Endless Night

Every night and every morn,
Some to misery are born,
Every morn and every night,
Some are born to sweet delight.
Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.

2011 航太展

上次參加航太展，已經是小學時代的事了。那時會場冷冷清清，沒有這麼多熱鬧的東西可看，更沒有體驗、試玩活動。不過對小學生來說，看著大人正正經經地向我們介紹武器軍品，只覺異常興奮，一切都新鮮無比。

一晃十數年，隨著課業壓力、工作繁忙，此後就不曾關注航太展。直到前幾天經朋友提起，心中一動，於是在百忙之中抽空前往。多年過去，物換星移，如今航太國防展已經有了許多不同，我的心境也不一樣了。

認識雷神（Raytheon）這個品牌，是因為真空管。事實上 Raytheon 是相當大規模的軍火商，原廠在會場裡佈置了精緻的情景模型。

最厲害的莫過這個飛彈發射的情境，竟然用棉花做出了濃煙，視覺效果極佳！我第一次看見如此逼真，充滿動感的煙霧模型。

對 1:1 的槍械，就不是那麼有興趣了……

友人試乘國軍的飛行訓練器

別人只是不像你這麼幸運而已

Scott Fitzgerald 的《大亨小傳》（The Great Gatsby）的開場，無疑可以和《雙城記》或《傲慢與偏見》一樣，列入最經典的開場名句：

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.
'Whenever you fell like criticising anyone,' he told me, 'just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.'

這句話非常中肯，一個人有資格評斷其他人、嘲笑其他人，其實在先天上已經佔了不知多少福份；我們並不是生來就比人優越，只是比許多悲慘的人更幸運一點點。

不過每當我想起這句話，卻往往不在打算評斷別人、嘲笑別人的時候，而是在感歎自己命運多舛，人生悲苦的低潮。

To say goodbye is to die a little

To say goodbye is to die a little，告別等於死去一點點。錢德勒說，他媽的法國人對每件事都有個說法，而且總是對的。

但這句話未必是對的。

只有向自己身上的細胞告別，才是真正死去了一點點。

而我看著你死去了一點點，自己也跟著死去了一點點。

No Answer

茂陵劉郎秋風客　夜聞馬嘶曉無跡 

畫欄桂樹懸秋香　三十六宮土花碧 

魏官牽車走千里　東關酸風射眸子 

空將漢月出宮門　憶君情淚如鉛水 

衰蘭送客咸陽道　天若有情天亦老
攜盤獨出月荒涼　渭城已遠聲波小

Here's looking at you kid

Play it, Sam. Play "As Time Goes By."

I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.

Here's looking at you kid.

Feel envy toward those who think they were happy

Italo Calvino 的寫作技法變化多端，在 If on a winter's night a traveler，尤其明顯。Calvino 炫技般地模擬不同作者的風格，書寫短篇小說，篇篇精彩，教人讚歎無已。在另一本書 Invisible Cities 裡，則用了奇妙的形式，把小說寫得像散文，又像詩，意境幽遠。

Leaving there and proceeding for three days toward the east, you reach Diomira, a city with sixty silver domes, bronze statues of all the gods, streets paved with lead, a crystal theater, a golden cock that crows each morning on a tower. All these beauties will already be familiar to the visitor, who has seen them also in other cities. But the special quality of this city for the man who arrives there on a September evening, when the days are growing shorter and the multicolored lamps are lighted all at once at the doors of the food stalls and from a terrace a woman's voice cries ooh!, is that he feels envy toward those who now believe they have once before lived an evening identical to this and who think they were happy, that time.

選自 Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities.