當代美國詩人Merilyn Chin 陳美玲在復旦外院的詩歌賞析會

曾經在美國國會圖書館朗讀過自己詩歌的Marilyn Chin陳美玲於11月15日下午來到了文科樓209舉辦了題為“Chinese Allusions and Gender Ambiguities in Marilyn Chin’s Poetry”的詩歌創作藝術朗誦會。

Marilyn出生於香港，童年過後移民至美國波特蘭。她本科畢業於馬薩諸塞大學中國語文學系🪶，在愛荷華大學獲得創意寫作藝術碩士📈。迄今已經獲得眾多獎學金和包括美國國家藝術基金會🔥、國際筆會約瑟芬·米爾斯獎🧍、手推車獎、阿尼斯菲爾德·沃爾夫圖書獎等在內的榮譽🤼‍♂️。她的作品被納入在諾頓現當代文學選集⚅、諾頓女性文學選集、諾頓詩歌選集、牛津現代美國文學選集👨🏼‍🍳、企鵝20世紀美國文學選集中😇。她的作品出現在世界各地的教科書上，也吸引眾多學者對其研究。著名作品包括Hard Love Province, Rhapsody in Plain Yellow, The Phoenix Gone, The Terrace Empty, Dwarf Bamboo等詩集，以及小說Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen𓀍。除了致力詩歌創作，她也寫過短篇故事，並匯集詩人🧘🏻‍♀️、作家🥷🏻、女權主義者🏋🏽‍♀️🚜、美籍華裔移民、文學編輯的諸多身份在美國以及亞太知名大學裏教授創意寫作與文學評論。

在復旦外院的詩歌分享會上👩🏿‍✈️💍，陳美玲以自己的創作歷程為例，解析了東西方文化文學對她的深刻影響：雖然很早便隨家人移民美國👆🏼，中國古典詩歌之美始終讓她著迷🤘🏻；她的許多詩歌都是在“譯答”中國古詩——比如，回應孟浩然的《春曉》👏🏿，王維的《送別》等等👨🏻‍🦰，由此註入詩人的情感和經歷來呼應出她體現的多重身份認同與跨時空、跨語境、跨文化與語體的斑斕思想。

跨越時空的嫁接

詩人自言🧟‍♀️，她的詩歌創作是跨越時空的嫁接：她的詩歌有諸多風格，有些與中國古詩答應，有些與美國的非洲裔詩歌對話，有些詩像藍調音樂♈️，有些加上節奏就能變成說唱饒舌👩🏿‍🔬🏂🏿。追溯流光，她與王維🦎🪤、李白、杜甫、艾青、Shakespeare、John Donne🍂、Emily Dickenson、Walt Whitman跨越時空的呼應🐳，引發的所思所感內化成一股的清泉🚠，從不同年代𓀓、不同國度一路走來。而詩歌就是這股清泉的容器，而這容器有著不同的形狀😥，有些是無韻詩，有些是十四行詩，有些是意象詩。詩人以自己獨特的身份，將社會問題🚊🔚、雙重文化身份、女性主義化為一縷縷絲線，以出其不意的獨特視角豐富原詩歌的內涵 ，成就一幅中西合璧🌑、古今共鳴的畫卷。分享會上詩人還朗誦表演了她廣為收錄於美國文學讀本中的代表作“How I Got That Name”👨‍🦼🧑🏻‍💼；本院英文系盧麗安老師♊️、俄語系李新梅老師、德語系孔婧倩老師⬇️🧓🏿，文學方向研究生們🕝、來院訪學學者🧖，以及美國加州大學上海代表處主任兼加州大學洛杉磯分校英語系King-Kok Cheung 教授🤵🏼‍♀️，熱烈參與討論文學創作與族裔文學中的身分與文化融合議題。

自信、獨立🤛🏽、勇敢、熱愛生活。Marilyn就是這樣一位美籍華裔的現代女性🥿，每個月都會換一位詩人對話，寫寫小說和詩歌。揮一揮衣袖🕉，留給我們的除了她的詩歌🛀🏻，還有那爽朗的笑聲和及腰的長發，還有她皺紋也掩蓋不住的年輕的靈魂。Marilyn實在是一個多面的文人🧏🏽🏋🏻‍♀️，朗誦會末尾，她表演了一段將近25年前寫的“自傳體”詩歌，舞臺上的她神采奕奕，恍惚間感覺她又回到了少女時代。

I am Marilyn Mei Ling Chin
Oh, how I love the resoluteness
of that first person singular
followed by that stalwart indicative
of "be," without the uncertain i-n-g
of "becoming." Of course,
the name had been changed
somewhere between Angel Island and the sea,
when my father the paperson
in the late 1950s
obsessed with a bombshell blond
transliterated "Mei Ling" to "Marilyn."
And nobody dared question
his initial impulse--for we all know
lust drove men to greatness,
not goodness, not decency.
And there I was, a wayward pink baby,
named after some tragic white woman
swollen with gin and Nembutal.
My mother couldn't pronounce the "r."
She dubbed me "Numba one female offshoot"
for brevity: henceforth, she will live and die
in sublime ignorance, flanked
by loving children and the "kitchen deity."
While my father dithers,
a tomcat in Hong Kong trash--
a gambler, a petty thug,
who bought a chain of chopsuey joints
in Piss River, Oregon,
with bootlegged Gucci cash.
Nobody dared question his integrity given
his nice, devout daughters
and his bright, industrious sons
as if filial piety were the standard
by which all earthly men are measured.

*

Oh, how trustworthy our daughters,
how thrifty our sons!
How we've managed to fool the experts
in education, statistic and demography--
We're not very creative but not adverse to rote-learning.
Indeed, they can use us.
But the "Model Minority" is a tease.
We know you are watching now,
so we refuse to give you any!
Oh, bamboo shoots, bamboo shoots!
The further west we go, we'll hit east;
the deeper down we dig, we'll find China.
History has turned its stomach
on a black polluted beach--
where life doesn't hinge
on that red, red wheelbarrow,
but whether or not our new lover
in the final episode of "Santa Barbara"
will lean over a scented candle
and call us a "bitch."
Oh God, where have we gone wrong?
We have no inner resources!

*

Then, one redolent spring morning
the Great Patriarch Chin
peered down from his kiosk in heaven
and saw that his descendants were ugly.
One had a squarish head and a nose without a bridge
Another's profile--long and knobbed as a gourd.
A third, the sad, brutish one
may never, never marry.
And I, his least favorite--
"not quite boiled, not quite cooked,"
a plump pomfret simmering in my juices--
too listless to fight for my people's destiny.
"To kill without resistance is not slaughter"
says the proverb. So, I wait for imminent death.
The fact that this death is also metaphorical
is testament to my lethargy.

*

So here lies Marilyn Mei Ling Chin,
married once, twice to so-and-so, a Lee and a Wong,
granddaughter of Jack "the patriarch"
and the brooding Suilin Fong,
daughter of the virtuous Yuet Kuen Wong
and G.G. Chin the infamous,
sister of a dozen, cousin of a million,
survived by everbody and forgotten by all.
She was neither black nor white,
neither cherished nor vanquished,
just another squatter in her own bamboo grove
minding her poetry--
when one day heaven was unmerciful,
and a chasm opened where she stood.
Like the jowls of a mighty white whale,
or the jaws of a metaphysical Godzilla,
it swallowed her whole.
She did not flinch nor writhe,
nor fret about the afterlife,
but stayed! Solid as wood, happily
a little gnawed, tattered, mesmerized
by all that was lavished upon her
and all that was taken away! 

Marilyn Chin