超越梦与尘——梁志英《梦尘》的生命审美探索

Beyond Dreams and Dust: An Exploration of the Life Aesthetics in Russel Leong’s The Country of Dreams and Dust

精神世界(梦想)与世俗世界(尘世)是人类生活世界的两大依靠。通过诗歌来把握处于中西文化裂隙中现代美国华裔精神世界的演变,是比较文学常常忽视的重要论题。美国华裔作家梁志英在其诗集《梦尘》中展示了这一生命审美的演变历程:在西方多元化的文化时空中,梁志英们首先感受到心灵的漂泊与精神的失怙;他们踏入祖乡,试图进入华人精神世界,但与现代西方价值迥异的亲族社会功利化取向,使他们的精神再次出离;而在华人超世化的精神世界,归祖的精神需求与尘世的家园归所皆被缘起思想与观空哲学所超越,这种超越型的智慧选择让他们找到了精神皈依。与精神世界的基督化不同,精神世界的中国化,是欧美华裔寻找故土家园的另一种精神向度。

The spiritual world(dream)and the secular world(dust)are indispensable in human life. However, it is often neglected in the sphere of comparative literature studies to investigate the evolution of the spiritual world of modern Chinese Americans through the poetry. Chinese American writer Russell C. Leong demonstrates his life aesthetics in the poetry collection The Country of Dreams and Dust(1993): The speakers in Leong’s poems first feel lost and painful in the multicultural adopted country;They then set foot in their hometown and tried to reconnect with their Chinese relatives, but are not accustomed to the kinship-oriented society which is quite different from that of the modern west;They finally return to the spiritual hometown with its ideas of transcendence and emptiness. Different from Christianity, Buddhism is an important spiritual dimension for Chinese Americans in Europe and America. Focusing on The Country of Dreams and Dust, this thesis intends to investigate Leong’s poetic aesthetics and spiritual exploration, and to showcase the significance of Chinese American poetry in transcultural communication and poetic aesthetics within the sphere of world literature.