毛毛蟲繪本時間10——Song and Dance Man
有人說：
那麼現在就來看看這本榮獲The Caldecott Medal美國凱迪克獎的繪本，看看"聽得懂"，"讀得出"是否易如反掌？繪本是否僅僅只是閱讀材料，同經典無關？
我們先來瞻仰下美國凱迪克獎這枚金燦燦的獎牌，像極了小時候吃過的金幣巧克力，有木有？美國凱迪克獎是繪本界的最高獎項，由美國圖書館學會（American Library Association - ALA）於1938年創立的獎項，是為了紀念十九世紀英國最大的繪本插畫家倫道夫·凱迪克（Randolph Caldecott 1846-1886）而設立。 主辦單位美國圖書館協會。這個獎項是仿照The Newbery Medal紐伯瑞大獎建立的，後者則是頒予前一年度所出版最傑出的兒童讀物。
閑話少敘，這塊金幣巧克力可真不是白拿的。
繪本Song and Dance Man是由Karen Ackerman著由Stephen Cammell配圖的，它到底有多神？先來看看各大媒體的書評：
Song And Dance Man was published to very strong reviews.The New York Times Book Review called it " a charming, lighthearted and entertaining book",[2]
the everyday Magazine described it as "a wonderfully nostalgic picture book",[3]the video version of "Song And Dance Man" was criticized positively by the "School Library Journal" as a very good addition to both school and public library collections.[4]
可全是大大大的贊啊。
那麼，這本書是給多大小朋友讀的呢？
看起來是5-7歲小朋友比較感興趣的書，由於Grade Level Equivalent在3.8，屬於level3-4級的讀物。由此這本數的語言對於5-7歲小朋友而言還是有一定難度的，需要家長幫助小朋友進行閱讀，而家長則強烈建議google備在手邊待用。同時，這本書是嘗試用英文寫作的小朋友的必讀書目之一。
這本書講的是三個小朋友去看他們的爺爺，爺爺憶起當年在舞台上的歲月，給小朋友們講他那個沒有電視的年代，當一個vaudeville song and dance man的故事，用無比精彩的表演讓孩子們歡欣雀躍，嘴巴笑得都木有邊兒了。
首先，題目Song and Dance Man是啥意思？邊唱邊跳的男子？非也，非也。這裡的Song And Dance有特指。
Merriam Webster告訴我們：
Song And Dance：1: a theatrical performance (as a vaudeville performance) combining singing and dancing.是一種劇院里的載歌載舞的表演。比如vaudeville performance.
那啥是vaudeville performance? 1: a light often comic theatrical piece frequently combining pantomime, dialogue, dancing, and song 是一種輕喜劇劇院表演，啞劇，對白，歌舞大薈萃，也就是雜耍。
注意到爺爺的紅鼻子了嗎？歌舞爺爺是舞台上雜耍表演家。
Grandpa was a song and dance man who once danced on the vaudeville stage.
毛毛蟲媽媽不建議逐字逐句地翻譯繪本，給孩子講繪本也好，自己閱讀也好，放到原文環境中的理解才是最真切的。
不翻譯怎麼讓孩子理解呢？Thats a good question!
最好的辦法是——上圖：
這個就是the vaudeville stage，而上面的表演者就是song and dance man。下圖上各種形式的表演都包含在內。
When we visit, he tells us about a time before people watched TV, back in the good old days, the song and dance days.
這本書使用的是一般現在時。小朋友去看望爺爺的時候，爺爺給小朋友講以前沒有電視的年代，大家的娛樂活動是去劇院看歌舞。
這裡good old days里的good用的很妙，一下子就把爺爺對old days的懷念情緒點了出來。
the song and dance days對於days的修飾也使用的非常妙，英語的簡潔與使用的巧妙也在於此。那是一段大家都去劇院看歌舞的日子。
「Super in an hour!」Grandma calls from the kitchen.
"I wonder if my tap shoes still fit?" Grandpa says with a smile. Then he turns on the light to the attic, and we follow him up the steep, wooden steps.
「Super in an hour!」有了奶奶這句話，也就是給了爺爺同小朋友一個小時的時間，從此開啟了這一個小時的懷舊之旅。看似簡單的繪本故事一樣有著用心的引子。
tap shoes在後文有提及，暫且不展開。毛毛蟲小朋友學tap dance因此對於她而言非常熟悉。不熟悉的小朋友方法很簡單，上圖：
Faded posters of Grandpa when he was young hang on the walls. He moves some cardboard boxes and a rack of Grandmas winter dresses out of the way, and we see a dusty brown, leather -trimmed trunk in the corner.
faded一詞即刻描述出歲月的變遷。而繪本的好處是給孩子描述faded的時候不需要說褪色，圖說明一切。孩子學英語可以同母語同時進行，不要一對一進行翻譯，即使翻譯，孩子也不一定能清晰理解什麼叫褪色。
move...out of the way把擋在前面的東西挪開。
dusty brown, leather-trimmed trunk又是作者經典的小小修飾詞，dusty brown, leather-trimmed又把一個堆滿了灰塵，有著皮革裝飾的棕色大箱子勾畫的栩栩如生。
閣樓里總是發現寶貝的地方。果不其然，推開一堆硬紙箱，推開一架子奶奶冬天的大衣之後，一隻布滿灰塵，有皮飾的大箱子出現在了角落裡。
As soon as Grandpa opens it, the smell of cedar chips and old things saved fills the attic. Inside are his shoes with the silver, half-moon taps on the toes and heels, bowler hats and top hats, and vests with stripes and matching bow ties.
啥是cedar chips?
cedar有強烈的松油香，長時間存放在cedar木頭做的trunk裡面的舊物件也浸潤了這樣的香味，同時又糅合了舊物自身歲月的味道，箱子一打開，所有味道一涌而出，蔓延到小閣樓里的每一個角落。As soon as Grandpa opens it, the smell of cedar chips and old things saved fills the attic. 這一句的描寫再貼切不過。
學習語言，需要學習的不僅僅是單詞，句式，更是語言能帶來的無與倫比的細微感受，這一句不僅僅適用於孩子。
...his shoes with the silver, half-moon taps on the toes and heels...這一句則是用來描述上面的這雙鞋，也就是前文中的tap shoes：
銀色的鞋，前掌後跟都裝上了半月形的掌。試想一下，如果我們用英語來形容上圖中的鞋，又能否像Ackerman如此細緻入微又不失簡潔呢？
bowler hats長這樣，請看帽子，帽子，帽子：
top hats長這樣：
請忽略顏值只看帽子。
兩種帽子大比拼，哪頂是the bowler hat哪頂是the top hat呢?
vests with stripes and matching bow ties 這一句則完全可以用書中另一張圖來解釋：
反過來想一下，如果我們自己來表達這一身裝束，又會如何去表達呢？
We try on the hats and pretend were dancing on a vaudeville stage, where the bright lights twinkle and the piano player nods his head along with the music.
這一句中對vaudeville stage的描述也是可圈可點的，尤其是對鋼琴表演者和著音樂的節奏點頭的描寫畫面感極強。
After wiping his shoes with a cloth he calls a shammy, Grandpa puts them on. He tucks small, white pads inside the shoes so his corns wont rub, and he turns on the lamps and aims each down like a spotlight.
爺爺把一塊布叫做shammy，把鞋擦乾淨，然後把它穿上。
Shammy長這樣，怎麼擦？
其實，叫做shammy的布是樓上這位兄弟的皮...（好殘忍，還是不看了...)
爺爺往鞋裡面掖了一塊墊子，這樣corns就不會被磨疼了。
這裡的corns不是玉米不是玉米不是玉米！是雞眼。tap shoes前後掌有鐵疙瘩，因此比較重，穿著這樣的鞋長期工作，因此不難想像爺爺的腳上長了雞眼。
同時爺爺非常認真。布置舞台儘可能完美。燈開亮了還不夠，需要aim down like a spotlight
He sprinkles a little powder on the floor, and its show time. We sit on one of Grandmas woolen blankets, clap our hands, and call out, "Yay, Grandpa!"
最後一個環節是灑了一些粉末，避免打滑。終於its show time——演出開始了。接下來是孩子們的一連串動作,sit, clap and call out。同樣細緻入微，孩子們坐在奶奶的羊毛毯子上，拍著手大聲叫著："耶，爺爺上場嘍！"。
The song and dance man begins to dance the old soft shoe. His feet move slowly at first, while his tap shoes make soft, slippery sounds like rain on a tin roof.
We forget that its Grandpa dancing, and all we can hear is the silvery tap of two feet, and all we can see is a song and dance man gliding across a vaudeville stage.
注意這裡的人稱替換，grandpa變成了the song and dance man，加深身臨其境的感受。「我們」已經忘記自己身在何處，恍惚覺得就在劇場看演出。開場對於tap shoes發出的聲音採取了比喻手法，輕柔順滑的聲音如同雨水敲打在tin roof上。tin roof可以翻譯成鐵皮屋頂，但是有一段視頻或者音頻這個時候再直觀不過了。
只可惜，只在youtube上找到了這個聲音：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNgOacCl3VA當然，我們可以拿出家裡的罐頭瓶，放在水龍頭下面讓小朋友體會sounds like rain on a tin roof是什麼聲音。接下來是孩子的心理描寫。孩子們忘記了是爺爺在跳舞，只聽見兩條腿踢踢踏踏作響，只看見一位雜耍藝人在雜耍舞台上滑步。glide是一種專門的舞步，這個時候來一段Michael Jackson的滑步視頻是再貼切不過了
He says, "Watch this!" and does a new step that sounds like a woodpecker tapping on a tree. Suddenly, his shoes move faster, and he begins to sing. His voice is as round and strong as a canyon echo, and his cheeks get rosy as he sings "Yankee Doodle Boy," a song he knows from the good old days.
繼續使用比喻手法。新舞步的聲音像a woodpecker tapping on a tree
There are too many dance steps and too many words in the song for us to remember, but the show is better than any show on TV.
The song and dance man stops and leans forward with a wink."Whats that in your ear?" he asks and he pulls a silver dollar out of somebodys hair.
歌詞太多，舞步太複雜，我們已經無法記清，只知道這比電視里看的任何表演都精彩。
歌舞表演者停下腳步，傾身向前，沖我們擠擠眼睛。「你耳朵里有什麼？」他問著，然後就從一人的頭髮里拽出了一個銀色的硬幣。第一個小魔術就是這麼開始的，不經意卻引人入勝。
He rolls his bowler hat down his arm, catches it in his hand, and flips it back up onto his head.
"Know how to make an elephant float? " he asks. "One scoop of ice cream, two squirts of soda and three scoops of elephant!" Weve heard that joke before, but the song and dance man slaps his knee and laughs until his eyes water.
第二個小trick就是帽子trick，rolls down..., catches...in, and flips it back up onto...一連串的動詞盡顯了有趣的帽子把戲。
"Know how to make an elephant float? " he asks. "One scoop of ice cream, two squirts of soda and three scoops of elephant!" 這句話單詞非常簡單，但是我們真的能明白它背後的含義嗎？an elephant float可以長這樣：
為啥喜歡用elephant呢？原來這裡也是有故事的。20世紀60年代，elephant jokes風靡美國。這種joke形式主要以猜一些荒誕的謎語為主，比較像我們的腦筋急轉彎，謎語裡面都會有elephant一詞。比如：Q: What time is it when an elephant sits on your fence? A: Time to build a new fence.
這麼一則笑話，直接把故事拉回了爺爺當年的good old days。相信，伴隨這樣的笑話成長的一代人聽到可有時代印記的笑話都會打開回憶的閘門，因此， 不難理解the song and dance man slaps his knee and laughs until his eyes water.一個聽了無數遍的老笑話，還能讓爺爺拍著膝蓋大笑，甚至都笑出了眼淚。而這樣的眼淚，真的只是笑出來的嗎？
He tries to wipe them with a red hanky from his vest pocket, but the hanky just gets longer and longer as he pulls it out. He looks so surprised that we start laughing too, and it feels like the whole attic is shaking.
他想用背心口袋裡的紅色手帕擦眼淚，紅色手帕卻越拉越長。這樣的情節再熟悉不過。基本是所有小魔術的保留曲目。書中的小朋友們應該也已經屢見不鮮了，但是他們還是笑瘋了，因為爺爺表演的太逼真了。爺爺驚訝無比的神態把小朋友逗樂了，震得整個閣樓地動山搖。it feels like the whole attic is shaking沒有一個華麗辭藻，卻準確傳遞了小朋友的高漲情緒。
Sometimes we laugh so hard, the hiccups start, and Grandpa stops to bring us a glass of water from the bathroom.
"Drink slow and hold your breath," he says, "or Ill have to scare you!"
小朋友笑得打起了嗝。這一段的描寫說明作者對孩子了解入微。小朋友笑過頭了都會打嗝。通過打嗝間接表現出我們笑得多厲害。而治療打嗝的方法無非就是喝水憋氣跟驚嚇。這一段里也能看出爺爺對於孩子們的關愛以及細心。
Once our hiccups are gone, he gets a gold-tipped cane and a black silk top hat from the trunk. He lowers his eyes and tips the hat, and hes standing very still.
All the lights are turned low except one that shines on his polished tap shoes. Its the grand finale, so the song and dance man takes a deep breath. He lifts the cane and holds it in both hands.
同時hiccups還肩負承上啟下的重任，開啟了另一段表演。爺爺換裝。此處描寫先抑後揚。先前地動山搖的閣樓此時鴉雀無聲。壓低的眼帘跟帽檐，爺爺站在那裡，一動不動。這明顯是大戲將要開場前的節奏。
所有的燈都調暗了，唯獨一盞燈，把爺爺擦得鋥亮的踢踏舞鞋照的閃亮。壓軸表演要登場了。爺爺深吸了一口氣。他舉起手杖，用雙手握著。這一段是壓軸大戲前的鋪墊，爺爺沒有劇烈的動作，只是get...from...,lower...,stand still..., takes a deep breath, lifts...and holds...然而這裡每一個動作都能反襯出爺爺內心的不平靜。Slowly, he starts to tap. His shoes move faster and faster, and the sounds coming from them are too many to make with only two feet.
踢踏聲從慢到快，快的直到我們懷疑不是兩隻腳踩出來的步子。
這一句中用too...to...來展現我們的心理， 從而表達速度之快。
He spins and jumps into the air. Touching the stage again, he kneels with his arms spread out, and the silk top hat and gold-tipped cane lie side by side at his feet. His shoes are still, and the show is over.
最後謝幕的經典動作從spin到jump再到kneel，一起呵成。
We stand up together and clap our hands, shouting "Hurray!" and "More!" but Granpa only smiles and shakes his head, all out of breath.He takes off his tap shoes, wraps them gently in the shammy cloth, and puts them back in the leather-trimmed trunk. He carefully folds his vest and lays the top hat and cane on it, and we follow him to the stairway.
這一段中的all out of breath才讓人又想起了這是一個年事已高的老人，同時也反襯出剛才結尾的高潮部分。爺爺把踢踏舞鞋用shammy cloth輕輕地包起來，把背心仔細疊好，再把高頂禮帽跟手杖擺在上面。爺爺對舞台道具的愛惜在這一連串動作之中，在gently，carefully兩個詞之中可見一斑。
Grandpa holds on to the rail as we go down the steps. At the bottom he hugs us, and we tell him we wish we could have seen him dance in the good old days, the song and dance days. He smiles, and whispers that he wouldnt trade a million good old days for the days he spends with us.
爺爺一場演出後體力稍有不支，需要hold on to the rail.前後呼應中，我們希望能回到the good old days, the song and dance days去看爺爺的演出，而爺爺覺得同我們在一起的日子多少個good old days都不換。最後一句對於珍貴的表述非常精彩。good old days是爺爺珍貴的回憶，而同「我們」在一起的日子，用多少個good old days都不換，可見其在爺爺心中的珍貴程度。
But as turns off the attic light, Grandpa glances back up the stairs, and we wonder how much he really misses that time on the vaudeville stage, when he was a song and dance man.
然而細心的「我們」發現，爺爺關閣樓燈的時候，深深地往回瞥了一眼去閣樓的台階。這樣的glance裡面，留著多少爺爺對good old days，對the vaudeville stage，還有那個a song and dance man的眷戀!
尊重知識產權，愛護孩子身心健康，請購買正版圖書：亞馬遜購書鏈接 Song and Dance Man
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