兒童詩1

1.適合孩子的英文詩






音樂劇”貓”是Andrew Lloyd Webber 媽媽小時候唸的兒童詩，2010年我在Cambridge University 書店看到最新的插畫詩集，無可諱言”英文詩” 很難懂，有眾多押韻及隱喻，但是這是一本讓韋柏聽完後充滿劇情的詩集，讀詩是需要畫面的，尤其英文詩，透過新的插畫呈現了貓族多樣的風貌。

這是一本需要咀嚼念誦的故事，這本詩集與貓音樂劇的用字相同度極高，詩及搭配著音樂歌曲產生個微妙的閱讀效果。首先介紹一起欣賞的篇章—Gus (葛斯)




Gus: the theatre cat (Sarah Brightman & Sir John Gielgud) -


Sarah


Gus is the cat at the theatre door                            4i4ii444432
His name, as I ought to have told you before          67276433434
Is really Asparagus, but that's a fuss
 to pronounce That we usually call him just Gus


His coat's very shabby, he's thin as a rake
And he suffers from palsy that makes his paw shake
For he was in his youth quite the smartest of cats
But no longer a terror to mice or to rats


For he isn't the cat that he was in his prime
Though his name was quite famous, he says, in his time

And whenever he joins his friends at their club
(Which takes place at the back of the neighbouring pub)
He loves to regale them, if someone else pays
With anecdotes drawn from his palmiest days
For he once was a star of the highest degree
He has acted with Irving, he's acted with Tree
And he likes to relate his success on the halls
Where the gallery once gave him seven cat calls
But his grandest creation as he loves to tell
Was Firefrorefiddle, the fiend of the fell


Sir John


I have played in my time every possible part
And I used to know seventy speeches by heart
I'd extemporize backchat, I knew how to gag
And I knew how to let the cat out of the bag


I knew how to act with my back and my tail
With an hour of rehearsal, I never could fail
I'd a voice that would soften the hardest of hearts
Whether I took the lead, or in character parts


I have sat by the bedside of poor little Nell
When the curfew was rung then I swung on the bell
In the pantomime season, I never fell flat
And I once understudied Dick Whittington's cat
But my grandest creation, as history will tell
was Firefrorefiddle, the fiend of the fell


Sarah


Then, if someone will give him a toothful of gin
He will tell how he once played a part in East Lynne
At a Shakespeare performance he once walked on pat
When some actor suggested the need for a cat


Sir John


And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained
As we did in the days when Victoria reigned
They never get drilled in a regular troupe
And they think they are smart just to jump through a hoop


Sarah


And he says as he scratches himself with his claws


Sir John


Well the theatre is certainly not what is was
These modern productions are all very well
But there's nothing to equal from what I hear tell
That moment of mystery when I made history
As Firefrorefiddle, the fiend of the fell