中诗西诗,诗是余家事:余光中诗话初探

A Preliminary Study of the Poetry-talks of Yu Guangzhong

余光中诗文双璧,其"文"包括抒情、记游诸种散文和文学评论。其文学评论文集己出版者有《分水岭上》、《从徐霞客到梵谷》等五书,其中有很多诗论诗评的专篇。诗为余家事,余光中在其抒情、叙事、记游、说艺的散文中,其谈诗艺、谈诗人、谈诗事的零散片段,或一笔带过,或三言两语,或字数上千,则大可摘录编辑成册,名为《余光中诗话》。本文以2005年出版的余氏散文集《青铜一梦》为对象,抽取其谈诗的话语,加以分析论述,是为《余光中诗话初》。这些诗话——如谓徐志摩读错济慈的诗,如自言喜爱披头四、不亲现代诗,又说易安是藕神、痖弦似火山,又认为苏格兰五镑钞票上诗人彭斯的半身像及其诗句是他"英诗班上最美丽的教材"——是他论诗评诗专篇的延伸、补充和变奏,和他的诗论诗评专篇一样辞理俱胜,且比其专篇更有个性、更有趣味、更与诗歌之外的其它文艺相涉。这些诗话,是他生活中"游于艺"时所观所赏所联想的纪录,笔下常有感性知性兼具的烘托点染,其一则则书写无异于一篇篇诗学小品,本身即具有修辞谋篇的观赏价值。中国自宋代以来有大量的诗话,《余光中诗话》延续了中国诗话的传统;他更以其广阔的视野、以其写景抒情叙事说理兼擅的彩笔,为这个传统加添了内容和姿色。由于他的诗话兼及中诗西诗,以后研究与他相类的中国现代诗话的学者,就也得兼顾中诗西诗了。

In addition to being a poet, an essayist and a translator with exceptional achievements, Yu Guangzhong is also a distinguished literary critic. Yu has penned a great number of articles in criticism. In his familiar or lyrical essays, Yu has often included passages long or short about poets, the poetic art and other matters concerning poetry. Gathered together, these passages might be called ＂Poetry-talks （shihua） of Yu Guangzhong.＂ This present article is a preliminary study on the poetry-talks of Yu Guangzhong drawing, as samplings, passages from A Bronze Dream （Qingtong yi meng ~j~/^--~）, a collection of lyrical essays published in 2005. In the passages quoted and analyzed, Yu talks, for instances, about the modern Chinese poet Xu Zhimo＇s errors in reading poems by John Keats, about his enjoying the songs of The Beatles while distancing himself from many of the modernist poems, about his depicting the female ci-poet Li Qingzhao as Goddess of the Lotus and the poet Ya Xian as volcanic, and about his praising the Scottish bank-note with picture of the poet Robert Burns and his lines as ＂ the most beautiful teaching material in my class of English poetry. ＂ These passages show the poet-essayist-critic＇s life-long interest and concern about poetry, his wide-learning, his humor and his colorful writing style; they are remarkable variations of and addition to his formal literary criticism. There is a huge wealth of poetry-talk writings since the Song Dynasty in China. Characterized by the width of East-west comparative vision, the diversified and lively ways of presentation, etc., the modern poetry-talks of Yu Guangzhong is a highly valuable development of the Chinese poetry-talk tradition.