（杨老师英语教学笔记12）简洁是诗歌之魂

 

10年级英语省考里面有一首诗歌，标题是《头发被剪短的男孩》：

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.

 

这首诗没有宏大叙事，没有激情澎湃，没有对仗押韵。它仅仅摘取贫寒百姓生活中一个片段，言简意赅，情感真挚催人泪下。

 

诗歌前三行先描述了都市的灯红酒绿霓虹闪烁，交代了故事的背景。接下来五行介绍了诗歌的主角---男孩。他若有所思地注视着闪烁的霓虹灯，似乎有满腔心事。再下来两行出现了另一名主角—男孩的姐姐，用廉价的剪子在为弟弟剪头发。“廉价的剪子”(cheap shears)透露了这个家庭经济背景。紧跟着的五行又回到了男孩的思绪。他还是专注着闪烁的霓虹灯。霓虹灯暗喻着都市亮丽的一面（successful neon），让穷人家的孩子好生羡慕(impressed by that precision)。下面把镜头转向姐姐：她一边剪发一边宽慰求职未果的弟弟。弟弟挤出笑容，眉头深锁(the adolescent forehead wrinkling ironic now)。姐姐把他的西装熨好，公车票也放在架子上。他和姐姐相对无言(meeting her earnest hopeless look)，明知世道之艰辛，谋生之不易，姐弟俩还要强颜欢笑，装出一副“没关系，明天会更好”的姿态。

 

岂止是“贫贱夫妻百事哀”？穷人的孩子早当家。这首诗歌对生活在都市底层的平民百姓充满悲悯之情，是难得的好诗。它让我想起了中国的《卖炭翁》，《兵车行》。

 

诗歌最后一句是点睛之作：姐姐苍白的额角蓝色的毛细血管可怜地跳动着，清晰可见(the blue vein, bright onher temple, pitifully beating.)。简洁的一句，道尽了姐姐的孱弱和操劳，为我们呈现了一副“美丽的哀愁”的画面。