saymiao

原本是寫在留言回覆裡面的，想想還是另起一篇好。

********************
呵呵，很高興妳喜歡這首歌。歌拿掉了，再送首詩給妳，順便緬懷一下我慘不忍睹的英史。

分隔兩地的確是很大的考驗，自己走過也知其中艱辛。現在有skype、msn messenger等線上通，可裝webcam，都比以前痴痴等候書信往返幸福多了～～～
只是...不吃不睡每天只喝幾口水弄得形影消瘦，這樣P先生想必會心疼的。
我以前讀英史雖然讀的很混，但讀到John Donne在"A VALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING"的著名圓規比喻卻讓我印象深刻；想告訴你的是：分隔兩地，靈魂並沒有被抽離，仍然是緊緊的繫在一起。
詩裡將兩人的依附比做圓規雙腳，Scarlet像是圓規的固定點，而P先生像是移動的那一端，因為Scarlet的支持守候，讓P先生得以畫出完整的圓。

詩人簡政珍的註解比我詳細精彩的多：
英國十七世紀的約翰頓有一首名詩＜道別禁止悲傷＞(A" Valediction Forbidding Mourning")，把愛人比喻成圓規的雙腳，雖為二體，但以共通的靈魂相繫，一動一靜，彼此相呼應。即使一腳基中，一腳在外漫遊，但在外者無不
以基中者為核心，心裏永遠向著它，靠著它。而有朝一日一旦從異鄉歸來，相互合併，愛可以站得更挺立。愛建立於彼此的信心，由於有信心，兩人可以共同畫一個穩當的圓。我們可進一步引申；若愛人是圓規的雙腳，彼此的分開，並非別離，而是擴大愛的領域。兩腳越開越能畫出更大的圓，雖分居兩地，天涯海角卻一一畫入愛的版圖。以圓規的雙腳比喻愛人是超現實，超邏輯的，但詩人驚人的說服力卻來自於邏輯推演。

附上原文供有興趣的人參考。

A VALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING
by John Donne

AS virtuous men pass mildly away, 
    And whisper to their souls to go, 
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
    "Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."                
     
So let us melt, and make no noise,                                       5
    No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;
'Twere profanation of our joys 
    To tell the laity our love. 

Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears ;
    Men reckon what it did, and meant ;                              10
But trepidation of the spheres, 
    Though greater far, is innocent. 

Dull sublunary lovers' love 
    —Whose soul is sense—cannot admit 
Of absence, 'cause it doth remove                                     15
    The thing which elemented it. 

But we by a love so much refined,
    That ourselves know not what it is, 
Inter-assurèd of the mind, 
    Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.                           20

Our two souls therefore, which are one, 
    Though I must go, endure not yet 
A breach, but an expansion, 
    Like gold to aery thinness beat. 

If they be two, they are two so                                          25
    As stiff twin compasses are two ; 
Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show 
    To move, but doth, if th' other do. 

And though it in the centre sit, 
    Yet, when the other far doth roam,                                30
It leans, and hearkens after it, 
    And grows erect, as that comes home. 

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
    Like th' other foot, obliquely run ;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,                                    35
    And makes me end where I begun.