2006年11月11日星期六

我是小马想过河

在安娜海姆被冷了场,在亚特兰大丢了手机,觉得自己最近的人生有点儿背。所以迫不及待地要买个新手机跟大家诉苦。手机买了,没人来电话来;给人家打电话,都忙着呢。想找工作,问了两个老师关于两个工作岗位,结果得出了完全不同的结论。一个说甲工作好,有挑战性但是没有稳定性,一切都看个人和团队的表现。一个说乙工作好,有稳定性,一切重在人际关系。我一听就懵了,感觉和站在河边的小马一样,觉得往哪儿走都得被带到沟里去。心里空空的,回到中国我能生存下来吗?最糟糕的是,我忘了故事的结尾,小马到底是怎么走出这个囚徒困境的。当年最恨老师的微言大义,光顾着捉摸小松鼠的险恶用心了,一不留神把结尾就给忘了。看来经典就是得重读!重读之后才发现,原来小马的问题是不知道自己有多高。理论上来说,我只要找个老牛和小松鼠和自己比比就知道了。可是身边都是“大牛”,让我到哪儿找小松鼠去呢?
我把“人际关系”四个大字贴在书架上,把原来的“虚怀若谷”请到了一边儿上。准备再写一个“世事洞明皆学问,人情练达即文章”贴到脑门儿上,好让人人都提醒我。根据网上的介绍,这就话在英译本的《红楼梦》是这样翻译的:“A grasp of mundane affairs is genuine knowledge,Understanding of wordly wisdom is true learning”。与大家共勉!
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以下是《小马过河》,彭文席
有一座小山旁边,住着一匹老马和一匹小马。小马整天跟着妈妈,从来不肯离开一步。  有一天,妈妈对小马说:  “宝宝,你现在已经是个大孩子了。你能帮助妈妈做点事吗?”  小马点了点头说:  “怎么不能呢!我可喜欢做事啦。”  妈妈听了,高兴地笑着说:  “宝宝真是好孩子。那么,你就把这袋麦子背到磨房里去吧。”  妈妈说着,就把一袋麦子放在小马的背上。  小马试了试,一点儿也不重。可是小马对妈妈说:  “妈妈,你跟我一块儿去好吗?”  妈妈说:  “怎么,妈妈要是能够跟你一块儿去,还要你帮什么忙呢?快点去吧,早点去早点回来,妈妈等着你吃饭。”  小马独个儿背着麦子向磨房走去。  从小马的家到磨房,要蹚过一条小河。小马走到小河边,看见河水挡在前面哗啦哗啦地响着,心里有点怕了。  “过去呢,还是不过去呢?妈妈不在身边,怎么办啊?”小马想着,就回过头去朝后望。他希望这时候妈妈跑来就好了。  可是他没有看到妈妈的影子,他只看见老牛伯伯在河边吃草。于是小马连忙“嘀嗒嘀嗒”地跑过去,问牛伯伯:  “牛伯伯,请你告诉我,我能过河去吗?”  牛伯伯回答说:  “水很浅哪。还不到我的小腿那么深,怎么不能过去呢。”  小马听了,立刻就朝小河跑去。  “喂!慢点跑,慢点跑!”  咦!是谁在说话呢?  小马停住脚抬头一看,原来是一只小松鼠。  小松鼠蹲在一棵大松树上,摇着大尾巴,对小马说:  “小马,你可别听老牛的话。水很深,一下水就会淹死的!”  小马问松鼠:  “你怎么知道水很深呢?”  小松鼠说:  “我怎么不知道呢。昨天,我们的一个同伴过河,就给大水冲跑了!”  小马说:  “那么牛伯伯为什么说水很浅呢?”  小松鼠说:  “浅?浅,怎么会把我们的同伴冲跑了呢?你可别听老牛的话!”  小河里的水到底是深呢,还是浅呢?小马没有主意了。  “唉!还是回家去问问妈妈吧。”小马甩了甩尾巴,“的的嗒嗒”地又往家里跑。  妈妈看见小马回来了,奇怪地问:  “咦!你怎么就回来了呢?”  小马很难为情地说:  “河里的水很深,过……过不去。……”  妈妈说:  “怎么会很深呢?昨天小驴叔叔还到河那边驮了好几趟柴呢。他说河水只齐到他肚子那儿,很浅。”  “是这样……老牛伯伯也说水很浅。他说只到他小腿那儿……”  “那么你为什么不过去呢?”  “可是……松鼠说……水很深,昨天,他的一个同伴过河,给河水冲走了。”  “那么到底是深呢,还是浅呢?你仔细想过他们说的话吗?”  “想了一下,可是没有仔细想,不知道他们俩谁说得对。”  妈妈笑了。妈妈说:  “你现在仔细想想看:牛伯伯有多高多大,小松鼠又有多高多大;你再把小松鼠和你自己比一比;你有多高多大,小松鼠又有多高多大,你就知道能不能过河了。”  小马听了妈妈的话,高兴得跳起来。他说:  “明白了,明白了,河里水不深,我过得去。唉!我刚才怎么不仔细想想呢!”  小马说着,就连蹦带跳地朝河边跑去。  小马一口气跑到河边,立刻跳到水里。河水刚好齐到小马的膝盖,不像老牛伯伯说的那么浅,也不像小松鼠说的那么深。  小马背着麦子,很快活地蹚着水,“扑通扑通”地过了河,到磨房去了。          (选自《小马过河》,中国少年儿童出版社,1957年7月版)
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选自《狐狸啊,你干啥呢》

某色情杂志举办十周年纪念会,应者寥寥。正无聊,一个年轻人走入会场,和主编握手,自称是杂志的忠实读者。主编大喜,对周围的年轻编辑说:“看看看,看我们的杂志成长起来的年轻人多健康!”

2006年11月9日星期四

CENTRAL PARK IN OCT

十月的中央公园

又顶一张图片

我最靓:一岁以下级别。

杨青杨小姐六个月

个人看法:我觉得还是妈妈比较好看。

Madam Butterfly

I went to see Madam Butterfly at Met Opera. It is a new co-production between The Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera and the Lithuanian National Opera. "Stage and film director Anthony Minghella (The English Patient) presents Butterfly as a Japanese play, complete with Bunraku-style puppets (by Blind Summit Theatre) and translucent Shoji screens designed by Michael Levine. Han Feng’s costumes are a riot of color and Carolyn Choa’s choreography explores the boundaries between East and West" (http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/production.aspx?id=8881).

According to wikipedia: "Madama Butterfly (Madame Butterfly) is an opera in three acts (originally two acts) by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. The opera was based on a short story by John Luther Long which was made into a play by David Belasco. " The story is said to focus the conflict of culture, the western and eastern values and the idea of love. Butterfly is portraited as an innoscent womon who put love above her respect for her religion and tradition. There are several occasions she refuses to refer herself as Japanese, but eventually she is abondended as a Japanese wife. The play is created 100 years ago and it speaks to the process of globalization and global conflicts accompany the process. Butterfly's contradictory feelings about her American husband represent the feelings of most developing countries for the developed countries. It is not only about a woman's fate who falls in love with western culture, it is also about a nation's fate when it encounters a powerful external culture. I think the most extraordinary part of the opera is its stage design and use of the traditional Japanese theatrical techniques and way of performance, such as Bunraku-style puppets and dancers as floating instrument. In the end of the first act, Butterfly and Pinkerton sang a duet in the garden. But on stage, there is no garden. The group of dancers hold paper latterns instead, moving back and forth to create this invisible garden on the stage. The moving of the latterns creates an illusion of river of stars on the sky and the changing emotions of the loving couple. In the start of the last act, the dancers appears. One of them wears Pinkerton's jacket and he plays the Pinkerton in Butterfly's dream. In her dream, Pinkerton returns from abroad and finds his son in such a joy. The silent dance sequence is very beautiful and the performer actually dances with the puppet which represents Butterfly's son ("today his name is sorrow; but tomorrow his name is joy"). When Butterfly decides to die, the stage becomes dark and she is wearing her wedding gown. After she stabs herself, two dancers come in and pull the red silk belt on her back. The red belt becomes streams of blood all over the stage. I can not help crying, it is just too much! Madam Butterfly is a much simple work than Aida. But because of its simplicity, it provides the artists a lot of space to put into their ideas. The stage design, the light design, and the Choreographer are perfectly put together--not to take you away from the opera, but to make it a holistic work. The opera almost generates the same feeling as achieved by many of great traditional Japanese poetry--a sad happiness in a floating world. BTW, 我们在大都会歌剧院门口看到了张艺谋。身穿黑衣,缠着两圈儿红围脖,跟一般来看戏的老百姓一样。中国的名人到了纽约活得真自在,难怪都爱来这儿呢。

逃会

到达华盛顿的当天,发现这是一个没有万圣节的城市。从纽约来的下午,地铁上已经挤满了化妆的人群。每一年的这一天,就算是再别出心裁或者标新立异的打扮都不算出格,玩的就是心跳!相比之下,华盛顿显得这么四平八稳,毫无生气!听说乔治敦老城当晚倒是有个万圣节的游行,但是距离说远不远,说近不近,觉得不值当的跑一趟。所以万圣节的晚上就这么无聊的过去了。第二天的会意思也不是那么大,所以我和安娜能逃就逃了。说起逃会,我们俩是颇有经验的搭档。从费城到芝加哥到三番,到处都留下了我们俩逃会的经历。在费城,我们冒着十一月的严寒,到唐人街乱逛。在芝加哥,我们溜溜达达的在芝加哥现代艺术馆磨蹭,直到人家关门送客。在三番,我们在雨中从鲍威尔街一直走到俄罗斯小丘(Russian Hill),在越南店里大快朵颐,然后又在附近的小资商店里消磨了半日的时光。我们这两个老战士充分利用每一次开会的机会,包揽美国的风土人情,也算是难得的搭档。这一次我的兴趣不是很大,因为以前在华盛顿待过两个暑假,所以没有什么新鲜感。但是我们开的会更加无聊,当安娜提议出去逛逛,我没有反对。褪下繁琐的职业套装,换上我们的牛仔裤和便鞋,人生好像重新开始了一样。我们一路顺着k街往西走,穿过华府的大街小巷。说起来,这个城市真是盛载了我很多的回忆,有的时候路过一个街心花园,一个咖啡馆,一个十字路口,或者一个教堂,我都禁不住想起过去。曾经烦恼的等待过某个人的那个路口还在, 人面不知何处去,桃花依旧笑春风。 深秋的华盛顿别有一番风韵,尤其是乔治敦附近的老城区,townhouse的砖墙在秋日暖阳的照射下,让人觉得舒服。渐渐失去颜色的树叶在挣扎着落地的瞬间,划出完美的弧线。我听着比约克的Debut,感觉着她的声音晃动着身边看似宁静的空间,真美!有机会,一定要再看一遍《黑暗中的舞者》,聆听她独一无二的音乐和对生活的感悟。

2006年11月8日星期三

Ching Ching Cha

A tea house at silent cornor of George Town. A unexpected happy encounter during my stay at D.C. last week. The owner is Ching Ching from Hongkong, and she had operated the house for 8 years. She believed less is more and refused to make any change of its simplistic style. The tea was good and the dessert and lunch menu were really good. The tea house tried to cut you from your desire to "have more"--drink and eat more sophsticated stuff, think and play more, or even have more people. I was surprised that the tea house can survive for so long withoug comprimising its idea. Maybe that is one of amazing thing about belief!