It’s Just the Sun Rising

By James Ross

It’s Just the Sun Rising

By James Ross

< 1 >

My room faces the sun in the morning and on clear summer mornings it wakes me bright and fresh, no matter what time I stayed up till; I’ll get up and make breakfast, watch TV, have a shower. If it’s before six in the morning I usually have a cup of tea and go back to bed where I’ll doze until seven and wake with a thick head.

[2] If I stay at my sister’s I sleep until the kids wake me or until she comes rolling in, poured from the back of some taxi, whichever is earlier. I’m an early riser, and a dead sleeper.

[3] This morning I wake up with a twitch, like the alarm clock in my head has given me a little electric jolt; it isn’t sunny outside, I pull back the curtains and the sky is dark grey, the same colour as the sea and it looks like the sun won’t appear before tomorrow.

[4] I get up and go downstairs; the hall clock tells me it is almost six thirty. I make tea and toast, pour cereal and milk into a bowl, put it all on a tray and take it back up to my bed.

[5] My brother gets up for work and I hear him crashing about in the bathroom so I go downstairs to make him a cup of tea. He’s down in the kitchen about five minutes later, wearing his work clothes, eyes mostly closed against the morning, hair either sticking up where it shouldn’t or plastered down by a night against the pillow. He sleeps on his left side mostly, he has creases on the left side of his face and the hair on that side of his head is the most out of order.

（一）

我的房間朝陽，無論我熬夜到什么時候，晴朗的夏季早晨醒來時都會感覺到光明和清新；我會起身，做早餐，看電視，沖個澡。如果沒到六點，我通常會喝杯茶，再睡個回籠覺，直到七點醒來，感覺頭昏沉沉的。

[2]如果是住在姐姐家，我則會一直睡到孩子們把我叫醒，或直到姐姐從某輛出租車后座一躍而出，風風火火進到屋里，誰早誰叫我。我可以起得很早，也可以睡得很死。

[3]今天早上，我醒來時身子抽了一下，就像頭里的鬧鐘給了我一次小小的電擊；屋外并不是晴天，我拉開窗簾，天空灰蒙蒙的，如同大海的顏色，看起來一整天都不會出太陽了。

[4]我起床下了樓，大廳的掛鐘顯示差不多六點半了。我泡好茶，烤好面包，把麥片和牛奶倒進碗里，然后把所有這些都放在一個托盤里端回樓上我的臥室。

[6] “Morning.” I say.

“Uh huh.”

[7] I leave him to work out what he is going to eat and go back to my room where I finish my tea and toast, turn on the radio and get back beneath the quilt. Sometimes I like to think and other times I like to dash straight in.

< 2 >

[8] This morning I want to think a while.

*

[9] Today is dad’s birthday; mam won’t mention it. My brother might, just to cause a row, so I’ll keep him sweet when he comes in from work. Every year on my dad’s birthday I draw a picture of him; each year he looks a bit different. I’m an artist. There, I said it. It’s not that I draw a straighter line or a truer circle, as they try to teach us to do at school. I just get the message across more clearly than other people. More truthfully. I know it.

[5]哥哥起床準備去上班，我聽見他在浴室里哐當作響，便下樓去給他泡茶。大約五分鐘后，他身穿工作服下樓來到廚房，一大早，他的眼睛幾乎還未睜開，枕著枕頭睡了一夜后，他的頭發不是胡亂翹著，就是緊貼著。他基本上都是左側睡，所以左臉上都有了紋路，左側的頭發也是最亂的。

[6]“早安。”我說。

“嗯嗯。”

[7]我回了房間，留下他一個人把想吃的東西吃完。在房間里，我喝完茶，吃完烤面包，打開收音機，然后便鉆回被子里。有時我喜歡思考，有時又喜歡直截了當。

（二）

[8]今天早上，我想思考一會兒。

*

[9]今天是父親的生日，母親不會提及此事。哥哥可能會提，只是想引起一場吵鬧，因此我要讓他下班回家后保持好心情。每年父親生日的時候，我都要為他畫一幅像，每年他看上去都有點兒變化。我是個畫家。哦，我說過。這并不是說我畫的線更直，或畫的圈更圓，就像學校里老師努力教我們做的那樣。我只是比別人表達得更清晰、更真實。我知道這一點。

[10] I read a lot of books too, mainly about artists, and I go through phases when I like a certain artist or a movement. And I try to paint like them. When my dad comes back I’ll be able to say “this is you when I was twelve and I was in love with Monet1（1840—1926），法國畫家，印象派創始人。” or “this is you on your thirty-eighth birthday, when I was fourteen, and you’d been gone five years, and I wanted to paint like Dante Gabriel Rossetti2（1828—1882），英國畫家及詩人。.” And he’ll look at each painting and know that I loved him and never forgot him.

[11] Last year I printed t-shirts, sold most of them at school, some I persuaded Kendra to sell for me. The guy on the beach wears some.

[12] At the moment I’m into lines, simple lines. It’s a development of a six month obsession I had with calligraphy, which came out of a phase had with cartoons, which came from Liechtenstein3歐洲中部的小公國，位于奧地利和瑞士之間。and Warhol4（1928—1987），美國藝術家，波普藝術的倡導者和領袖。, and so on all the way back. So I get out my charcoals, and a couple of sticks of chalk and I pin a heavy sheet of grey A3 paper onto a board and rest it on my knee as I sit on the bed.
[13] On Saturday mornings when my mam worked he’d take me to town and I’d drag him around the art shops. On my eighth birthday he bought me an easel, a real one, not a kiddie’s. On my ninth birthday he bought me oils. On my sixth birthday he bought me a box of 99 crayons.

[10]我也讀了很多書，大部分是關于畫家的。某個階段，我會喜歡上某位畫家或某個藝術運動，那時會盡力像他們那樣去作畫。父親回來時，我就可以說“這就是您，那時我12歲，愛上了莫奈”或者“這是您38歲生日的時候，我14歲，您已經走了5年，那時我希望自己畫得像丹提·加布里埃爾·羅塞蒂”。而他會看每一幅畫，知道我愛他，永遠不會忘記他。

[11]去年，我印了些T恤衫，大部分在學校賣了，有些是我說服肯德拉替我賣的。這個海灘上的家伙還穿了幾件。

[12]現在，我喜歡線條，簡單的線條。這是我癡迷書法六個月后的新發現，源自我愛上卡通畫的那個階段，源自列支敦士登和沃霍爾，以及一路經過的一切。于是，我拿出炭筆和幾支粉筆，將一張厚厚的灰色A3紙用針釘在一塊木板上，我坐在床上，把木板支在膝蓋上。

< 3 >

[14] “Draw me,” he’d say.

“Aw dad, I can’t.”

[15] Some mornings I’d wake up and there’d be a book on my pillow about Picasso5（1881—1973），西班牙畫家，立體派創始人，20世紀最多產和最有影響的畫家之一。, or Chagall6（1887—1985），俄裔畫家，以夢幻式的奇特意象且色彩亮麗的布面油畫聞名。.

[16] I should go to school, I really should. I’m not one of those kids who are scared to go; I’m not phobic or anything. I don’t get bullied and I’m not thick. I just can’t find a good reason to waste my day in a classroom studying physics or citizenship or Buddhism. I could learn that shit in a library. Phil, the head of year eleven will bollock me for it tomorrow, if I go in. In two months I’ve got my exams. We made a deal, I promised I’d go in and he said he’d square it with the EWO7= Educational Welfare Officer 教育福利員。.

[13]每當周六早上母親干活兒的時候，父親便會帶我到鎮上去，而我會拽著他去逛那些美術用品店。我8歲生日的時候，他給我買了一個畫架，一個真正的畫架，不是小孩子的那種。我9歲生日的時候，他給我買了油畫顏料。我6歲生日的時候，他曾給我買過99支一盒的蠟筆。

（三）

[14]“畫我吧。”他會說。“哦，爸爸，我不會。”
[15]有的日子，早上醒來，我會發現枕頭上放著一本關于畢加索或夏加爾的書。

[16]我應該去學校，真的該去。我并不是那種害怕上學的孩子，我沒有恐懼癥或別的什么。我沒有被脅迫，我也不笨。我只是找不到好的理由把時間浪費在教室里學習物理、公民權或佛教什么的。我可以在圖書館里學那些玩意兒。假如我去了圖書館，11年級的級長菲爾明天就會因此而訓斥我。兩個月后我要參加考試。我們達成了協議，我保證會參加，他則表示會征得教育福利員的同意。

[17] I’ll tell Phil the truth, it was my dad’s birthday and I spent it with him.

[18] So I spend some time thinking about his hair, which I think is probably no more grey than it was last year; I know hair doesn’t age at the same speed every year, but I make his hair longer this year. And in my mind’s eye I give him an extra few pounds too. But I keep the smile fixed in my head, maybe a little muted, like it is when he’s happy but distracted, or trying to understand me when I’m babbling to him.

[19] It’s head and shoulders, so I’ll put him in a t-shirt that shows his neck and throat and how strong he is and how his eyes sparkle and how his brows are dead level straight and still black.

[20] I try to think of how much I want to show and how much I want to tell.

[21] Then I pick up a charcoal stick and do it. I pick up a chalk to add a suggestion of colour to his eyes, then another chalk for his mouth.

[17]我要告訴菲爾實情，那天是我父親生日，我陪他過了。

[18]好吧，我要花些時間考慮他的頭發，我想他的頭發可能沒有去年那么灰白了；我知道頭發不是每年以相同的速度變白，但今年我要讓他的頭發長長些。想象中，我覺得他還重了幾磅。然而，我腦中定格了他的微笑，也許有點兒模糊了，當他開心但走神的時候，或者在我沖著他絮絮叨叨而他試圖理解我的時候，他就會那樣微笑。

[19]要畫頭和肩膀了，我要讓他穿一件T恤衫，這樣可以展示他的脖子和喉嚨，展示他有多么強壯，他的眼睛有多么閃亮，他的眉毛有多么平直，而且依然那么烏黑。

[20]我盡力思考我想要展示多少，以及我還想要表達多少。

[21]之后，我拿起一支炭棒，畫了起來。我拿起一支粉筆，給他的眼睛添上了一點點顏色，然后又用另一支粉筆畫了他的嘴巴。

< 4 >

[22] And there he is.

Dad.

There you are. ■

（四）

[22] 畫好了。

父親。

別來無恙。 □

Interesting Facts About Libraries

● In ancient Egypt, all ships visiting the city were obliged to surrender their books to the library of Alexandria and be copied. The original would be kept in the library and the copy given back to the owner.

● There are more public libraries than McDonald’s in the United States.

● There are libraries around the world where you can check-out humans as a living book and listen to their stories. There are 150 such libraries around the world.

● Some German cities have public “art libraries” where you pay up to five Euros to borrow paintings and sculptures from local artists to put into your own home for several months.

● When you get a book published in Norway, the Norwegian Government will buys 1000 copies of your book and distributes them throughout the libraries of the country.

● The Guinness Book of World Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from public libraries.

● Haskell Free Library is built on the US/Canadian border. Exiting the library through the opposite entrance requires one to report to the country’s customs thereafter.

● Some libraries allow you to check out seeds with the intention that you will replace the seeds when your crop is harvested.

● Authors get paid every time UK or Irish libraries lend their books.

太 陽 依 然 升 起

文/詹姆斯·羅斯 譯/張國君 審訂/肖文