2022-8-25

一本旧书，《英文爱情诗选》的小册子，是1902年纽约道奇出版社首版发行的，每页都以彩色信笺的方式，汇集了古今英文爱情短诗一百零八篇。

让我想起清末盛行一时的秋水轩尺牍来，可以让普天下小学都没有毕业的老光棍采花贼们，或借花献佛，或比葫芦画瓢，一时间妙笔生花，文采飞扬起来：

• 弟向获缔交于季方，因得闻元方之贤，思一见为快。昨于会城邂逅遇之，觉大兄之才华器宇，更有胜于所闻者。正恨相见之晚，不期越宿分襟，又恨相违之速矣。

布嵴硬皮的封面，花簇锦绣的每一篇，这是在那个时代，一百二十年前，所能印制的，最为精致的一本书，没有之一。

开首第一篇，即是蒋怀特（John Whittier，1807-1892）的《我思故我在》（Beacuse, You See, I Love You）:

我思故我在

I’m sorry that I spelt the word:

   I hate to go above you,

Because, the brown eyes lower fell,

   Because, you see, I love you!

开口怕嘴笨

语言最伤身

我思故我在

闭目忆佳人

这一首小诗，节选自蒋怀特长诗《同桌的你》（In School-days）。当初钱钟书围城小说中的王尔恺手抄的苏文执旧作，也大概是一样的意思：从此无法开门，你关在我心里。

• 难道我监禁你？还是你霸占我？你闯进我的心，关上门又扭上锁。丢了锁上的钥匙，是我，也许是你自己。从此无法开门，永远，你关在我心里。

这是一个凄美的爱情故事，也是梁祝故事在西方的翻版：一位白发苍苍行将就木的老人，在40多年后拖着病躯，到学校门口，去回忆和祭奠他儿时的旧爱，和当初相识时的甜美时光。

不仅仅如此，这首小诗的背后，还有女权主义的阴影，所以才感人至深。因为作者本人，就是一个女权和废奴主义者。

• The poem In School-days was written in 1869 and Whittier may have drawn a bit on his own experience as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse. The poem was praised by the public as well as by other poets with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow commenting：There is something more in education than is set down in the school-books. Whittier has touched this point very poetically in that little lyric of his. 

• Oliver Wendell Holmes said of the poem in a letter to Whittier, ...I had no sooner read them [the lines] that I fell into such ecstasy that I could hardly find words too high-colored to speak of them to my little household. I hardly think I dared read them aloud. My eyes fill with tears just looking at them in my scrapbook, now, while I am writing.