MY JACT'S 烹 飪 課

腦力不足,思想淺薄的我素來不愛看嚴肅的經典文學,尤其是諾貝爾文學獎的作品,沉鬱,正統,中規中矩,總有無形的框架把人鎮住.我愛現代小說,形式輕盈自在,內涵依然深刻.然而,最近被納博可夫( Vladimir Nabokov)迷住了.

兒子從高雄市圖借回來Nabokov的小說 Laughter in the Dark.文字簡明流暢,我把它列為過年讀物.哪知,從年前讀到元宵才讀完.半本之後情節陡然緊張,變成page turner,剩下三十多頁,熬夜硬撐卻精神不濟讀不完.週日禮拜完回家第一件事就是把小說拚完.

都說Nabokov是文體家,果然.文字之精準簡潔意象化,無人能出其右.光是文字便能形成獨特的吸引力,遑論出奇的情節,真聰明的小說家!信手捻來都是珠玉般的描述.詩意,冷靜而不煽情.

在南法的山間健行:

The winding road had taken them to a pine grove where the creaking of  the cicadas was like the endless winding-up and whir of some clockwork toy. A stream was running over flat stones which seemed to quiver under the knot of water. They sat down on the dry sweet-smelling turf.

失去至親的深夜走在路上:

……..the snow glitter Christmas-like under the lamps, the sky  was black, and only in the distance, beyond the dark mass of roofs, in the direction of Gedachtniskirche , where the great picture -palaces were, did the blackness melt to a warm brownish blush. All at once he remembered the names of the two ladies on the divan…….

春天的早晨:

BERLIN-WEST, a morning in May.

………..Sparrows bustling about in the ivy. An electric milk van on fat tires rolling creamily. The sun dazzling in an attic window on the slope of a green-tiled roof. The young fresh air itself was not yet used to the hooting of the distant traffic; it gently took up the sounds and bore them along like something fragile and precious.

南法薄暮:

An orange-flushed cloud curled in wisps across the pale green sky, above the black mountains; lights glowed in the squatting cafes; the planes trees on the boulevard were already shrouded in darkness.

納博可夫的小說是學習英文的最佳範例.文字與內容都簡明扼要.開頭看似平凡無奇:

Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albunis. He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he loved; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster.

如同歌劇序曲般的大意.然而文學藝術的重點在於細節:

This is the whole of the story and we might have left it at that had there not been profit and pleasure in the telling; and although there is plenty of space on a gravestone to contain, bound in moss, the abridged version of a man’s life, detail is always welcome.

敘事技巧是小說的骨架.情節,文字,與內涵讓納氏的小說骨肉亭勻,丰姿動人.

執迷,不悟,跌入萬丈深淵,再難爬起.

本書為盲目做了最好的註解.