翻聽Bob Dylan的《Desolation Row》湧起一股莫名的觸動，感覺就像走過了一條漫長的荒涼之路。頭兩句不知怎的讓我想到最近的香港：
They’re selling postcards of the hanging
They’re painting the passports brown
他們販售吊刑的名信片
他們把護照髹成啡色
然後我便分外留神聽接下來發生甚麼事：
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
The circus is in town
Here comes the blind commissioner
They’ve got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
The other is in his pants
And the riot squad they’re restless
They need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight
From Desolation Row
美髮店擠滿了水手
馬戲團就在城後
然後來了一個特首
他們將他發入吽竇
一隻手綁住走鋼線高手
另一隻插在褲袋裡頭
還有防暴警察全在煩躁無休
他們需要某個地方抖抖
像這位小姐和我遍夜尋求
由荒涼之路口
然後找到哪裡去？似乎是酒館。
Cinderella, she seems so easy
“It takes one to know one,” she smiles
And puts her hands in her back pockets
Bette Davis style
And in comes Romeo, he’s moaning
“You Belong to Me I Believe”
And someone says, “You’re in the wrong place my friend
You better leave”
And the only sound that’s left
After the ambulances go
Is Cinderella sweeping up
On Desolation Row
灰姑娘，她似乎幾開放
「講嗰個就係嗰個。」佢笑咗
然後將雙手插進後袋
貝蒂戴維斯的風格
然後來了個羅密歐，佢喺度呻吟
「你係屬於我㗎我相信！」
然後有人話：「你來錯地方喇朋友，
你最好離開。」
然後唯一留低的聲音
在救護車走了之後
是灰姑娘的掃地聲
在荒涼之道上
我很喜歡這一種講故事的歌，因為這才叫做「吟遊」。當現在的歌失去了這種吟遊性，就空餘下一堆感質。我們已經不再用灰姑娘來形容負責打掃地方的女人，我喜歡這樣的形容，但設定跟原著是反轉的：掃完地，一到十二點，她就準時穿回自己的玻璃鞋。
然後已經好夜好夜了：
Now the moon is almost hidden
The stars are beginning to hide
The fortune-telling lady
Has even taken all her things inside
All except for Cain and Abel
And the hunchback of Notre Dame
Everybody is making love
Or else expecting rain
And the Good Samaritan, he’s dressing
He’s getting ready for the show
He’s going to the carnival tonight
On Desolation Row
現在月亮就快都看不見
繁星也開始隱淡
占卜未來的女人
甚已將她的所有東西收起
所有除了該隱和亞伯
以及聖母院的鐘樓佗俠
人人都在做愛
或其餘的在等雨
然後有個好撒馬利亞人，他在換裝
他已經準備好出騷
今晚他將會前往嘉年華
在荒涼之道上
突然輪到《哈姆雷特》的女主角奧菲利亞登場：
Now Ophelia, she’s ’neath the window
For her I feel so afraid
On her twenty-second birthday
She already is an old maid
To her, death is quite romantic
She wears an iron vest
Her profession’s her religion
Her sin is her lifelessness
And though her eyes are fixed upon
Noah’s great rainbow
She spends her time peeking
Into Desolation Row
現在奧菲利亞，她就倚在窗旁
我真為她擔心
在她廿二歲生日時
她已經是一個老女僕
對她，死亡是幾浪漫
她穿了一件鐵的背心
信仰就是她的自白
白活就是她的罪名
雖然她已定睛望着上方
那道挪亞的偉大彩虹
但她仍是費上時間來偷望
那條荒涼之路
而你有沒有聽過愛恩斯坦拉小提琴？這一個卻不是那一個，因為他太潦倒了：
Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood
With his memories in a trunk
Passed this way an hour ago
With his friend, a jealous monk
He looked so immaculately frightful
As he bummed a cigarette
Then he went off sniffing drainpipes
And reciting the alphabet
Now you would not think to look at him
But he was famous long ago
For playing the electric violin
On Desolation Row
愛恩斯坦扮成羅賓漢
帶着他車尾廂的回憶
在一小時前才經過這裡
和他的朋友、來自善妒寺的僧侶
他看起來不染得可怕
尤其在他討煙的時候
接着他走去嗅着水喉
叨唸着字母
現在你不會想望到他
但好耐之前他都風光過
奏着電子提琴
在那荒涼之路
從荒涼到荒淫？
Dr. Filth, he keeps his world
Inside of a leather cup
But all his sexless patients
They’re trying to blow it up
Now his nurse, some local loser
She’s in charge of the cyanide hole
And she also keeps the cards that read
“Have Mercy on His Soul”
They all play on pennywhistles
You can hear them blow
If you lean your head out far enough
From Desolation Row
猥褻醫生，他將他的世界
藏在一隻皮杯裡
但他所有無性的病人
他們正嘗試吹起它
現在他的護士，某個本地的失敗者
她是山埃孔的話事人
而她亦藏了一張卡片寫着
「願主垂憐他的靈魂」
他們全都玩着尖哨
你可以聽到他們在吹
如果你把頭傾得夠遠
從荒涼之道
卡薩諾瓦是意大利聞名的詩人情聖，這一段特別令我着迷：
Across the street they’ve nailed the curtains
They’re getting ready for the feast
The Phantom of the Opera
A perfect image of a priest
They’re spoonfeeding Casanova
To get him to feel more assured
Then they’ll kill him with self-confidence
After poisoning him with words
And the Phantom’s shouting to skinny girls
“Get Outa Here If You Don’t Know
Casanova is just being punished for going
To Desolation Row”
對面街他們已釘上帷幕
他們已準備好一場盛宴
《歌聲魅影》
牧師的完美形象
他們用湯匙向卡薩諾瓦灌藥
讓他稍為有安全感
然後他們用自信來殺掉他
之前用文字毒害他
然後魅影向瘦削的女孩們喊道：
「如果你不知道就請你們離開
卡薩諾瓦已經受罪因他
前往荒涼之道。」
接下來這一段，我懷疑是在描寫納粹的集中營：
Now at midnight all the agents
And the superhuman crew
Come out and round up everyone
That knows more than they do
Then they bring them to the factory
Where the heart-attack machine
Is strapped across their shoulders
And then the kerosene
Is brought down from the castles
By insurance men who go
Check to see that nobody is escaping
To Desolation Row
現在午夜所有特工
和超人類團隊
出來圍住了所有人
因為知道了不該知道的
然後把他們帶到工廠
那裡有心臟病機器
綁在他們的肩膊上
然之後那煤油
從城堡裡帶下來
有人會以防萬一
檢查一下看看是否無人能逃
逃往荒涼之路
Bob Dylan這首歌可能戲仿了英國詩人ES艾略特的長詩《荒原》，這首詩的一大特色是沒有人能看懂一個字——每個字都懂，湊起來卻不成意思。之前跟大家介紹過的艾茲拉龐德，勉強把《荒原》翻改成可讀的版本，加了很多註腳，務求令世人讀得通它的真意。這個情節，Bob Dylan也收錄在《Desolation Row》第九節裡面：
Praise be to Nero’s Neptune
The Titanic sails at dawn
And everybody’s shouting
“Which Side Are You On?”
And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot
Fighting in the captain’s tower
While calypso singers laugh at them
And fishermen hold flowers
Between the windows of the sea
Where lovely mermaids flow
And nobody has to think too much
About Desolation Row
讚美歸於尼祿的海王星
鐵達尼啟程於黎明
而每個人都發出喊聲
「你到底站哪一邊？」
而艾茲拉龐和ES艾略
在船長的塔上決鬥
卡利索普歌手取笑他們
漁民手執鮮花
在大海的窗戶之間
那裡有可愛的美人魚流過
此際沒有人想太多
關於那荒涼之路
是的，Bob Dylan是在模仿ES艾略特式的混亂，而在最後一節揭曉了混亂的原因：
Yes, I received your letter yesterday
(About the time the doorknob broke)
When you asked how I was doing
Was that some kind of joke?
All these people that you mention
Yes, I know them, they’re quite lame
I had to rearrange their faces
And give them all another name
Right now I can’t read too good
Don’t send me no more letters, no
Not unless you mail them
From Desolation Row
係呀，我尋日收到你嘅信
（大概在門鎖壞了的時候）
你問我最近過成怎樣
是一個需要笑的笑話嗎？
全部這些你所提及的人
係呀，我知道佢哋，佢哋都幾無趣
我需要重新構建他們的臉容
給他們全都搞混了名字
此際我已經不太擅於閱讀
不要再寄更多的信給我了，不要
除非它們是你寄自
於荒涼之路
聽過這麼多段，就像走完了一段漫長的荒涼的路，有一種想哭的感覺。Bob Dylan的音樂經常都給予的這種荒涼感，只有經歷很多的人才會有這種感覺，寫得出這種詞，流下了這滴淚。
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