加州超市

当代美国垮掉派诗人金斯堡曾写过一篇随笔《加州超市》，《加州超市》完全没有“嚎叫”常见的疯狂、毫无顾忌的秽语、反讽。《加州超市》只有委婉的倾诉、仰慕与追随，以及几许不明显的怅惘。如果不是赫然标志着作者Ally Ginsberg你难以相信出自金斯堡之笔。

A  Supermarket  in   California

What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the sidestreets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon.

In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!

What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands, wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes! And you Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?

I saw you Walt Whitman childless lonely old grubber poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys.

I heard you asking questions of each: who killed the pork chops? what price bananas? Are you my angel?

I wandered in and out of the brilliant stacks of cans following you ,and followed in my imagination by the store detective.

We strode down the open corridors together in our solitary fancy tasting artichokes, possessing every frozen delicacy ,and never passing the cashier.

Where are we going , Walt Whitman the doors close in an hour, which way does your beard point tonight?

(I touch your book and dream of our odyssey in the supermarket and feel absurd.)

Will we walk all night through solitary streets? the trees add shade to shade, lights out in the houses ,we’ll both be lonely.

Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past blue automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?

Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher, what America did you have when Charon quit poling his ferry and you got out on a smoking bank and stood watching the boat disappear on the black waters of Lethe?

             Written by Allen Ginsberg

——摘自《疯狂英语》2001年第3期第7-8页

1959年，金斯堡在旧金山六画廊的革命性演出，朗诵《嚎叫》，开启了美国诗歌的又一次历史之门。

比惠特曼走得更远，诗句更为惊世骇俗，更为粗野。完全有小巫见大巫之感。

不过，今天，《嚎叫》早已从一个叛逆的边缘角色，转换成了美国文学经典的一部分，其中的“经典化”（cannonization）过程，也被文学史家大书特书。中国的文学界和普通读者，金斯堡和他的嚎叫几乎成了一个诗歌如何反抗主流社会的超级象征。（《大师风格》第104页 易丹 著 四川人民出版社 2003年11月第一版 2003年11月第一次印刷）

甚至，连《嚎叫》的形式，诗句的形式，都得益于惠特曼，尤其是《嚎叫》中的长句，完全可以说是惠特曼《草叶集》的现代翻版。

惠特曼《自己之歌》：

Where the quail is whistling betwixt the woods and wheat,

lot,

where the bat flies in the seventh month eve,where the great

gold bug drops through the dark,

where the brook puts out of the roots of the old tree and flows

to the meadow,

where the cattle stand and shake away flies with the tremulous

shuddering of their hides,

金斯堡《嚎叫》：

who poverty and tatters and hollow eyed and high sat up smoking in

the supernatural darkness of cold water flats

floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz,

who bared their brains to Heaven under the EL and saw Mohammedan

angels staggering on tenement roofs

illuminated,

who passed through universities with radiant cool eyes hallucinating

Arkansas and Blake light tragedy among the scholars of war,

……

惠特曼每一句必用where，金斯堡每一句必用who，两部作品的句子都长。

两者间的默契，不言而喻。

在《加州超市》里，金斯堡，虔诚地，称惠特曼为自己的“勇气教师”。没理解错的话，是惠特曼惊世骇俗的反叛给了金斯堡学习的榜样。给了他特立独行的一些启迪。

Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher, what America did you have when Charon quit poling his ferry and you got out on a smoking bank and stood watching the boat disappear on the black waters of Lethe?

啊，亲爱的父亲，灰胡子，孤独年迈的给人以勇气的教师，当卡戎停止摆渡，而你登上烟雾缭绕的河岸伫立着凝视渡船在幽深的忘川河的波涛中消失，在你心中，美国将是何等模样？

注：Charon卡戎—古希腊罗马神话中地狱有一条忘川河，人饮其水就会忘记过去。卡戎是河上摆渡的船夫。

更耐人寻味的是，在《加州超市》里，诗人金斯堡还提到西班牙最伟大的诗人加西亚·洛尔迦。

也许，在金斯堡心中，惠特曼和他一样，还是一片深深植根于美国土壤上的草叶。