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Ann Beattie

Ann Beattie (1947~),出生於美國華盛頓D.C.1972年,她在The Western Humanities Review,發表第一篇短篇小說"A Rose for Judy Garland's Casket"1973年於The Atlantic Monthly發表第二個短篇並獲得該刊年度一等獎。1974年起於英語世界短篇小說重鎮The New Yorker陸續發表作品,被譽為“新一代唯一的名作家”、“是當今美國小說界最值得慶賀的聲音”,其聲譽主要來自短篇小說。Ann Beattie以通俗易懂,活潑流暢的語言,新穎、簡約、冷靜、獨具一格的寫作風格,加上靈巧的反諷筆法,深刻反映1980年代之思緒氛圍,評者甚至稱1980年代為Ann Beattie的年代。當時,其文名鼎盛到家喻戶曉的程度,唯少數幾位作家如Norman MailerSusan SontagJoan Didion堪比擬。迄今Ann Beattie共計出版9本短篇小說集和8本長篇小說。獲頒Rea短篇小說獎PEN/Malamud2004年榮膺美國藝術與人文學院院士

 

I remember the cold night you brought in a pile of logs and a chipmunk1 jumped off as you lowered your arms. "What do you think you're doing in here?" you said, as it ran through the living room. It went through the library and stopped at the front door as though it knew the house well. This would be difficult for anyone to believe, except perhaps as the subject of a poem2. Our first week in the house was spent scraping3, finding some of the house's secrets, like wallpaper underneath wallpaper. In the kitchen, a pattern of white-gold trellises4 supported purple grapes as big and round as ping-pong balls. When we painted the walls yellow, I thought of the bits of grape that remained underneath and imagined the vine popping through, the way some plants can tenaciously push through anything.5 The day of the big snow, when you had to shovel the walk and couldn't find your cap and asked me how to wind a towel so that it would stay on your head6you, in the white towel turban, like a crazy king of snow. People liked the idea of our being together, leaving the city for the country. So many people visited, and the fireplace made all of them want to tell amazing stories7: the child who happened to be standing on the right corner when the door of the ice cream truck came open and hundreds of popsicles crashed out8; the man standing on the beach, sand sparkling in the sun, one bit glinting more than the rest, stooping to find a diamond ring9. Did they talk about amazing things because they thought we'd turn into one of them? Now I think they probably guessed it wouldn't work.10 It was as hopeless as giving a child a matched cup and saucer. Remember the night out on the lawn, knee deep in snow, chins pointed at the sky as the wind whirled down all that whiteness? It seemed that the world had been turned upside down, and we were looking into an enormous field of Queen Anne's lace11. Later, headlights off, our car was the first to ride through the newly fallen snow. The world outside the car looked solarized. 12


1.    chipmunk花栗鼠。

很明顯地花栗鼠在這篇故事中是一個象徵(symbol)。故事開頭敘事者之前男友抱一堆木頭進入屋子,他手放下時,一隻花栗鼠從木頭堆裡跑出來,經過起居室及圖書室,在前門口停下來,彷彿它很熟悉這屋子(所以不加思索就知道門在哪裡)。男友當下說道:「你在這裡幹什麼?」這一句話中you指那花栗鼠

2.   這則軼事任何人將難以相信,或許除非當作一首詩的題材。這事為何難以相信?難道因為過往戀情早已雲消煙散,不過這故事確實敘述得像一首散文詩。

3.    他們住進這屋子的第一個禮拜都在除舊佈新scrape是指將某物刮掉。

在清理的同時他們也發掘這屋子的一些秘密,像壁紙底下的壁紙。這一句是個明喻(simile)

4.    trellis是栽植爬藤植物的棚架例如豆棚瓜架)。

這裡應當指廚房的壁紙是白金色的棚架圖案棚架上生長著大而圓如乒乓球的紫色葡萄

5.    他們將牆漆成黃色敘事者想起漆底下那一顆顆葡萄,想像著葡萄藤從底下冒出來,如同某些植物能堅毅不撓地突破困境抽芽生長。

6.   大雪那天,男友在鏟除走道上的積雪,找不到帽子,叫她將浴巾纏綁在他頭上。綁著白色纏頭巾的他就像個怪妙的雪域君王。這也是句明喻

7.   他們捨棄城市生活,鄉居廝守。人們覺得這主意不錯,頗浪漫的。來訪的朋友很多,屋子裡的壁爐讓這些訪客愈感溫馨浪漫,在這裡氣氛下最適合講一些美妙的故事。

8.    當載運冰淇淋的貨車車門打開時,一位小孩正好站在車門右邊,數以百計的冰棒從車廂裡衝出來

9.    有個人站在沙灘上,沙在陽光下閃爍,其中一粒特別光耀,他彎下身發現是一枚鑽戒

10. 他們當初說著這些美妙的故事,是因為他們認為敘事者與其男友也將會如此美好嗎?現在他們應當猜到事情無法盡如人意。

11.  野胡蘿蔔花 (Queen Anne's lace) 是一種很多小花組合成的傘形花科植物,是一種在北美常見的夏季野花。它的英文名字來自於它的形狀很像蕾絲。雖然它只是路旁小野花,很多飾品設計師還是很欣賞它,並且把這浪漫的形狀加入到設計裡。之所以叫安妮女王的蕾絲,是因為它散開的花幅酷似蕾絲,而中間那一點紅色花朵(實際上是用來吸引昆蟲的)據說是安妮女王在做蕾絲時被針尖刺破手指滴在上面的一滴血。

12. solarized (攝影)過度曝光。


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You remember it differently. You remember that the cold settled in stages13, that small curve of light was shaved from the moon night after night, until you were no longer surprised the sky was black, that the chipmunk ran to hide in the dark, not simply to a door that led to its escape. Our visitors told the same stories people always tell. One night, giving me a lesson in storytelling, you said, "Any life will seem dramatic if you omit mention of most of it." 14

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This, then, for drama: I drove back to that house not long ago. It was April, and Allen had died. In spite of all the visitors, Allen, next door, had been the good friend in bad times. I sat with his wife in their living room, looking out the glass doors to the backyard, and there was Allen's pool, still covered with black plastic that had been stretched across it for winter. It had rained, and as the rain fell, the cover collected more and more water until it finally spilled onto the concrete. When I left that day, I drove past what had been our house. Three or four crocuses were blooming in the frontjust a few dots of white, no field of snow. I felt embarrassed for them. They couldn't compete. 15

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This is a story, told the way you say stories should be told: Somebody grew up, fell in love, and spent a winter with her lover in the country. This, of course, is the barest outline, and futile to discuss16. It's as pointless as throwing birdseed on the ground while snow still falls fast. Who expects small things to survive when even the largest get lost17? People forget years and remember moments. Seconds and symbols are left to sum things up18: the black shroud over the pool. Love, in its shortest form, becomes a word19. What I remember about all that time is one winter. The snow. Even now, saying "snow," my lips move so that they kiss the air.

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No mention has been made of the snowplow that seemed always to be there, scraping snow off our narrow roadan artery cleared, though neither of us could have said where the heart was. 20


13. in stagesa little bit at a time. 男友記憶裡那寒冷乃是一點一滴形成的。

14. 有一晚男友對敘事者闡述他對故事寫作的看法,他認為任何的生命故事若將大部份的情節省略不提,那麼就會顯出其戲劇性。

參照後文,男友的這個說法不僅與敘事者對於生命的感受不同,而且敘事者對於故事寫作的理論也大異其趣。

15. 番紅花(Crocus)或稱藏紅花、西紅花,是一種鳶尾科番紅花屬的多年生花卉,也是一種常見的香料。若以重量衡量,番紅花是世界上最昂貴的香料。

前面提到生命將大部分省略掉後就會顯現其戲劇性。敘事者說好吧,這兒就來談生命的戲劇性。

不久之前敘事者回到那房子。住在隔壁Allen去世了,他是他們困難時候的好朋友。敘事者去悼問其遺孀,當她離去時,開車經過以前那棟房子,門前三四株番紅花盛開敘事者替番紅花感到難為情,因為番紅花是爭不過的

番紅花爭不過什麼東西?明顯地,這裡應當指爭不過They (crocuses) couldn't compete with the snow.

16. 若按照男友的說法,故事簡約成某人長大、戀愛、與情人在鄉下過冬。只剩下最根本的大綱,那還有什麼好討論的。

17. 上述的簡約方法就像在大雪兀自紛飛之際朝地面灑鳥飼料,毫無意義。甚至連大部分的事物都遺失了,誰還期待枝節細微猶能餘存。

18. 人們遺忘漫長歲月卻記取生命片刻。留下剎那與象徵將故事總結

在這段話之後,作者用冒號提引一個象徵:覆蓋水池的黑色塑膠。shroud表面上指覆蓋物,但這字也有死者所穿之壽衣的意思。

19. 愛以其最簡短的形式就變成了一個空洞的字

20. 前面所沒提到的是掃雪(snowplow),這裡常下雪,他們也經常要掃雪或鏟雪。雪鏟掉之後,清出一條通道,通道是清出來了,但到哪裡尋找心的蹤跡,他們誰也說不上來。


【淺嚐賞味】

歲月悠悠過往終歸遺忘,能夠記取的唯有一些觸動心靈的片刻。是窗前歌唱又忽然飛去的夏日漂鳥,或在地鐵站閃現的臉龐,縱似雪泥偶然烙下的鴻爪,也必自有其鮮明的意象,力能喚回消逝的心境與情懷,重構拼湊生命軌跡的圖景。

這篇故事以極其簡短的篇幅卻傳達如此悠綿的情思與豐饒的意境,主要是運用英詩中的象徵技法,包括象徵(symbol)、意象(image)、明喻(simile)、隱喻(metaphor)然其成功處卻在於細節的鮮活描寫。例如篇首雪夜裡男友抱一堆木頭進入屋子,一隻花栗鼠竄跑出來。立即渲染一幅溫馨愉悅的情景。接著敘事者回憶他們發掘屋子的秘密如壁紙底下的壁紙,顯現兩人世界新生活的新奇與逸趣。而男友纏著白色頭巾於雪天中鏟清積雪,像個怪妙的雪域君王,連日常活動中都充滿快樂與幻想(葡萄藤從漆牆底下抽芽冒出,亦為精彩的奇幻想像)。諸多賓友來訪,圍著壁爐述說著奇妙的故事:一位小孩巧遇數以百計的冰棒向他湧過來;一個人在日照的沙灘不期然發現一枚鑽戒。這些故事更為溫暖歡樂的場景增添驚異奇妙的色彩。又例如這段描述:夜裡兩人站在草坪,雪深及膝,仰望滿天白茫茫飄落,猶若遍灑天地間的“安妮女王蕾絲”,仿若神仙情侶與世隔絕的生活中多麼浪漫又綺麗的回憶情景。

這故事中有一些感傷的筆觸,但寫來卻別具韻味。好友們圍爐講述奇妙的故事,想是希望他們也能過著同樣神奇美妙的生活,然而「人有悲歡離合,月有陰晴圓缺,此事古難全」,這裡有著今昔對照下的感觸與某種程度的釋懷。敘事者悼問Allen遺孀後,開車經過昔日舊居,門前三四株番紅花盛開。紫色典雅的番紅花盛開,本當是件賞心悅目的樂事,但在此時看來別有一番傷懷。敘事者緊接著寫道:唯見點點殘白,不復雪白遍野。顯然是在與以前甜蜜生活那時鋪天蓋地的潔白雪景相比較。敘事者替番紅花感到難為情,番紅花雖然如此美麗,卻完全無法與她心目中那如詩畫如童話般的雪景相比擬。故事結尾敘事者提及經常性的鏟雪活動,雪鏟除了,通道清出來了,但是要到哪裡去找尋往昔的那顆心,他們誰也說不上來。故事敘述雖已結束,而餘韻猶繞樑縈迴不去。

如前所述,這篇故事大量運用象徵技法。淺白來說,所謂象徵與譬喻就是某物透過某關聯來表現他物。我們追求知識的習慣性訓練是找出問題,然後尋求解答,類似X=A Y=B。若以此種思維欣賞藝術或文學作品,或許得到自以為的答案,但那將會是多麼枯燥而索然無味。舉例來說,雪在這篇故事中是非常重要的象徵,那麼雪象徵著什麼?答案:1.純粹與潔淨,2.寧靜與安詳,3.遺忘與消逝,4. 冬蟄與孵育,5. 綺麗與迷離,6.------。這些答案可能都沾得上邊,卻又不盡然。也許我們應當捨棄確切的答案,只問在閱讀當中,雪這個意象在我們心中喚起什麼樣的聯想與感受,再用這些多樣的聯想與感受去融會貫通故事的意涵,我們從這樣的解讀當中興許會得到更多的感動。同樣的,花栗鼠、葡萄、壁爐、野胡蘿蔔花、番紅花甚至鋪蓋水池的黑色塑膠布亦可作如是觀。

另外,這也是一篇討論故事寫作的故事。作者透過敘事者此人物闡述她對於故事寫作的看法,同時也傳達她對於生命的一些看法。1960代,Ernest HemingwayRaymond Carver的作品對Ann Beattie產生相當程度的啟發與影響。70年代Ann Beattie寫作初期,評者多將她歸類為極簡派作家。作者在此篇故事駁斥所謂簡約乃是將大部分的情節省略不提,若只剩下最根本的大綱,那還有什麼故事性可言。同樣地,人生若徒存大綱式的記述,例如出生、成長、畢業、就業、戀愛、結婚、生子如此一般,那麼生命還有什麼精彩可言。故事敘述的靈魂在於剎那與象徵,那些觸動心靈的片刻才能夠彰顯、傳達生命的神奇與美妙。大師級小說家John Updike1974年初遇Ann Beattie,即稱許她懂得如何撰寫完全不同風格的故事,洵然一語中的。

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