名著欣賞《芒果街上的小屋》第12期:我的名字(1)

《芒果街上的小屋》 一本優美純淨的小書，一本“詩小說”。由幾十個短篇組成，語言清澈如流水，點綴着零落的韻腳和新奇的譬喻，如一首首長歌短調，各自成韻，又彼此鉤連，匯聚出一個清晰世界，各樣雜沓人生。所有的講述都歸於一個敘述中心：居住在芝加哥拉美移民社區芒果街上的女孩埃斯佩朗莎。生就對弱的同情心和對美的感覺力，她用清澈的眼打量周圍的世界，用美麗稚嫩的語言講述成長、滄桑、生命的美好與不易和年輕的熱望與夢想，夢想有一所自己的房子，夢想在寫作中追尋自我，獲得自由和幫助別人的能力。

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　　My name 1
　　In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting. It is like the number nine. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing.

　　It was my great-grandmother's name and now it is mine. She was a horse woman too, born like me in the Chinese year of horse—which is supposed to be bad luck if you're born female—but I think this is a Chinese lie because the Chinese, like the Mexicans, don't like their women strong.

　　My great-grandmother. I would've liked to have known her, a wild horse of a woman, so wild she wouldn't marry. Until my great-grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off. Just that, as if she were a fancy chandelier. That's the way he did it.

　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　我的名字 1
　　在英語裏，我的名字的意思是希望。在西班牙語裏，它意味着太多的字母。它意味着哀傷，意味着等待。它就像數字九。一種泥濘的色彩。它是沒到星期天早晨，爸爸刮鬍子是播放的墨西哥唱片，嗚咽的歌。

　　它過去是我曾祖母的名字，現在是我的。她也是一個屬馬的女人，和我一樣，生在中國的馬年——如果你生爲女人，這會被認爲是黴運——可是我想，這是個中國謊，因爲，中國人和墨西哥人一樣，不喜歡他們的女人強大。

　　我的曾祖母。要是我見過她多好，女人中的野馬，野得不想嫁人。直到我的曾祖父用麻袋套住她的頭把她扛走。就那樣扛着，好像她是一盞華貴的枝型吊燈。那就是他的辦法。