Seamus Heaney's speech at the Nobel Banquet
1995年获诺贝尔文学奖得主英国诗人希尼在诺贝尔宴会上的演讲
December 10, 1995 
Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995, Seamus Heaney has been described as "the most important Irish poet since Yeats". 
 

Seamus Heaney:

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today's ceremonies and tonight's banquet have been mighty and memorable events. Nobody who has shared in them will ever forget them, but for the laureates these celebrations have had a unique importance. Each of us has participated in a ritual, a rite of passage, a public drama which has been commensurate with the inner experience of winning a Nobel Prize. The slightly incredible condition we have lived in since the news of the prizes was announced a couple of weeks ago has now been rendered credible. The mysterious powers represented by the words Nobel Foundation and Swedish Academy have manifested themselves in friendly human form. For me, it has been a great joy and a great reassurance to come to Stockholm and to meet at every turn people of such grace, such intelligence and such good will. Which is another way of saying that the whole week has not only been ceremonially impressive: it has also felt emotionally true, and it is that sense of something personally trustworthy at the centre of the great event that I finally value most, and cherish and give you thanks for. It has helped more than anything else to bring home to me the reality of the great honour I have received. Oscar Wilde once said that the only way to survive temptation was to yield to it. So here and now, I happily and gratefully yield to the temptation to believe that I am indeed the winner of a Nobel Prize. Thank you very much.
From Les Prix Nobel 1995.
 
谢默斯·希尼（SeamusHeaney，1939－）爱尔兰诗人。主要诗集有《自然主义者之死》(1966)、《引向黑暗之门》(1969)、
《外出度冬》(1972)、《北方》(1975）、《农活》(1979)和《站台》(1984)等。1995年，由于他的诗“具有抒情诗般的美和
伦理深度，使日常生活中的奇迹和活生生的往事得以升华”，希尼荣获诺贝尔文学奖。