（楊老師英語教學筆記12）簡潔是詩歌之魂

 

10年級英語省考裏麵有一首詩歌，標題是《頭發被剪短的男孩》：

Boy with His Hair Cut Short

by Muriel Rukeyser

 

Sunday shuts down on this twentieth-century evening.

The L1 passes. Twilight and bulb define

the brown room, the overstuffed plum sofa,

the boy, and the girl’s thin hands above his head.

A neighbour’s radio sings stocks, news, serenade.

He sits at the table, head down, the young clear neck exposed,

watching the drugstore sign from the tail of his eye;

tattoo, neon, until the eye blears, while his

solicitous2 tall sister, simple in blue, bending

behind him, cuts his hair with her cheap shears.

The arrow’s electric red always reaches its mark,

successful neon! He coughs, impressed by that precision.

His child’s forehead, forever protected by his cap,

is bleached against the lamplight as he turns head

and steadies to let the snippets drop.

Erasing the failure of weeks with level fingers,

she sleeks the fine hair, combing: “You’ll look fine tomorrow!

You’ll surely find something, they can’t keep turning you down;

the finest gentleman’s not so trim as you!” Smiling, he raises

the adolescent forehead wrinkling ironic now.

He sees his decent suit laid out, new-pressed,

his carfare on the shelf. He lets his head fall, meeting

her earnest hopeless look, seeing the sharp blades splitting,

the darkened room, the impersonal sign, her motion,

the blue vein, bright on her temple, pitifully beating.

 

這首詩沒有宏大敘事，沒有激情澎湃，沒有對仗押韻。它僅僅摘取貧寒百姓生活中一個片段，言簡意賅，情感真摯催人淚下。

 

詩歌前三行先描述了都市的燈紅酒綠霓虹閃爍，交代了故事的背景。接下來五行介紹了詩歌的主角---男孩。他若有所思地注視著閃爍的霓虹燈，似乎有滿腔心事。再下來兩行出現了另一名主角—男孩的姐姐，用廉價的剪子在為弟弟剪頭發。“廉價的剪子”(cheap shears)透露了這個家庭經濟背景。緊跟著的五行又回到了男孩的思緒。他還是專注著閃爍的霓虹燈。霓虹燈暗喻著都市亮麗的一麵（successful neon），讓窮人家的孩子好生羨慕(impressed by that precision)。下麵把鏡頭轉向姐姐：她一邊剪發一邊寬慰求職未果的弟弟。弟弟擠出笑容，眉頭深鎖(the adolescent forehead wrinkling ironic now)。姐姐把他的西裝熨好，公車票也放在架子上。他和姐姐相對無言(meeting her earnest hopeless look)，明知世道之艱辛，謀生之不易，姐弟倆還要強顏歡笑，裝出一副“沒關係，明天會更好”的姿態。

 

豈止是“貧賤夫妻百事哀”？窮人的孩子早當家。這首詩歌對生活在都市底層的平民百姓充滿悲憫之情，是難得的好詩。它讓我想起了中國的《賣炭翁》，《兵車行》。

 

詩歌最後一句是點睛之作：姐姐蒼白的額角藍色的毛細血管可憐地跳動著，清晰可見(the blue vein, bright onher temple, pitifully beating.)。簡潔的一句，道盡了姐姐的孱弱和操勞，為我們呈現了一副“美麗的哀愁”的畫麵。