有些批評(píng)家說(shuō),中國(guó)的文人學(xué)士,尤其是詩(shī)人,都帶著很濃厚的頹廢色彩,所以中國(guó)的詩(shī)文里,頌贊秋的文字特別的多,但外國(guó)的詩(shī)人,又何嘗不然?我雖則外國(guó)詩(shī)文念得不多,也不想開出賬來(lái),做一篇秋的詩(shī)歌散文鈔,但你若去一翻英德法意等詩(shī)人的集子,或各國(guó)的詩(shī)文的文選來(lái),總能夠看到許多關(guān)于秋的歌頌與悲啼。各著名的大詩(shī)人的長(zhǎng)篇田園詩(shī)或四季詩(shī)里,也總以關(guān)于秋的部分,寫得最出色而最有味,足見有感覺的動(dòng)物,有情趣的人類,對(duì)于秋,總是一樣地特別能引起深沉、幽遠(yuǎn)、嚴(yán)厲、蕭素的感觸來(lái)的,不單是詩(shī)人,就是被關(guān)閉在牢獄里的囚犯,到了秋天,我想也一定會(huì)感到一種不能自已的深情:秋之于人,何嘗有國(guó)別,更何嘗有人種階級(jí)的區(qū)別呢?不過(guò)在中國(guó),文字里有一個(gè)“秋士”的成語(yǔ),讀本里又有著很普遍的歐陽(yáng)子的《秋聲》與蘇東坡的《赤壁賦》等,就覺得中國(guó)的文人,與秋的關(guān)系特別深了。可是這秋的深味,尤其是中國(guó)的秋的深味,非要在北方,才感受得到底。
Among the long pastoral poetry or the four season poetry written by every famous poet, the best and the most tasteful parts are about autumn. That’s enough to show that in all sensitive animals and emotional human beings alike, autumn is particularly capable of arousing feelings of depth, remoteness, severity and bleakness. When autumn comes, not only poets, even convicts in prison, I suppose, have uncontrollable deep sentiments. Autumn treats all humans alike, regardless of the nationality, race or class. Here in China, however, we have in our literature the term “autumn scholar”. And in our textbooks, essays like Ouyang Xiu’s Ode to the Autumn Sound and Su Dongpo’s A Visit to the Red Cliff frequently appear. This cannot but lead us to the conclusion that Chinese literati are particularly attached to autumn.