯

埃德华·詹姆斯·休斯，OM（Edward James Hughes，1930年8月17日—1998年10月28日），常称特德·休斯（Ted Hughes），是英国诗人和儿童文学作家。有人认为他是同代人中最好的诗人。1984年被授予英国桂冠诗人称号。他与美国著名女诗人西尔维亚·普拉斯的婚姻，以西尔维亚·普拉斯的自杀结束，而他销毁了妻子的最后三年日记。

生于西约克郡一商人家庭。

Edward James Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1984 and held the office until his death. In 2008, The Times ranked Hughes fourth on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

Hughes married fellow poet, American Sylvia Plath, in 1956. They lived together in the United States and then in England, in a tumultuous relationship. They had two children before separating in 1962. Plath died by suicide in 1963.

Biography

Early life

Hughes was born at 1 Aspinall Street, in Mytholmroyd in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to William Henry (1894–1981) and Edith (née Farrar) Hughes (1898–1969). He was raised among the local farms of the Calder Valley and on the Pennine moorland. The third child, Hughes had a brother Gerald (1920–2016), who was ten years older. Next came their sister Olwyn Marguerite Hughes (1928–2016), who was two years older than Ted.

One of their mother's ancestors, Nicholas Ferrar, had founded the Little Gidding community. Most of the more recent generations of the family had worked in the clothing and milling industries in the area.

Hughes's father, William, a joiner, was of Irish descent. He had enlisted with the Lancashire Fusiliers in the First World War and fought at Ypres. He narrowly escaped being killed; he was saved when a bullet hit him but lodged in a pay book in his breast pocket. He was one of just 17 men of his regiment to return from the Dardanelles Campaign (1915–16).

The stories of Flanders fields filled Hughes's childhood imagination (later described in the poem "Out"). Hughes noted, "my first six years shaped everything".

Hughes loved hunting and fishing, swimming, and picnicking with his family. He attended the Burnley Road School until he was seven. After his family moved to Mexborough, he attended Schofield Street Junior School. His parents ran a newsagent's and tobacconist's shop in the town.

In Poetry in Making, Hughes recalled that he was fascinated by animals, collecting, and drawing toy lead creatures. He acted as retriever when his elder brother gamekeeper shot magpies, owls, rats, and curlews. He grew up amid the harsh realities of working farms in the valleys and on the moors.

During his time in Mexborough, he explored Manor Farm at Old Denaby. He later said that he came to know it "better than any place on earth". His earliest poem "The Thought Fox", and earliest story "The Rain Horse", were recollections of the area. At the age of about 13 a friend, John Wholey, took Hughes to his home at Crookhill Lodge, on the Crookhill estate above Conisbrough. There the boys could fish and shoot. Hughes became close to the Wholey family and learnt a lot about wildlife from Wholey's father, the head gardener and gamekeeper on the estate. Hughes came to view fishing as an almost religious experience.

Hughes attended Mexborough Secondary School (later Grammar School), where a succession of teachers encouraged him to write, and develop his interest in poetry. Teachers Miss McLeod and Pauline Mayne introduced him to the poets Gerard Manley Hopkins and T.S. Eliot. Hughes was also mentored by teacher John Fisher, and his own sister Olwyn, who was well versed in poetry. Future poet Harold Massingham also attended this school and was mentored by Fisher. In 1946, one of Hughes's early poems, "Wild West", and a short story were published in the grammar school magazine The Don and Dearne. He published further poems in 1948. By 16, he had no other thought than being a poet.