My little space

不知道大家在看書時，會不會在書的空白邊緣寫寫東西?
(課本筆記除外……)
可能是一時的心得或想對作者說的話，甚至是靈感?

有些人可能認為這是對書本，對作者是一種不敬，
就像清朝某皇帝每看一次畫就要蓋上印章或寫上心得，
把好好的一幅畫給"破壞"殆盡…。

我自已是認為，是可以寫，但別太過份就好了。
就當作是和文中的作者或人物在交談。
而且紀錄下來的是當時的心情，每次重看時再看看以前所寫的，也滿有趣的。

不過，的確還是有文人自已本身就會在書頁邊緣寫寫東西。
羅伯˙佛洛斯特就是如此。

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference." 
                                            -Robert Frost "The Road Not Taken"

佛洛斯特最出名的詩句之一，相信台灣讀者都不會對這首詩太陌生。

各大高中英文課本，不論版本，幾乎都有收錄這一首。

而前幾年，曾有某位名政治人物在放棄某職位時，
在記者會中引用過這句話，在當時成了各大報的頭版標題。
(那人是誰? 不記得了~)

有點偏正題了。回來主題。

前兩天就在文學重鎮，維吉尼亞大學
一名研究生在圖書館內一箱未分類書籍中，發現佛洛斯特未曾出版的詩，
就是詩人寫在自己已出版的第二部詩集－波士頓的北方 (North of Boston)
內頁中的空白邊緣上。

嗯，既然有大文人都這樣作，那安心寫吧~

剪報 (截選):

from The Richmond Times-Dispatch (Virginia):
“Frost poem found at U.Va.,” by Carlos Santos
“A U.Va. graduate student, poking through a box of uncataloged material at the school's library, has found an unpublished poem by Robert Frost.... The poem, ‘War Thoughts at Home,’ was handwritten by Frost in a copy of North of Boston, his second collection of poetry. The poem is signed by Frost and dated January 1918.... Robert Stilling, an English graduate student at the University of Virginia, recently unearthed the 35-line poem. It is a tribute to Edward Thomas, an Englishman who was killed in France in 1917 during World War I. Thomas, a good friend of the poet, was carrying a volume of Frost’s poetry when he died at the front.”

from The Boston Globe (AP):
“Obscure Robert Frost poem discovered by grad student,” by Hillel Italie
“Frost’s poem imagines a soldier’s wife in an old house at wintertime, when she is alarmed by the ‘rage’ of some blue jays. She puts down her sewing, looks out the window and watches the birds.

And one says to the rest
We must just watch our chance
And escape one by one
Though the fight is no more done
Than the war is in France.