名人教英文﹕My favourite poems

http://hk.news.yahoo.com/article/100512/4/hyrg.html


(明報)2010年5月13日 星期四 05:10

【明報專訊】在港大選修英國文學，主要因為在中學時已愛上英文詩詞，尤其是19世紀英國詩人的作品。喜愛的詩實在太多，我今日嘗試分享特別欣賞（及記得起）的部分英文詩，希望讀者也會喜歡其對愛和大自然的讚賞。在芸芸19世紀詩人中，我很喜愛兩位Brownings——Elizabeth Barrett Browning（1806-61）及Robert Browning（1812-89）。他倆經歷了多年的考驗，但對彼此的愛始終如一，至死也不變。

就從E. B. Browning的名詩Sonnets from the Portuguese中幾句便可見一斑：

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears of all my life!

And if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death."

Robert Browning在她死後，念念不忘對她的愛，1864年寫下這悲嗆詩句：

"Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be,

The last of life, for which the first was made..."

奉勸各老伴要彼此珍惜，尤其是要欣賞「幾度夕陽紅」的光景。

Appreciation（欣賞）這個字似乎在現今世界愈來愈少人懂得，但對19世紀初英年早逝的英國詩人John Keats（1795-1821）來說，懂得欣賞任何美的東西會提供無窮幸福及樂趣：

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever:

Its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothing;

But will keep a bower quiet for us,

And a sleep full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing. "

（Endymion, 1818）

因為篇幅所限，我今次只可再與大家分享大文豪William Wordsworth（1770-1850）的兩首名詩，他以簡單字句歌頌大自然，每當我在郊外及花園中漫步時，都會在心裏默念起來：

"I wandered lonely as a cloud

that floats on high o'er vales and hills,

when all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze."

"My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky:

So was it when my life began; so is it now I am a man;

So be it when I shall grow old, or let me die!

The child is father of the man; and I could wish my days

to be bound each to each by natural piety."

希望大家也喜歡以上幾首歌頌愛及大自然的詩，亦希望大家更懂得欣賞生命的真諦！

文：李麗娟
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