[散文] 再次上路 (On the Road Again)

[散文] 再次上路 (方壺齋 原作 英譯)

七十年代末，美國鄉村歌手奈利-威爾遜寫過一首歌《再一次上路》，我一聽就喜歡。現在找來歌詞翻譯過來：

再一次上路，
簡直等不及要再一次上路。
我喜歡的生活是和朋友做音樂。
我等不及要再一次上路。
再一次上路。
去那從未去過的地方，
看那也許不再看的一切，
我簡直等不及要再一次上路。

再一次上路。
像一群吉普賽我們驅車而去。
我們是最好的朋友，
想要世界順從我們的心。
我們的心，是再一次上路。

On the Road Again

In the late 70』s , country singer Nellie Wilson wrote a song On the Road Again. I felt in love with it as soon as I heard it:

On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is makin' music with my friends
And I can't wait to get on the road again
On the road again, goin' places that I've never been
Seein' things that I may never see again,
And I can't wait to get on the road again.

On the road again, like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
We're the best of friends,
Insisting that the world be turnin' our way
And our way, is on is on the road again
Just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is makin' music with my friends
And I can't wait to get on the road again.

[ Click here to read the complete lyrics; and here to hear the song]

我的一班學生最近畢業了。畢業以前，為了幫助他們應付口語考試「歐屁哀」，我們老師一天六個小時陪他們一對一地練習說話。 那個時候跟學生的接觸是整個課程中最密集的時候。等到考試一完，感覺馬上不一樣了，有「呼啦啦似大廈傾，昏慘慘似燈將盡」的感覺，又有「樹倒猢猻散」的味道。跟過去在國內教學生不一樣。國內的學生，跟老師好的可以在畢業后好幾年還保持聯繫。畢業的時候，還常常搞一個畢業晚會。學生們互相交換紀念冊，彼此題詞，也找老師來題詞。那份同學之情， 師生之情，很濃郁， 很有回味的餘地。美國學生不一樣，大多數是肉包子打狗一去不回頭。 我剛來這個學校的時候，前輩們就教導我不要想學生會念你好， 給你寫信，寄名信片。所以我現在對於學生畢業，也已經麻木了。最近這班學生算好的了，搞了一個通信錄，然而只是一張紙上的一串伊妹地址，有的是用鉛筆寫的，複印以後看不清楚。原件在複印以後就神秘地消失了。學生們還給老師一人買了一本《人民美國史》作留念。一個女生，是孩子媽，亞洲人，很有。。。怎麼說呢。。。生活氣息。平常常常做一點飯來帶給同學們吃，也請老師吃。畢業的時候她把她照的學生們的電子照片發給我。我就在網上建立了一個雅虎社團，把那些照片放進去， 並且告訴學生，歡迎他們參加。另一個女生，走的時候來告別，說歡迎五月份去參加她在南加州的婚禮。這就是這個班畢業時候的幾個好一點的花絮了。

My class graduated recently. Before their graduation, we teachers were with them six hours a day to help them deal with OPI. The contact with students was the most intensive during the whole program. After the graduation tests, the feelings changed right away. It was as described in the Chinese novel Red Chamber Dream: 「 Down comes the collapsing mansion and out goes the flickering candle」. It is also like what is described in the Chinese idiom : 「 When the tree falls down, the monkeys scatter」. It was very different from the experience of teaching Chinese students in China. Students in China may keep communication with teachers years after graduation. When they graduate, they normally hold a farewell party, show each others』 memory books to ask for signatures and good wishes. They also ask teachers to write their words. That feeling between the classmates and students and teachers is tangible and good for remembering and savoring. American students are different. Most of them will be gone forever, like what the Chinese like to describe of a meat dumpling thrown at a dog: it will be gone.」 When I first came here, the veteran teachers warned me not to expect students to be super nice to me, to write to me, to send me cards. So now I have a numb feeling about graduation. This class is good however, in that they made an address book, though merely a list of emails on a piece of paper. Some were written with pencil and are indiscernible in the zerox copies. The original mysteriously disappeared after Venerable Wang made the copies. The students also bought each teacher a copy of A Peoples』 History of the United States. A student, mother and Asian and very … how should I put it … good at making life livable, who often cooked lunch for her classmates and sometimes for teachers too, sent me the digital photos she shot of the class. I set up a Yahoo group and put them there and told students they were welcome to join. Another girl came to say goodbye before leaving and said we were welcome at her wedding in May in Southern California. These are the good anecdotes of this graduation.

從他們的角度來看，他們馬上要到工作單位去，那個心情用「再次上路」來形容再合適不過。對於他們來說，這裡的學習只不過是人生路上的一個短暫插曲，他們本來沒有必要對這段時間牽腸掛肚的。我們做老師的，應該學會麻木不仁，要不然一批一批的學生走，豈不要傷感死？

From their point of view, graduation means they are going to their work units and the feelings are just right to be described as 「on the road again」. For them, study here is only a short interlude in their life. They do not have to hold lingering memories about it. The teachers therefore, should learn how to desensitize themselves, otherwise they would be killed by graduation sorrows after so many classes.

我很羨慕他們能夠一站一站地往前走。我很喜歡上路的滋味。我以前坐灰狗， 從美國的六點鐘到兩點鐘，又返回來，然後又到美國的九點鐘， 覺得最有詩意的，就是不停地在走。 特別是晚上，當汽車經過夜色中沉睡的小鎮，我想到古詩「明朝酒醒何處，楊柳岸，曉風殘月」，我想到那旅途的前頭有未知的人和事在等著我， 想到身邊經過的一切都不能使我滯留，我感到自由的快樂。

I very much envy them for being able to move forward one stop after another. I like the feeling to be on the road. Before, I rode the Greyhound from America』s six hours to two hours and back and then to nine hours. The most poetic about it is to be on the road, going. Especially at night when the bus passed sleeping towns in the dark, I thought of the ancient Chinese poem 「Where to wake up after the hangover tomorrow? A waning moon in the morning breeze by a willow bank.」 Thinking of the unknown people and things in front of me, thinking that what I pass through could not detain me, I felt the joy of freedom.

[Map of the United States (click the lower right corner to enlarge)]

國內歌手韓磊的《走四方》也是我喜歡唱的： 走四方，路迢迢水長長，一村又一庄。 看斜陽，落下去又回來，地不老天不荒，歲月長又長。這首歌透著一股陽剛之氣，一股浪跡天涯的豪氣。一個男人的一生中要是沒有一段走四方的經歷和體驗，那是很大的缺憾。

I also like to sing the song I heard from Chinese singer Han Lei Roaming Around: 「I roam around, the road is far, the river is long , I pass one village after another. Look at that setting sun: it goes down and then comes back. The earth does not grow old and the heaven forever remains young, the days are long and long.」 This song speaks of a manly spirit, a heroic spirit that drives one to go to the far end of the world. It would be a great pity for a man if he does not have this experience of roaming around.

我現在很後悔在國內的時候，有很多時間去走四方，我卻因為囊中羞澀，也因為缺乏勇氣而沒有去。我很喜歡讀《地理》雜誌里的旅遊文章，特別是那些騎車到全國各地旅遊的人寫的文章。我還跟北京一個女士聯繫過，了解她獨自騎車到外地去的經歷。 然而我自己終於沒有她的那種勇氣。

I now very much regret that when I was in China I had plenty of time to roam around but I did not, because of the lack of money and the lack of courage. I enjoyed reading travel articles in the Geography magazine, especially those written by people who rode their bike around the country. I once contacted a young woman to ask her about her experience in biking out to other provinces, but in the end I had not the courage to do it.

現在在美國，休假的時間是辛辛苦苦攢起來的，要留給回國探親，更提不上去從從容容地雲遊四方了。誠然，可以趁著長周末租一輛車出去，但是那和我心目中的流浪根本是不一樣的。我現在最羨慕的是流浪漢，沒有牽掛，可以到處走，可以慢慢地走，可以搭汽車，扒火車到美國的每一個角落， 可以真實地體驗一路上各地的生活。我覺得最浪漫的情景就是走進一個小鎮的酒吧， 在充滿狐疑的眼光中問：「這個地方哪有活干？」 現在，我是猥瑣地為了物質利益而放棄了我心目中的精神之旅，一次探索美國，了解美國的旅行。

Now in the U.S., my leaves are put aside bit by bit for a visit home and hence it is not possible for me to indulge in a leisurely roaming. Indeed, I may rent a car to drive out somewhere on a long weekend, but that is fundamentally different from the roaming I conceive. Now I admire a vagabond most, who are attached to nothing and can go anywhere they like. They can walk slowly or hitch a ride or jump onto the train to go to every corner of the United States. They can live the various kinds of life that they encounter on the way. I feel that the most romantic thing is to walk into a bar of a small town, and ask, under the suspicious gaze: 「How can one make a living here?」 Now, in an undignified way I have given up the spirit journey in my heart for the sake of material gains, a journey to explore America and to understand her.

這種想法，在八十年代在國內學英文的時候，泛讀課上讀到一篇《全國地理雜誌》上的文章時而產生。 那篇文章講一個年輕人，對美國的現狀感到失望，決定徒步從美國的東北，走到南端，再走到加州海岸。他說，我要給美國最後一個機會。他終於發現，美國還是一個很可愛的國家。

My idea about such a journey originated in the 80s, when I was learning English in China, when in our extensive reading class we read an article in National Geography. The article told about a young man , disheartened by the reality of the country, decided to walk from the northeast to the south and then to the Pacific coast of California. He said he wanted to give America a last chance. He found in the end that America was still a lovely country.

作家斯坦貝克也曾經進行過一次探索美國之旅，不辭年老，一個人開著大篷車，帶著小狗查里周遊美國。他的旅行使他對美國感到失望，因為他發現美國已經無可挽救地成了一個模子里出來的了。

John Steinbeck also made a trip to explore America. Against his old age, he drove a camper truck with his dog Charley to go around America . His travel disappointed him, for he found that America was incurably homogenized.

如果說斯坦貝克那個時候的美國已經失去了多樣化，那今天的美國更是如此。超級連鎖店抹去了美國的地方特徵，電視廣播統一了各地人們的語言和文化口味。但是儘管如此，我覺得對於每一個來到美國的中國人來說，特別是對於那些在網上辯論著到底是應該海歸，還是留在美國的中國人來說，對美國進行一次探索之旅，不讓自己囚禁於單位的小天地里， 不讓自己的視聽局限於美國的中央電視台們的節目里，是很有必要的。

If the United States of America lost her versatility in John Steinbeck』s time, today』s America is even more so. Chain stores have wiped out the local colors and television and radio unified the language and cultural taste of people in different places. Even though, I feel that for every Chinese who has come to this country, especially those Chinese debating the pros and cons of returning to a profitable China, it is very necessary to start a journey of exploration in America, to get out of the small world of their work places and free themselves of the programs of the central television stations of the United States.

春天到了， 我的心也開始蠢蠢欲動， 想要駕車而去， 實現自己的夢想， 在異國他鄉， 尋找生活的真實。朋友， 你可與我同行么？
Spring is here and my heart springs like the post-hibernation insects. I desire to drive away to realize my dream: searching for life』s truth in a strange land. Amigo, viene conmigo [Friend, comes with me]?

2004-3-8

Source: 漢英 http://www.bilinguist.com/data/hy03/messages/116996.html

(edited: changed soundtrack)

不錯，

支持一下~

生活在別處.