叶慈(1865～1939年)
Yeats, William Butler
爱尔兰诗人、剧作家、散文家。父亲为肖像画家。早年时代大部分在斯莱戈度过。该地的风光、民间故事和神奇的传说，似乎影响了叶慈的作品，并构成他的许多诗歌的背景。早期的作品包括诗集《奥辛游历记及其他》（1889）和散文集《塞尔特的曙光》（1893）。1889年，叶慈爱上了才气横溢、美丽的爱尔兰爱国主义者冈妮。她鼓励叶慈参加爱尔兰民族主义运动，但并不爱他。他与格列哥里夫人及其他人一道创办阿比剧院。叶慈去世前一直是该剧院的导演。他提供了他自己的剧作。其中许多成为剧院的保留剧目，有《凯瑟琳伯爵夫人》、《在贝尔海滩上》（1905）和《黛特》（1907）。1909～1914年，他的诗发生了决定性的变化。早期抒情诗中超俗、迷幻的气氛消失了，而是诗日趋精炼和成熟、比喻更少却更能产生共鸣，同时也表现出他面对现实及其缺陷的一种新的坦率态度。《责任》（1914）和《库尔的野天鹅》（1917）的发表，使他的成就达到顶峰，叶慈的优秀诗作，收入《钟楼》（1928）、《盘旋的楼梯》（1929）及《最後的诗》（1939）中。散文着作《幻景》（1925）中，叶慈阐述了他自己的哲学。1922～1928年为爱尔兰参议院议员。1923年获诺贝尔文学奖。为20世纪最伟大的英语诗人之一。
English version：
1865～1939年
Yeats, William Butler
Irish poet, dramatist, and prose writer. The son of a well-known painter, Yeats early developed an interest in mysticism and visionary traditions as well as in Irish peasant folklore, and both interests would continue to be sources of poetic imagery for him. His early volumes include the poetry volume The Wanderings of Oisin (1889) and the essay collection The Celtic Twilight (1893). In 1889 he fell in love with Maud Gonne, a brilliant, beautiful Irish patriot who inspired his involvement in Irish nationalism but did not reciprocate his feelings. With Lady Augusta Gregory and others, he founded the theater that became the Abbey Theatre; throughout his life he would remain one of its directors. He contributed plays to its repertoire, including The Countess Cathleen (1899), On Baile's Strand (1905), and Deirdre (1907). His poetry changed decisively in the years 1909-14: the otherworldly, ecstatic atmosphere of the early lyrics cleared and his work gained in concreteness and complexity, often dealing with political themes, though his interest in mysticism and his passion for Maud Gonne continued unabated. With Responsibilities (1914) and The Wild Swans at Coole (1917) he began the period of his highest achievement. Some of his greatest verse appears in The Tower (1928), The Winding Stair (1929), and Last Poems (1939), whose individual poems are largely held together by the system of symbolism he developed in A Vision (1925), which used astrological images to link individual psychology with the larger patterns of history. He was a member of the Irish Senate 1922-28. He won the Nobel Prize in 1923, and he is regarded by some as the greatest English-language poet of the 20th century.