有些诗，语言平易，却回味无穷。我喜欢这样的诗，Who’s Who就是一例。特别诗英文诗，语言太丰富就超出了欣赏范围了。

 

Who’s Who这首十四行诗的上阕平平常常。穷孩子，苦出身，凭自己的奋斗成了大牛人。学界、政界、政界这样的人都不少。她们既通宵达旦工作，也劳逸结合。当然，还有常人的弱点，为爱而泪如雨下。

 

下阕峰回路转，突然写名人的妻子，平平常常的女人，平平淡淡的生活，包括娴熟的料理家务，而且也知书达理，能给名人回些信。足以使该诗不朽的，大概只有两处，一处是名人对妻子的态度，sigh，换成long, yearn 甚至grief，都不妥，因为思念之外还有可能表达weariness或relief的意思。另处是妻子对名人的态度，kept none，对名人的信，回复如仪，但都没保存。

 

名人在sigh什么？通常的理解自然是思念，也符合中国“糟糠之妻不下堂”的古训，名人在私生活领域也是道德楷模。但想到“贵易交，富易妻”的说法，难道就没有厌倦或遗憾？甚至是不在身边的解脱？

 

妻子如何看名人？至少是相当淡漠，不然不会连信都不保存。即使不作为人手稿，毕竟也是丈夫家书，“家书抵万金”。莫非她也“陌上忽见杨柳色，悔教夫婿觅封候”？除了家务，就是休闲，也是种令现代繁忙的都市人向往的田园生活，只是日复一日，年复一年，是否也会无聊？

 

附：Who’s Who

 

Wystan Hugh Auden

 

A shilling life will give you all the facts:

How Father beat him, how he ran away,

What were the struggles of his youth, what acts

Made him the greatest figure of his day;

Of how he fought, fished, hunted, worked all night,

Though giddy, climbed new mountains; named a sea;

Some of the last researchers even write

Love made him weep his pints like you and me.

 

With all his honours on, he sighed for one

Who, say astonished critics, lived at home;

Did little jobs about the house with skill

And nothing else; could whistle; would sit still

Or potter round the garden; answered some

Of his long marvellous letters but kept none.

 

摘自Selected Readings in English Literature 3, pages184-185

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