Dover Beach
Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) 的 "Dover Beach" 在台灣，是大學英文系必讀的一首名詩；而在英美，或許每個人在中學時都曾經在課堂上背誦過吧？
可惜我對詩歌的感受力一向遲鈍，多年來幾次讀它總未能有所領悟，直到去年在 Ian McEwan 的 Saturday 中再次相遇，我才真正被它的力量所撼動。
The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits－on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles whihc the weaves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northan sea.The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
讀著這首詩，思緒從 2001 年的 911 事件、Saturday 的故事背景（2003 年 2 月 15 日，也就是全球反戰大遊行那天，當時伊拉克戰爭已經箭在弦上）一路來到了才剛剛以印度孟買恐怖攻擊與以巴血腥衝突畫下句點的 2008 年，頓時覺得心頭戚戚一陣痛。詩的最後三行以夜戰比喻當時的世道－在漆黑的平原上交戰的兩軍因為分辨不清敵我而同袍相殘－對照距 Arnold 寫下這首詩後一百多年後的今天，這比喻似乎更加深刻，更加令人膽顫心驚了。
[audio:http://homepage8.seed.net.tw/web@1/neischanel/music/jw_munich.mp3]
John Williams, 'A Prayer for Peace' (Munich)
ps. 在 McEwan 的小說中，"Dover Beach" 由主角 Perowne 的詩人女兒娓娓讀出，近乎奇蹟般地扭轉了主角一家人當時所面臨的危機。出於好奇，我在 LibriVox 上找了幾個女聲朗誦的版本來聽，可惜沒有特別喜歡的。在網站提供的所有音檔裡，我比較喜歡的版本是這個頁面中的version 5。（好想聽 Alan Rickman 朗讀這首詩喔!）
究竟誰會成為新世紀的艾瑪姑娘呢?
Mr. Knightley 究竟是不是 Jane Austen 最屬意的男性角色? 我想誰也說不準。不過這些個性特質的確令我傾心。