An Interview with WILLIAM MARR

by

Alan Harris, President of the Illinois State Poetry Society

美國伊利諾州詩人協會会长阿伦·哈里斯對非馬的訪問

1. Where were you born and raised? Were you raised in a literary family? When did you come to the USA?

1。你是在哪裡出生長大的？你出身於一個文學家庭嗎？何時來到美國？

I was born in Taiwan but spent my childhood in a small village in Southern China. At the end of World War II, I returned to Taiwan and attended school there. In 1961, after completing my undergraduate studies, I came to the United States.

I was not raised in a literary family. My mother never went to school and claimed that she did not recognize one single Chinese character, although mysteriously she could read some rather lengthy story books. My father did go to school for a few years but was away from home most of the time, running business overseas. I was more influenced by my uncle, also a businessman, who was fond of classical Chinese literature and painting.

我出生於台灣，但在廣東鄉下度過童年。二次世界大戰後我回到台灣上學。在受完專科教育後，我在1961年秋天來到美國留學。

我不是出身於書香門第。我的母親從未上過學也不識字，但奇妙的是，她能朗讀一些長篇的民間故事書。我的父親上過幾年小學，但他長期在南洋做生意。我那位喜愛中國古典文學及繪畫的伯父給我的影響較大 。

2. How did you first become interested in writing poetry? What was your age and what were the circumstances?

2。你如何對寫詩發生興趣的？你那時候幾歲？能說說當時的情況嗎？

When I was in my fourth grade, there was a severe drought in that part of the country. Our teacher asked each of us to write an article praying for rain. The morning after I turned in my article, a poem bearing my name was posted on the wall in the classroom. My teacher had broken up the lines of my essay and put them in the form of a poem. It happened that my uncle was home on vacation at the time, and my poem must have caught his fancy because for the rest of his stay, he would recite it to every visitor who came to our house. That really sparked my interest in poetry, but I did not begin writing until I entered college in Taipei and started a school publication. As its editor, I had to write all sorts of things -- stories, essays, and poems, etc. -- just to fill up the pages. However, I remained nameless in Taiwan's poetry circle before I left for this country.

我讀小學四年級的時候，那年夏天廣東鄉下大旱，老師要我們每人寫一篇求雨的作文。第二天早上到學校一看，教室裡的佈告欄上張貼了一首白話詩，作者是我。原來是老師把我的作文分行，排列成新詩的形式。剛好我的伯父從南洋回家度假，看到了那首詩，大為讚賞。每當客人上門，他便朗誦給客人聽，還不忘當眾誇獎我兩句。就這樣引發了我對詩的興趣。但真正開始寫詩，卻是我進入台北工專，與同學創辦了一個叫《晨曦》的文藝刊物以後的事。作為刊物的創辦人兼主編，我不得不自己寫各種各樣的東西，包括小說、散文以及詩等等，去填補空白。但在我離開台灣以前，在詩壇上可說是藉藉無名。

3. Through what chain of events did you become a popular poet in China?

3。是什麼樣的機緣使你在台灣及中國成為普受歡迎的詩人？

When I started working in Milwaukee after I received my MS degree from Marquette University in 1963, a friend of mine, who was a well-known young poet and the editor of a bimonthly poetry magazine in Taiwan, asked me to translate, on a regular basis, contemporary American poetry for the magazine. Along with my translations, he also published some of my poems. Later he told me that poets and readers were asking who Fei Ma (my Chinese pen name) was. They seemed quite excited yet somewhat perplexed by the sudden emergence of a rather mature new poet.

1963年我獲得機械碩士學位後，在威斯康辛州的密爾瓦基市工作。我的朋友、台灣詩人白萩那時候剛好擔任《笠詩刊》的主編，要我每期譯介一位當代美國詩人的作品。他同時也把我自己寫的一些詩在該詩刊上發表。後來他告訴我，許多人在讀了我的詩以後，紛紛向他打聽非馬是誰。他們似乎都為看到這麼一位剛露出頭便顯得相當成熟的詩人感到既興奮又多少有點困惑。

This friend later helped me edit and publish my first book of poems In the Windy City. He also arranged to have several reviews of my book published in the magazine. It created quite a stir when one of the reviewers favorably compared my book to a book published by one of the best-known poets in Taiwan at the time. Since then, I have published a total of 14 books and several translations in Taiwan, China Mainland, and Hong Kong. My poems have appeared in over ninety poetry anthologies published in Taiwan and China. Recently, one of my poems, Bird Cage, was included in a Chinese Literature textbook used by a university in Taipei. I consider it a rare honor since, under the same cover, there are names of such great poets as Li Po and Tu Fu.

白萩後來幫我編輯並出版了我的第一本詩集《在風城》。他同時也組織了幾位詩人及詩評家對我的書做出評論，並連續兩三期在《笠詩刊》上密集發表。當一位評論者把我的書同當時一位極負盛名的詩人的詩集相比較，並說出「不知要高出多少倍」的評語時，在台灣造成了不小的漣漪。之後我在台灣、香港及大陸一共出版了十四本詩集，幾本翻譯的書，還主編了幾本詩選。我的作品被收入九十多種不同語言的詩選。最近我的一首題為〈鳥籠〉的詩被台北一個大學選入該校中文系的《國文選》。能同李白、杜甫這樣偉大詩人的名字出現在同一個封面下，對我來說當然是一種難得的殊榮。

4. Did learning the English language hamper your fluency with writing poems in Chinese?

4。學習英文會造成你寫作中文詩的障礙嗎？

I really don't think so. As a matter of fact, I think the opposite is true. I've found that in translating my own poems from one language to the other (whether it was originally written in Chinese or in English), I can see more vividly the difference between the two languages (and, for that matter, the two cultures). And it is often possible to find some way to enrich the languages and, in the process, improve the poems.

我相信不會。事實上恰恰相反。我發現當我把自己的一首詩從一個文字翻譯成另一種文字時（不管它是先用中文或英文寫就），我能更清楚地看到兩種文字（以及兩種文化）之間的差異。在反複互譯修改的過程中，語言因之豐富，詩意也隨之增強。

5. Do you think that having several of your poems posted on your Web site has helped your popularity?

5。你認為把你的一些詩張貼在你的網站上，對你的名聲有幫助嗎？

I'm not sure. Most of my Chinese readers came to know my poetry from publications such as newspapers, magazines, anthologies, and books. Several young poets told me that they first encountered my poetry when they were in high school and that it had a big influence on their own writing. Some of them could even recite my poems without much difficulty after so many years.

我不太敢確定。我的中文讀者大多從報刊雜誌及選集詩集接觸到我的作品。一些年輕詩人告訴我說他們在初中的時候便讀到我的詩，對他們自己的寫作造成了頗大的沖擊與影響。他們有些人甚至在這麼多年後還能毫無困難地背誦出我的詩來。

Through my own Web site I have established contacts with poets and scholars from several Asian and European countries. A couple of years ago, a poet from Israel translated some of my poems into Hebrew and posted them on a Web site.

通過我的網站，我同一些來自亞洲及歐洲的詩人學者們建立起聯繫。前年一位以色列詩人把我網站上的幾首詩翻譯成希伯萊語，張貼在一個世界詩網站上。

Lately, I discovered that several Chinese Web sites have set up Web pages dedicated to my poems. Some had posted over one hundred of my poems in their collections.

最近我發現幾個中文網站設置了我的詩庫，有的收集多達一百多首。

6. What has your occupation been? Has your career in the USA had any effect on your poetry writing? If so, what effect(s)?

6。你的職業是什麼？你在美國的職業對你寫詩有影響嗎？若有，是些什麼樣的影響？

I worked at Argonne National Laboratory after receiving my Ph.D. in nuclear engineering at the University of Wisconsin in 1969. Before taking early retirement several years ago, I did research on energy and environmental systems and electric vehicles. I don't think my career had much effect on my poetry writing. Many critics, however, did point out that the refined qualities they often found in my poetry could probably be attributed to the scientific training I had received.

1969年取得威斯康辛大學核工博士學位後，我到位於芝加哥近郊的阿岡國家研究所工作。在我退休之前，我的研究興趣主要集中在核能發電安全、能源與環境系統、以及電動車上面。我不認為我的工作對我寫詩有什麼特別的影響。但常有評論者指出，我詩質的精煉以及詩思的慎密，很可能來自科學訓練。

7. Why do you think you write mostly very short poems?

7。為什麼你寫的大多是短詩？

Several reasons. First, working full time did not permit me the luxury of writing long poems. But, more importantly, short poems are my perception of what poetry should be. By my definition, a good poem uses the least amount of words to stir up the strongest of our innermost feelings. Each poem is a universe in itself. Many good examples can be found in classical Chinese poetry.

有幾個原因。首先，我的專業工作不允許我有寫長詩的奢侈。更重要的是，我心目中理想的詩就是短詩。我對詩的定義是﹕用最少的文字打進心靈的最深處。每首詩是一個宇宙。我們能在中國古典詩裡找到許多這樣的好例子。

8. Is it possible to boil down the messages of all your poems into a single sentence or two? Or does each poem have its own life and statement?

8。有無可能把你所有的詩中的信息用一兩句話來歸納？或者每首詩都有它各自的生命與指令？

I intend for each of my poems to have its own form, its own voice, and its own life. Through poetry, it's possible to discover new meaning and new beauty in ordinary objects from our everyday lives. If my poetry can help people recall or rediscover a happy moment in their lives, or bring back a beautiful scene from their memories, or it can show them that the world is still full of interesting and exciting things, and that it is so beautiful and so wonderful to be alive, then I think I have succeeded as a poet.

我盡力想讓每首詩都有它獨自的形式，獨自的聲音，與獨自的生命。通常一首好詩能為我們喚回生命中快樂美好的時光，或記憶中的美景。它能使我們在日常事物中發現新的意義與新的美。它告訴我們，這世界仍充滿了有趣及令人興奮的東西。它使我們覺得能活著真好。能寫出幾首這樣的詩來，我想我便不愧為詩人了。

Ford Maddox Ford (1873-1939), an English author, once wrote, "The quality of great poetry is that without comment as without effort it presents you with images that stir your emotions; so you are made a better man; you are softened, rendered more supple of mind, more open to the vicissitudes and necessities of your fellow men." These words often cross my mind whenever I write a poem.

英國作家福特( Ford Maddox Ford,1873 -1939)曾說過這樣的話﹕「偉大詩歌是它無 須注釋且毫不費勁地用意象攪動你的感情；你因而成為一個較好的人；你軟化了，心 腸更加柔和，對同類的困苦及需要也更慷慨同情。」在我寫詩的時候，這些話常閃掠過我的心頭。

English version of this interview appeared in ISPS NEWS, January 2002,

中文部分刊登于2002年1月號《文訊》(台北)