最美的詩 - Weighting the Dog by Billy Collins

說起英詩，愛情類絕少出現在我的喜愛名單。

我喜歡Gilgamesh（鳩格米西史詩）的腦洞和結尾淡漠的悲傷。垮掉派作家

Allen Ginsberg 反叛的Howl（嚎）強而有力；Dulce et decorum est（為國捐軀是光榮與恰當的）則是餘韻深長。Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare *（莎士比亞十四行詩第18首）美規美，可氾濫程度大概等同穿越文都要來段水調歌頭，就含義來說，我並沒有強烈的觸動。

但Billy Collins的Weighting the dog（給狗秤重）卻成了特例。他利用一個譬喻、簡單的圖像，代出絕美的類比。你不免想咬著手帕、感嘆上帝對詩人的偏愛。

It is awkward for me and bewildering for him

as I hold him in my arms in the small bathroom,

balancing our weight on the shaky blue scale,

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but this is the way to weigh a dog and easier

than training him to sit obediently on one spot

with his tongue out, waiting for the cookie.

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With pencil and paper I subtract my weight

from our total to find out the remainder that is his,

and I start to wonder if there is an analogy here.

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It could not have to do with my leaving you

though I never figured out what you amounted to

until I subtracted myself from our combination.

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You held me in your arms more than I held you

through all those awkward and bewildering months

and now we are both lost in strange and distant neighborhoods.

詩共有5個stanzas, 前三個描繪出主人替寵物量體重的圖像，巧妙地點出不對等的愛。狗兒對人類沒有防備、全心全意的信任，好似情人對待speaker 的態度。而speaker 卻用看待狗兒的態度看待情人，不耐煩、尷尬，直到失去幡然悔悟。雖然最後兩個stanzas才是這首詩真正想表達的，但如果沒有前面的隱喻，它就是一首普通的愛情詩。

這首詩解讀不止於此，不論是愛情還是親情，所有不對等的愛都概括在內。我在讀的時候覺得裡面的關係特別像父母與子女。父母付出的永遠比子女多，而子女往往不領情，等等我們懂事、成熟後時常為時已晚。

我們教授有個習慣，會在學期末統計每首詩有多少人喜歡、多少人討厭。Weighting the Dog雖然是學期初的教材，卻是最多人喜歡的一首。它的用字和圖像都不複雜，可直擊人心。對我來說，這是一首簡單但純粹的詩。

*Sonnet 18就是Shall I compare thy to the summer's day?（夏日怎能與妳相比?)

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翻到第四個stanza的時候卡住了，覺得我翻不出原文的感覺。如果有需要的話我再補上(つд⊂)

ns 172.70.126.124da2