Day: February 14, 2019

Beside You on the Main Street by Jillian Weise

Wendy Chan - English language & literature TutorLeave a comment

We were stepping out of a reading
in October, the first cold night,
and we were following this couple,
were they at the reading? and because
we were lost, I called out to them,
“Are you going to the after party?”
The woman laughed and said no
and the man kept walking, and she
was holding his hand like I hold yours,
though not exactly, she did not
need him for balance. Then what
got into me? I said, “How long
have you been married?” and she said
“Almost 30 years” and because
we were walking in public, no secret,
tell everyone now it’s official,
I said, “How’s marriage?” The man
kept walking. The woman said,
“It gets better but then it gets different.”
The man kept walking.

The poet declares her love publicly and officially. I suppose she should be dating or newly wed. She is curious about how the couple’s marriage is like. The couple said that 30 years of marriage gets different. Being different in the way that the woman holds hands with her husband as if she does not need him. And the man just keeps walking without speaking or showing any emotions. Maybe the love has changed to a different level or different state as time goes by that only the couple knows how it is like.

Introduction To Poetry by Billy Collins

Wendy Chan - English language & literature TutorLeave a comment

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Billy Collins 是美國詩人，出身於紐約市，擅長談話式詩作。我很喜歡這首詩，簡明亦親切地討論看詩的態度。詩人邀請我們看一首詩如同拿著一張色彩的照片在燈光下細察，擠著耳朵聆聽它如蜂巢發出的聲音，又像一隻老鼠運用牠的鬚嗅出通道，亦像走進一間漆黑的房間摸出開燈掣，或像滑雪馳程一樣看見在彼岸的詩人，與詩人產生共鳴，看詩其實可以這樣充滿趣味。

但是，有些詩作很艱深，我們有時也會很苦惱，一直求問究竟它的意思是甚麼。那個時候，我們就會torture a confession out of it 又或者beating it with a hose，這樣的情況好多時都會出現，可是詩人好像不大認同這種看詩的態度呢。