Poets die young--younger than novelists, playwrights and other writers, a U.S. researcher says.

　　一位美国的研究者说，诗人通常比较短命，他们的寿命比小说家、剧作家和其他类型的作家都要短。

　　It could be because poets are tortured and prone to self-destruction, or it could be that poets become famous young, so their early deaths are noticed, said James Kaufman of the Learning Research Institute at California State University.

　　加利福尼亚州立大学学习研究所的詹姆斯·考夫曼认为，其原因可能是诗人承受着巨大的痛苦并有自我毁灭的倾向，也可能是诗人往往年少成名，他们的早夭容易引起人们的注意。

　　For the report, published in the Journal of Death Studies, Kaufman studied 1,987 dead writers from various centuries from the United States, China, Turkey and Eastern Europe. He classified the writers as fiction writers, poets, playwrights, and non-fiction writers. He did not study the causes of death. "Among American, Chinese and Turkish writers, poets died significantly younger than non-fiction writers," Kaufman wrote in the report. "Among the entire sample, poets died younger than both fiction writers and non-fiction writers." Because Kaufman studied some writers who lived hundreds of years ago, it is impossible to compare their average age of death to that of the general population. "On average, poets lived 62 years, playwrights 63 years, novelists 66 years and non-fiction writers lived 68 years," Kaufman said.

　　考夫曼的报告发表在《死亡研究杂志》上，为了撰写报告，他对来自美国、中国、

土耳其和东欧的1,987名不同时代的已故作家进行了研究。考夫曼将作家们分为小说家、诗人、剧作家及非虚构作家等几个类别，但并没有分析其死亡原因。“就美国、中国和土耳其的作家而言，诗人比非虚构作家死得早得多，”考夫曼在报告中写道，“而就我研究的所有作家而言，诗人比小说家和非虚构作家都短命。”由于考夫曼研究的一些作家生活在数百年前，因此无法拿他们的平均死亡年龄与全体人口来作比较。考夫曼说：“平均下来，诗人的寿命是62年，剧作家是63年，小说家是66年，而非虚构作家则是68年。”

Kaufman has also studied poets and mental illness. "What I found was pretty consistent with the death finding actually, female poets were much more likely to suffer from mental illness (e.g., be hospotalised, commit suicide, attempt suicide) than any other kind of writers and other eminent women," he said. "I've dubbed this the 'Sylvia Plath Effect'."

　　考夫曼也对诗人和精神疾病之间的关系进行了研究，他说：“实际上，我在这方面的发现与死亡研究的结论相当一致。跟其他类型的作家和杰出女性相比，女诗人遭受精神疾病折磨(比如被送入精神病院、自杀或企图自杀)的可能性要大得多。我称这种现象为‘西尔维亚·普拉斯效应’。”

　　There could also be a more benign explanation for poets' early demise, "Poets produce twice as much of their lifetime output in their twenties as novelists do," he said. So when a budding novelist dies young, few people may notice. "A great novelist or non-fiction writer who dies at 28 may not have yet produced her or his magnum opus." Kaufman said poets should not worry, but should perhaps look after their health. "The fact that a Sylvia Plath may die young does not necessarily mean an Introduction to Poetry class should carry a warning that poems may be hazardous to one's health," he said.

　　诗人的早逝也可能有一个更为美好的解释，考夫曼说：“诗人20多岁时的著作在其毕生著作中所占的比例是小说家的两倍。”因此，没什么人能注意到渐露峥嵘的小说家过早离世的事情。“如果一位伟大的小说家或非虚构作家在28岁去世，那他或她可能还没有写出自己的代表作。”考夫曼说，诗人们用不着为此担心，不过也许该保重身体。“像西尔维亚·普拉斯这样的诗人可能英年早逝，但这并不等于我们应该在诗歌欣赏课上发出这样的警告：诗歌可能有害健康。”