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）

我的房间朝阳，无论我熬夜到什么时候，晴朗的夏季早晨醒来时都会感觉到光明和清新；我会起身，做早餐，看电视，冲个澡。如果没到六点，我通常会喝杯茶，再睡个回笼觉，直到七点醒来，感觉头昏沉沉的。

[2]如果是住在姐姐家，我则会一直睡到孩子们把我叫醒，或直到姐姐从某辆出租车后座一跃而出，风风火火进到屋里，谁早谁叫我。我可以起得很早，也可以睡得很死。

[3]今天早上，我醒来时身子抽了一下，就像头里的闹钟给了我一次小小的电击；屋外并不是晴天，我拉开窗帘，天空灰蒙蒙的，如同大海的颜色，看起来一整天都不会出太阳了。

[4]我起床下了楼，大厅的挂钟显示差不多六点半了。我泡好茶，烤好面包，把麦片和牛奶倒进碗里，然后把所有这些都放在一个托盘里端回楼上我的卧室。

[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]哥哥起床准备去上班，我听见他在浴室里哐当作响，便下楼去给他泡茶。大约五分钟后，他身穿工作服下楼来到厨房，一大早，他的眼睛几乎还未睁开，枕着枕头睡了一夜后，他的头发不是胡乱翘着，就是紧贴着。他基本上都是左侧睡，所以左脸上都有了纹路，左侧的头发也是最乱的。

[6]“早安。”我说。

“嗯嗯。”

[7]我回了房间，留下他一个人把想吃的东西吃完。在房间里，我喝完茶，吃完烤面包，打开收音机，然后便钻回被子里。有时我喜欢思考，有时又喜欢直截了当。

（二）

[8]今天早上，我想思考一会儿。

*

[9]今天是父亲的生日，母亲不会提及此事。哥哥可能会提，只是想引起一场吵闹，因此我要让他下班回家后保持好心情。每年父亲生日的时候，我都要为他画一幅像，每年他看上去都有点儿变化。我是个画家。哦，我说过。这并不是说我画的线更直，或画的圈更圆，就像学校里老师努力教我们做的那样。我只是比别人表达得更清晰、更真实。我知道这一点。

[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），法国画家，印象派创始人。” 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），英国画家及诗人。.” 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欧洲中部的小公国，位于奥地利和瑞士之间。and Warhol4（1928—1987），美国艺术家，波普艺术的倡导者和领袖。, 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]我也读了很多书，大部分是关于画家的。某个阶段，我会喜欢上某位画家或某个艺术运动，那时会尽力像他们那样去作画。父亲回来时，我就可以说“这就是您，那时我12岁，爱上了莫奈”或者“这是您38岁生日的时候，我14岁，您已经走了5年，那时我希望自己画得像丹提·加布里埃尔·罗塞蒂”。而他会看每一幅画，知道我爱他，永远不会忘记他。

[11]去年，我印了些T恤衫，大部分在学校卖了，有些是我说服肯德拉替我卖的。这个海滩上的家伙还穿了几件。

[12]现在，我喜欢线条，简单的线条。这是我痴迷书法六个月后的新发现，源自我爱上卡通画的那个阶段，源自列支敦士登和沃霍尔，以及一路经过的一切。于是，我拿出炭笔和几支粉笔，将一张厚厚的灰色A3纸用针钉在一块木板上，我坐在床上，把木板支在膝盖上。

< 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），西班牙画家，立体派创始人，20世纪最多产和最有影响的画家之一。, or Chagall6（1887—1985），俄裔画家，以梦幻式的奇特意象且色彩亮丽的布面油画闻名。.

[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 教育福利员。.

[13]每当周六早上母亲干活儿的时候，父亲便会带我到镇上去，而我会拽着他去逛那些美术用品店。我8岁生日的时候，他给我买了一个画架，一个真正的画架，不是小孩子的那种。我9岁生日的时候，他给我买了油画颜料。我6岁生日的时候，他曾给我买过99支一盒的蜡笔。

（三）

[14]“画我吧。”他会说。“哦，爸爸，我不会。”
[15]有的日子，早上醒来，我会发现枕头上放着一本关于毕加索或夏加尔的书。

[16]我应该去学校，真的该去。我并不是那种害怕上学的孩子，我没有恐惧症或别的什么。我没有被胁迫，我也不笨。我只是找不到好的理由把时间浪费在教室里学习物理、公民权或佛教什么的。我可以在图书馆里学那些玩意儿。假如我去了图书馆，11年级的级长菲尔明天就会因此而训斥我。两个月后我要参加考试。我们达成了协议，我保证会参加，他则表示会征得教育福利员的同意。

[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]我要告诉菲尔实情，那天是我父亲生日，我陪他过了。

[18]好吧，我要花些时间考虑他的头发，我想他的头发可能没有去年那么灰白了；我知道头发不是每年以相同的速度变白，但今年我要让他的头发长长些。想象中，我觉得他还重了几磅。然而，我脑中定格了他的微笑，也许有点儿模糊了，当他开心但走神的时候，或者在我冲着他絮絮叨叨而他试图理解我的时候，他就会那样微笑。

[19]要画头和肩膀了，我要让他穿一件T恤衫，这样可以展示他的脖子和喉咙，展示他有多么强壮，他的眼睛有多么闪亮，他的眉毛有多么平直，而且依然那么乌黑。

[20]我尽力思考我想要展示多少，以及我还想要表达多少。

[21]之后，我拿起一支炭棒，画了起来。我拿起一支粉笔，给他的眼睛添上了一点点颜色，然后又用另一支粉笔画了他的嘴巴。

< 4 >

[22] And there he is.

Dad.

There you are. ■

（四）

[22] 画好了。

父亲。

别来无恙。 □

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 阳 依 然 升 起

文/詹姆斯·罗斯 译/张国君 审订/肖文