“水葬”与“悬棺”:一个在水中,一个在天上——《水葬》与《悬棺》对比阅读

Water Burial and Cliff Coffin: One in the Water and the Other in the Heaven——Contrast between Water Burial and Cliff Coffin

蹇先艾的《水葬》跟肖江虹的《悬棺》创作于不同的时代,前后相差八九十年。但是,通过对比阅读,我们发现,在他们各自构筑的以"老远的贵州"为底色的"世界"中,两位作家都以一颗赤诚之心温情地关注着这人世间的生生死死,体现出了一种别具一格的文化意蕴与人性关怀。一个意在刻画麻木的"看客","揭出病苦,引起疗救的注意",一个着力展现"万物有灵",重构人与自然的新秩序。透过两位作者精心营构的"西洋镜",我们洞见了人性的麻木与冷漠,发现了生命的坚韧与美妙。

Although Water Burial by Jian Xianai and Cliff Coffin by Xiao Wanghong are written in different times, with the gap of eighty or ninety years, by contrast, it is found that in the world with “distant Guizhou” as their creation background, these two writers both pay close attention to births and deaths with honest heart and tender feeling, reflecting the peculiar culture implication and humanistic concern. One mainly depicts insensible “lookers-on” with an eye to disclosing the sufferings from illness and evoking the attentions to treatment and cure.The other mainly focuses on revealing the “animalism” with an aim to reconstructing the new order between man and nature. In accordance with the “peer show” designed elaborately by the two writers, the numbness and indifference of humanity can be seen clearly and the tenacity and wonderfulness of life can be found out.