最近和老同學的接觸有一句話是大家最常掛嘴邊的：「以前好混！」這是真的，（當然，從來都很好學的保羅要扣掉！）所以每次聽到都猛點頭。大學時候不懂事，縱使進了東海大學書庫也不會找名著讀，光是讀那些莫名奇妙的評論寫報告，不曉得腦子裡哪一區有問題？

我有一個畢業五年的學生和我有默契到眾人直呼【白目雙胞胎】，她的E-mail頁尾都會掛著一段無名詩人的佳句：

Yesterday was history,
Tomorrow, a mystery.
Today is a gift,
So it is called the present.

每次看到都還是會溫暖一下。

Yvette 不知道從哪一年開始就停止說「當初假如…..」，反正無益！年輕時，真的是三分之二的時間用來猶豫，三分之一用來後悔，想想挺無聊的！反正每一刻都要面對「明日」的神秘，每一刻都在創造「昨日」的歷史，那就來「讚此刻」吧！

一九九四年曾經看過一個印象不很深刻的電影《郵差》，神奇的是，十二年來裡頭的場景持續發酵，那就是聶魯達的神秘力量啦！可惜以前沒有那種【電影與文學】或【諾貝爾文學】之類的課可以修，否則就會早一點遇到非英非美的佳作了！

其實，教德文、法文和日文的老師有義務給我們一些簡單的、改寫過的該國大傳統的文學作品，童話也罷！(小小抱怨一下.....) 對了，胖胖的日文老師倒是教過兒歌〈七隻烏鴉〉。上一篇的三句日文對話就是胖胖的日文(婉順)老師教的！我到現在還記得她說「科壘、縮壘、阿壘」的樣子，挺逗趣的。

Okay, 來一首聶魯達的〈讚此刻〉吧！

Ode to the Present (from Odes to Opposites)

by Pablo Neruda

In this
present
that’s smooth
as a board,
that’s fresh,
in this hour
this day
that’s clean
as a new cup
--with not one
spiderweb
of the past--
we touch
the present
with fingers,
we cut it
to measure,
we direct
its bud,
it’s alive,
it lives,
it holds on nothing
irredeemable from yesterday,
from the lost past,

it’s our
creature,
it’s growing
in this
moment, it’s kicking
sand, it’s eating
from our hands,
catch it,
don’t let it trickle away,
don’t let it get lost in dreams
or words,
grasp it,
hold onto it,
put in in order
until it obeys you,
make it road,
carillion,
machinery,
make it book,
kiss, caress,

cut its delicious
fragrance of wood
and from it
make yourself a chair,
weave its back,
try it out,
or even better
a ladder!

Yes, a ladder;
rise
on the present,
rung
by rung,
feet firmly
on the wood
of the present,
climb up,
upwards!

but not too high,
only
till you can repair
the leaks
in the ceiling,
not very high,
don’t go to heaven,
just reach
the apples,
not the clouds--
let those go
through the sky,
toward the past.

You
are
your present,
your apple:
take it
from your tree,
hold it up
in your
hand,

it shines
like a star,
touch it,
sink your teeth into it and go
whistling on your way.

Translated by Ariel from Spanish

---------------
Also by Pablo Neruda

Sonnet XVII (100 Love Sonnets, 1960)

I don’t love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as certain dark things are loved,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom and carries
hidden within itself the light of those flowers,
and thanks to your love, darkly in my body
lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don’t know any other way of loving

but this, in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.


http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1971/neruda-bio.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Neruda

Yvette 很喜歡抄書，把聶魯達的詩抄到日誌裏的感覺很像修行。（對！一種「強迫症患者」的修行！）