2015 10 23
秋日的早晨,呆坐在沙發上,望著窗外白花花的陽光.隨手拿起擺在几上好久的SHORT AND SWEET 101 very short poems,封面上積著薄薄一層沙.最近小說讀不下,這冊子裡的詩,倒是津津有味.簡短有趣易懂.生活中,確實需要有詩的時刻.字短情意深.
The Ideal
This is where I came from.
I passed this way.
This should not be shameful
Or hard to say.
A self is a self.
It is not a screen.
A person should respect
What he has been.
This is my past
Which I shall not discard.
This is the ideal.
This is hard.
如此簡單.如此困難.被理解了.想哭.
讀了詩集的封底.編輯者Simon Armitage和我同年.他也寫了一本自傳性的書All Points North.啊,多年前我還不識他的時候,貼過關於Armitage及這書的剪報.Hello mate ,nice to meet you again.
奇怪,放在客廳小几上的多是詩集.百無聊賴,拿起了厚厚的艾略特全集.翻到了大學時讀過的The Waste Land.一行行毫無滯礙的讀下去.啊,真好的詩.咦,大學時感覺難如登天,這會兒怎麼都懂了?我的智慧開得可真晚.也許當時大家都說艾略特典故多,晦澀難懂,帶著偏見,也就讀不下.或許此時人生閱歷已增,縱然未能全瞭其意,意象之美體驗無礙.
2015 10 28
秋光燦燦.晨起,接續著讀The Waste Land. II A Game of Chess 我細細咀嚼,查了幾個生字,閱讀當中有一種解謎的快感.即便不完全懂,也有朦朧的體會.好豐富的字彙,意象與意義.打開香水那一段,說的真好:
In vials of ivory and coloured glass
Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes,
Unguent, powdered, or liquid---troubled, confused
And drowned the sense in odours; stirred by the air
That freshened from the window, these ascended
In fattening the prolonged candle-flames,
Flung their smoke into the laquearia,
Stirring the pattern on the coffered ceiling.
後來,變成像戲劇一樣的對話.簡直像劇情片般有趣,不自禁追著讀.
2015 12 10
靜靜的夜晚,捧讀擱下已久的荒原.III. The Fire Sermon 越讀越晦澀.長長的段落,半明半霧,然文字,節奏一逕地吸引人.而且,泰晤士河, the Strand, Richmond, Kew ,Moorgate,我全都了然於心,倫敦的記憶永誌不滅.IV. Death by Water短短幾行.斐尼基人.啊,以前老師解釋過.此刻完全不記得了.不管.照我自己的認知讀下去.縱然不解深意,隱隱約約,隔一層薄紗也很好.V. What the Thunder said 鏗鏘,反覆.乾凅,渴水的意象那樣明顯.我真喜愛這一闕.再長也津津有味!簡明大器有力.吟誦起來,震懾人心.
……………………………………………..
Here is no water but only rock
Rock and no water and the sandy road
The road winding above among the mountains
Which are mountains of rock without water
If there were water we should stop and drink
Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think
Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand
If there were only water amonst the rock
Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit
Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit
There is not even silence in the mountains
But red sullen faces sneer and snarl
From doors of mudcracked house
If there were water
And no rock
If there were rock
And also water
And water
A spring
A pool among the rock
If there were the sound of water only
Not the cicada
And dry grass singing
But sound of water over a rock
Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees
Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop
But there is not water
………………………………………………………………..
終於,雷打下來了.
不管懂幾分,我徹底享受了一場文字盛宴.
夜已深.沒想到,讀詩也能和讀小說一樣,渾然不知時光之飛逝.
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2015 12 15
101 Happy Poems的編者 Wendy Cope在序言裡引用Gavin Ewart的話: Happiness is the one emotion a poem can’t capture.快樂難以成詩.如同托爾斯泰的名句:幸福的家庭都一樣,不幸的家庭各有故事.快樂扁平.苦痛立體.
……………….quite a few of the poems arose from despair and misery. Life can seem so terrible that the only possible response is laughter. “Happiness,” says Bishop Whately in his Apohthegms, is “no laughing matter”.
Wendy Cope是個可愛的愛詩者.她說,編輯是好差事,人家付錢請你閱讀.編完霎時悵然若失.我曾在電視上看過她.在逍遙音樂節裡朗誦布萊頓的青少年管弦樂團.真好的吟誦.
Heaven on Earth:101 Happy Poems,最後一首,歡欣無比:
Psalm 150
O praise God in his holiness: praise
him in the firmament of his power.
Praise him in his noble acts:
Praise him according to his excellent greatness.
Praise him in the sound of the trumpet:
Praise him upon the lute and harp.
Praise him in the cymbals and dances:
Praise him upon the strings and pipe.
Praise him upon the well-tuned cymbals:
Praise him upon the loud cymbals.
Let every thing that hath breath:praise the Lord.
Cymbal出現三次.有漸強的意味.
我真傻,以為是現代創作.原來真是聖經裡詩篇第150首
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