「裊裊兮秋風,洞庭波兮木葉下。」(屈原《湘夫人》)
這可能是「秋風」在中國詩壇最初的亮相,趁秋風說句風涼話:這詩寫得有點娘娘腔。不過,這是情有可原的:首先,詩描寫的是「目眇眇兮愁予」的湘夫人,而不是「朔氣傳金柝,寒光照鐵衣」的花木蘭。再者,楚地位於南國,「夜半酒醒人不覺,滿池荷葉動秋風。」是常有的景色;那種「北風卷地百草折,胡天八月即飛雪。」的氣象,生長於江南的我,也是年愈不惑,來加拿大后才看到的。屈原是中華詩壇第一位成名的詩人,成就高、影響大,於是這「裊裊秋風」就有了工愁的傳統了。後來者,即便是英才大略、氣吞萬里如虎的雄主,落筆秋風也是一味地纏綿:
秋風起兮白雲飛,草木黃落兮雁南歸。(劉徹《秋風辭》)
秋風蕭瑟天氣涼,草木搖落露為霜。(曹丕《燕歌行》)
更不用說那些「誤作人主」的亡國之君和多情失意的文人了:
往事只堪哀,對景難排。秋風庭院蘚侵階。一任珠簾閑不卷,終日誰來?(李煜《浪淘沙》)
人生若只如初見,何事秋風悲畫扇? (納蘭性德《木蘭詞》)
這種拉扯秋風做鋪墊,咀嚼個人悲歡的招式,洋人和今人也是活學活用或無師自通的:
Autumn winds blowing outside my window as I look around the room
and it makes me so depressed to see the gloom (ABBA《GimmeGimmeGimme》)
為什麼一陣惱人的秋風
它把你的人
我的情
吹得一去無蹤(《GimmeGimmeGimme》中文版《惱人的秋風》)
秋風多為西風,按「五行」說「西方主金」起意,故也叫「金風」。以「金風」代「秋風」,聲音清越,顏色明亮,詞曲中常為人喜用:
纖雲弄巧,飛星傳恨,銀漢迢迢暗度,金風玉露一相逢,便勝卻人間無數。(秦觀《鵲橋仙》)
雲接平崗,山圍曠野,路迥漸入齊城;衰柳啼鴉,金風驅雁,動人一片秋聲。(崑曲《寄子》)
秋風和「金」字沾了邊,秋天又是收穫的季節,「工愁」之外,免不了讓人做利益的聯想,於是有「打秋風」(亦作「打抽豐」)一說,多是指利用各種關係向人索取財物,如《紅樓夢》第三十九回:「忽見上回打抽豐的劉老老和板兒來了」。
只要是與個人私慾或利益得失掛鉤,這秋風便拖泥帶水、令人氣沮,不是磨磨嘰嘰,就是小里小氣。再也見不到風卷清秋路,長驅千萬里,摧枯拉朽、除舊布新,那彰顯秋風本色的痛快和爽利。所以,對那些工愁獻恨、婉約精巧的玩意審美疲勞之後,還是來讀一讀雪萊的《西風頌》罷:
《Ode to the West Wind》
I
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow
Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
With living hues and odours plain and hill:
Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh hear!
II
Thou on whose stream, mid the steep sky's commotion,
Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed,
Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean,
Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread
On the blue surface of thine aery surge,
Like the bright hair uplifted from the head
Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge
Of the horizon to the zenith's height,
The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge
Of the dying year, to which this closing night
Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre,
Vaulted with all thy congregated might
Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere
Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: oh hear!
III
Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams
The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,
Lull'd by the coil of his crystalline streams,
Beside a pumice isle in Baiae's bay,
And saw in sleep old palaces and towers
Quivering within the wave's intenser day,
All overgrown with azure moss and flowers
So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou
For whose path the Atlantic's level powers
Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below
The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear
The sapless foliage of the ocean, know
Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear,
And tremble and despoil themselves: oh hear!
IV
If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;
If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;
A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share
The impulse of thy strength, only less free
Than thou, O uncontrollable! If even
I were as in my boyhood, and could be
The comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven,
As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed
Scarce seem'd a vision; I would ne'er have striven
As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!
A heavy weight of hours has chain'd and bow'd
One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.
V
Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
What if my leaves are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies
Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,
Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,
My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!
Drive my dead thoughts over the universe
Like wither'd leaves to quicken a new birth!
And, by the incantation of this verse,
Scatter, as from an unextinguish'd hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawaken'd earth
The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?