第31章 Little Jack Horner
作者:
冯亦慈 更新:2021-05-20 18:31 字数:2392
little jack horner,
sat in the corner,
eating of christmas pie:
he put in his thumb,
and pulled out a plum,
and said:“what a good boy am i.“
^^^^^^^^172513027
do you think you are a good boy?
little jack horner was 7 years old. he had always been asked this question.
i do not know.
but he said yes in his heart.
how to define “good“?
he smiled.
if history is good, i am good.
the king needed a gold ring belongs to a wizard. a prince killed the wizard and got back the gold ring. the prince arrived in the king's castle in december. everyone in everywhere had been celebrating a feast.
the prince came into a bar and ordered a glass of wine. then, little jack horner came to him and danced with him.
as you know, little jh killed the prince and took the gold ring to the king. the king was very pleased and took his daughter who is a beautiful princess marry him.
上面的這個故事當然是我編出來的。但是的確在各種童謠和童話中隱含著非常多且非常深刻的故事,它們並不像表面的那樣安詳可愛或者是給兒童入睡來催眠的,這些深刻的童話和童謠中最初是歌謠的方式流傳,講述了戰亂、百姓生活、教皇統治的歐洲社會歷史,因為歌謠朗朗上口而在空間性中得以延展,又因為它用簡潔的敘事風格而非常適合兒童啟蒙識字,所以漸漸經過修改而保存下來。
最初的形態當然是每一個故事中都有個黑暗的影子啦,所以我們看到前後不相關的情節也不奇怪,或許我們自己可以還原一下更通順的故事情節。
因為這首童謠,自負自滿的小孩子通常都會被叫做jack horner。而最開始這首詩歌來自愛爾蘭於一位叫 henry carey 的歌謠namby pamby(軟弱婆媽的人,最近在看rick and morty一下子就腦補了morty哈哈哈),這首詩的原詩是這樣的:
now he sings of jackey horner
sitting in the chimney-corner
eating of a christmas pye,
putting in his thumb, oh fie!
putting in, oh fie! his thumb
pulling out, oh strange! a plum.
這首詩是用來諷刺一位作家ambrose philips孩子氣的兒童詩歌的,namby pamby這個名字也和ambrose philips很像呢,carey簡直就是18世紀的話題暴力始作俑者啊捂臉,當然,這源自於philips得罪了當時的教皇,就是因為他的詩被稱讚簡潔之類引起教皇嫉妒~雖然philips有一些輝格黨的朋友並且曾是劍橋大學的成員,然而1世紀英國史上哪個不是有光環的呢,否則大概連名字都難留下來吧,大家又不傻,誰會免費做廣告去捧一個沒有名氣的人哦。
這位弄巧成拙的教皇和保守黨派還模仿philips的詩歌來嘲笑他,結果詩歌卻受到大家表揚說的確很simplicity哦。但是carey的這首詩受歡迎的程度簡直超乎了想象,大家開始把philips叫做namby pamby,還把careey稱作namby pamby carey(捂臉)。
當然我讀到的namby pamby特別上口,且節奏非常可愛:
all ye poets of the age,
all ye witlings of the stage …
namby-pamby is your guide,
albion's joy, hibernia's pride.
namby-pamby, pilly-piss,
rhimy-pim'd on missy miss
tartaretta tartaree
from the navel to the knee;
that her father's gracy grace
might give him a placy place.
也有下面這個版本:
“all ye poets of the age!
all ye witlings of the stage!
learn your jingles to reform!
crop your numbers and conform:
let your little verses flow
gently, sweetly, row by row:
let the verse the subject fit;
little subject, little wit.
namby-pamby is your guide;
albion's joy, hibernia's pride.“
我覺得好像找到發財路了……一首詩可以翻來覆去寫好多個版哎賺不同的錢哎!
這首namby pamby詩作出來不久philips之後的人生順風順水,各種掌權愛爾蘭,直到1742年他的贊助人去世。
little jack horner不知道是不是來自於philips的刪節過john hacket的the life of john william這本書……畢竟覺得名字有點相似(雖然很牽強),其他找不到更類似讓carey想到這個名字的理由了。
namby pamby這個名字居然戳中了我的萌點,我小時候看彈頭先生humpy dumpy一樣哈哈哈~