Choose Something Like a Star－Choose Something Like a Star

這次音樂會要唱的歌，有一套Frostiana組曲是Randall Thompson根據Robert Frost的詩所譜，我非常喜歡其中一首"Choose Something Like a Star"。下面的影片用管風琴伴奏，更有空靈的感覺，可惜放上youtube的人沒有寫是哪個合唱團的精彩演出。

Choose Something Like a Star
~~by Robert Frost - 1947

O Star (the fairest one in sight),
We grant your loftiness the right
To some obscurity of cloud --
It will not do to say of night,
Since dark is what brings out your light.

Some mystery becomes the proud.
But to be wholly taciturn
In your reserve is not allowed.

Say something to us we can learn
By heart and when alone repeat.
Say something! And it says "I burn."

But say with what degree of heat.
Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade.
Use language we can comprehend.
Tell us what elements you blend.
It gives us strangely little aid,
But does tell something in the end.

And steadfast as Keats' Eremite,
Not even stooping from its sphere,
It asks a little of us here.

It asks of us a certain height,
So when at times the mob is swayed
To carry praise or blame too far,
We may choose something like a star
To stay our minds on and be staid.

練了一個多學期，對詩的內容原本還是似懂非懂，今天終於把一些單字查了，又找到一篇英文的解釋，才恍然大悟（但是有些意象說白了反而沒味道）。

詩中的Star可譯作「恆星」，比喻人生在世所要追求的一些層次更高的價值，可以是道德、正義、或某種理想。星辰散發光芒，雖偶爾會被遮蔽干擾，在黑暗才真正耀眼。我們向它請教，但它並不會給予確切易懂的指示，只是燃燒著，隱士般淡定。它只要求我們到達一個高度，在群眾顛狂搖擺、錦上添花和或落井下石的時候，我們可以選擇一如恆星，專注沉著。

我最喜歡那句"Say something! And it says "I burn.""，有的時候我太執著於尋找答案、搜索枯腸，但其實只要專注沉著地燃燒，就足夠了。