中詩與英詩

中國詩在唐宋大盛，稱為「近體詩」，以別於之前的「古詩」，格律更為嚴謹。

請看以下一首經典作品，杜甫的七言律詩「詠懷古跡」五首的第一首：

支離東北風塵際，漂泊西南天地間。三峽樓臺淹日月，五溪衣服共雲山。

羯胡事主終無賴，詞客哀時且未還。庾信平生最蕭瑟，暮年詩賦動江關。

很多人連語音的平仄都不懂得分辨，每以寫詩要遵守格律為苦差，以為是限制了他們的「創作能力」，所以寫「新詩」的人比寫傳統詩的多。

殊不知格律之為物，不一定是障礙，是幫你寫出鏗鏘可誦的文字；字數有限，就逼你精鍊出含義深遠的修辭。有人小孩時讀過的唐詩，隔了幾十年還記得，隨時背得出幾句，就是詩文配合格律之功。試問有多少人，能夠隨口唸出一些新詩？

有人以為新詩字數不限，不用押韻，很容易寫；把文章的句子拆散，長長短短，分成很多行，就是一首「詩」了。問題是：讀者能夠感受到「詩意」嗎？所謂「詩意」不容易立定義，不過文字總不能平鋪直敘，要有弦外之音，引起讀者的想像，感覺餘音嬝嬝，才算是好詩。

中文新詩的體裁來自英詩，英詩之中有自由如我們的「新詩」但也有守格律的。請看以下一首我很喜歡，莎士比亞的十四行詩 (Sonnet)：

Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And Summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And oft' is his gold complexion dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd:

But thy eternal Summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

英國寒冷的日子多，冬天又早日落，夏天有長時間好陽光的日子，十分珍貴。每逢到這時候，英國人會十分興奮，湧到戶外曬過不停。

莎翁用「夏天」來比喻他的寫詩對象，真是非常「俾面」了。

十四行詩主要分兩大類，以上的叫「英國式」也乾脆叫「莎士比亞式」，一般每行是五個音節的「抑揚五步格」(Iambic Pentameter)，每行最後一字隔行押韻，形式是：a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g.

另一種是「意大利式」，押韻形式是： a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a, c-d-c-d-c-d

(前八行固定，後面的六行可以有其他變化)。

至於我們的新詩向之取經的「自由詩」，百餘年前已經有，例如這一首，Walt Whitman(1819-1892) 的 Song of Myself:

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,

I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air,

Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their

parents the same,

I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,

Hoping to cease not till death.

Creeds and schools in abeyance,

Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,

I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,

Nature without check with original energy.

(文章允許轉貼，請具作者名字：梁煥松) 

...............