Newsletter No. 455

10 455 • 4.4.2015 本刊由香港中文大學資訊處出版，每月出版兩期。截稿日期及稿例載於 www.iso.cuhk.edu.hk/chinese/newsletter/ 。 The CUHK Newsletter is published by the Information Services Office, CUHK, on a fortnightly basis. Submission guidelines and deadlines can be found at www.iso.cuhk.edu.hk/english/newsletter/ . 常聽到人說，把散文分行就是詩。怎樣告訴他們甚麽是詩？ 很多人不滿意新詩，就說它是散文分行而已。放遠點來看，中國 古典詩並不分行。李白寫「床前明月光」是連下去寫的，不會分 成四行。寫得不好的文字，分行就當作詩，的確引人嘲笑。散文 也有富於詩意的，就像我們常讀的「暮春三月，江南草長，雜花 生樹，群鶯亂飛。」這四句信裏的話，本質上是詩，可是用散文 寫出來。有些寫得整整齊齊的，像格律詩一樣，可是沒有想像 力，有詩的外殼而沒有詩的靈魂。所以單看外表很難分得出來， 還是要看真正的想像。 互聯網和手機盛行，對文字創作與傳播是好是壞？ 就看你怎樣用這個媒體。台灣手機公司大哥大舉行的短訊創作 比賽，限七十字以內，意念有趣，有詩意，就可得獎，第一名獎七 萬台幣。有一年得獎短訊就六個字——「爸，母親節快樂。」很 平凡的一句話，可仔細想，是個辛酸動人的單親家庭父兼母職 的故事。我任評判多年，也應邀寫了一兩則示範之作，譬如男友 對女友說：「不要再買LV了，LV只是LOVE的一半而已。」科技製 造創作機會，不過假如你每天就是低頭發短訊跟朋友聊天甚麽 的，那也不過是通訊比較方便而已，沒跟有血有肉的人在一起， 撥撥撥的就造成隔閡，也使得你跟壯麗的大自然疏遠了。 中大是適合寫詩的地方嗎？ 這個就不用問啦！中大的校園那麽理想，當然能寫詩。不單是中 文系、外文系、藝術系，唸理工的也可以寫吧。我從台灣來教書 十一年，宿舍面對大埔公路，右邊一點就是八仙嶺，遠處是船灣 淡水湖，這邊還有馬鞍山，太好了。我在山上寫了很多詩，很多 散文，〈沙田山居〉、〈吐露港上〉這些文章就是在這兒寫的。我 也寫了很多論文，還翻譯了兩本書，收穫很豐富。 可以談談你對中文西化的看法嗎？ 西化也有成功的。徐志摩的《偶然》——「你我相逢在黑夜的海 上，你有你的，我有我的方向。」中文習慣說「你有你的方向，我 有我的方向。」可是他巧妙用了西方文字的文法——「You have your direction. I have mine.」，「方向」只出現一次，很好。可 西化得不好的也很多，台灣香港都有，大陸最嚴重，他們幾乎把 所有的動詞都交給「進行」去做，動作本身變成名詞——進行研 究、進行甚麽大會呀等的，像現在我倆在對談，大陸就會說成 A跟B進行熱烈的對談。還有「作出貢獻」，「作出決定」，諸如 此類的，並不是好事情。 成因在哪裏？可以怎樣抗衡？ 從五四以來，我們用了一個世紀的白話文來寫作、教育，也認為 文言已經廢除了，其實不然，因為有一部分文言以成語的身分保 留下來。成語講求鏗鏘、對仗、簡潔。「這個人張三李四都認得。」 為什麽不講張四李三呢？張三是平聲，李四是仄聲啊。「千山萬 水」不是過了一座山就會碰到十條河，「千軍萬馬」也不是一個 兵坐十匹馬，邏輯上不太對，但因為是平平仄仄，聽覺上很對。 所以我們的日常用語有不少文言特色。但是這些好處大家都不 管，英文的觀念、想法和說法愈來愈多，就會歐化。我寫文章有 一個原則，就是白以為常，文以應變——白話是常態，可是碰到 緊要關頭，就會用文言，不但是為了變化，也為了文言裏頭有很 多好的觀念，好的表意方式，用起來說服力強。 回到中大來，感到最大的改變在哪兒？ 離開中大到現在三十年了，當中回來也有二十次吧，所以也沒感 到很陌生。儘管如此，每次回來都覺得建築物多了，大概是本來 的三倍了吧。那時候是三間書院，現在是九間啦。當時就兩個水 塔高聳，現在高樓很多，教職員也愈來愈多。我住的教授宿舍已 觀看錄像，請掃描QR碼或瀏覽以下網址： To watch the video, please scan the QR code or visit: www.iso.cuhk.edu.hk/video/?nsl455-yu-kwang- chung Some comment that poetry is nothing more than prose in lines. How would you tell them what poetry is? Many people who are not happy with modern Chinese poetry would say so. But looking back, classical Chinese poetry was not necessarily presented in lines. To think that a badly written piece of text can be disguised as a poem by splitting into lines is ridiculous. On the other hand, prose can also be poetic, like the first few four-character phrases in a famous letter (written by Qiu Chi, 463–508 A.D.). It’s a poem by nature but was presented as prose. Interestingly enough, there are lines that fulfil the rigid form requirements of classical Chinese poetry, but lack the essential element of imagination. They have the body of a poem but no soul. The distinction is not simply in the appearance. Is the popularity of the Internet and mobile phones advantageous or disadvantageous to literary creation and dissemination? It depends on how you use the medium. The short message contest of Taiwan Mobile calls for creative and poetic messages of no more than 70 words. The message which won the first prize of NTD 70,000 was ‘Dad, Happy Mother’s Day!’ Simple and short, it tells a story of a single-parent family in which the father also plays the motherly role. As one of the adjudicators, I have been invited to write some sample messages. One of them is written for a man to his girlfriend— ‘Buy no more LV (Louis Vuitton), for it’s just half of LOVE.’ Information technology creates platforms for literary writing. But if you just keep phubbing on your smartphone day after day, without paying attention to face-to-face interaction with people or the beautiful nature around you, what you can benefit at most is just a little convenience in communication. Is the Chinese University a good place for poetry writing? Needless to say, yes! No other activities can complement this ideal campus better than writing poetry. Everybody can do it, it doesn’t matter whether you’re studying Chinese, foreign languages, fine arts or even science and technology. I came from Taiwan to teach here for 11 years. My quarters faced Tai Po Road, with Pat Sin Range a little bit to the right, Plover Cove in the far horizon and Ma On Shan close by. That was fantastic! I wrote a lot of poems and prose, plus some academic papers and two translated books. Those were very productive years. Would you tell us how you feel about the westernization of the Chinese language? Some cases are successful. Xu Zhimo (Chinese poet, 1897– 1931) has two famous lines about a romantic encounter, which literally read ‘You have yours, I have my direction.’ He could have written in a traditional Chinese way—‘You have your direction. I have my direction.’ But he avoided the repetition of the word ‘direction’ by adopting the omission allowed in English grammar as in ‘You have your direction, I have mine.’ This is a good attempt. As for unsuccessful cases of westernization, there are far too many in Taiwan and in Hong Kong. It’s the worst in mainland China where people habitually add ‘ jinxing ’, which means ‘to proceed with’, before verbs and then nominalize the original verb, creating awkwardly redundant phrases in terms of Chinese grammar. For example, instead of saying ‘We are talking’ now, it will be ‘We are proceeding with a talk’. Another example is ‘ zuochu ’—‘to do’ as in ‘to do a contribution’ instead of ‘to contribute’, ‘to do a decision’ instead of ‘to decide’. Such cases of westernization are undesirable. Why is it like this? What can be done? We have been using vernacular Chinese to write and to teach since the May Fourth Movement a century ago. We think that classical Chinese has been abandoned; in fact it has not. Some parts of it have been retained as idioms in our daily usage. Chinese idioms are tonally pleasant, syntactically balanced, and succinct. Sometimes we even sacrifice the internal logic of an idiom in order to maintain these qualities. For example, ‘ qianjun wanma ’—‘a thousand soldiers and ten thousand horses’. It’s illogical to have one soldier to 10 horses, but the combination of level and oblique tones make it sound right. Our daily conversation is decorated with lots of classical Chinese elements, it’s a pity we don’t pay much attention to it and seek to borrow ideas and usages from the English language. It’s one of the factors leading to the abusive westernization of the Chinese language. I basically write in vernacular Chinese. But when it comes to crucial points, I would turn to classical Chinese, not only for variety, but also for the many good concepts and marvellous expressions which make my points more convincing. What is the biggest change that you experience upon returning to CUHK? I left CUHK about 30 years ago. But I have revisited the campus some 20 times since my departure, so I don't feel like a complete stranger here. That said, I noticed there are more buildings every time I come back. I guess the number has tripled. There were only three Colleges, now there are nine. The two water towers were the only tall buildings then, now there are plenty, and staff numbers are also increasing. The hostel I lived in has turned into a postgraduate student hostel. I am not allowed to go inside for a nostalgic tour. The diesel trains of the Kowloon– Canton Railway before would make a turn after reaching Cheung Shu Tan, and the sound of the engine would die off after that. Now we have electric trains, and the scene of hawkers carrying baskets of snacks, like chicken feet, can no longer be seen. CUHK students today are taller, stronger and better-looking than their predecessors, and they all look happy. 變成研究生宿舍，我也不能進去憑弔一番了。以前的九廣鐵路， 到了樟樹灘轉一個彎，車聲就聽不見了。現在換了電動火車，老 火車裏很多挑擔子賣鳳爪呀甚麽的，都不見了。現在的中大學生 比以前要高大一點，也比以前漂亮，而且看起來都很快樂。 余光中教授 詩人，散文家，翻譯家， 中國語言及文學系教授 (1974–85) Prof. Yu Kwang-chung Poet, prose writer, translator, Professsor, Dept. of Chinese Language and Literature (1974–85) 請掃描QR碼閱讀全文版： Scan the QR code for the full version Photo by Tommy Cho