Orlando Patterson, John Cowles Professor of Sociology
“Albert Camus’ ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’: I first came across that book in the year between high school and college. I pulled it from the library shelf thinking it was going to be a book on mythology and discovered, of course, that it is a philosophical treatise, which I immediately felt a strong affinity to. Of course I didn’t understand most of it when I first read it. I took it with me to college and basically read it over and over again right through college until I felt I understood it, through the process of absorption. It greatly influenced me.
“My very first book was a novel, called ‘The Children of Sisyphus,’ and it was about the poverty and utter despair of the people who live in the shantytowns of Kingston. I had decided that what I was learning, what I was experiencing, was best expressed in terms of a novel. All through that time, what strikes you most living in or visiting this extreme poverty is the whole question of what makes life meaningful for these people, which in a way is the central question that motivated Camus. The shades of not just despair but the kinds of existential angst that he is going through. What makes life meaningful? How can one survive? People living on the dung heap, who live off the trash and the refuse of the rest of the city, where do they find meaning?
“That theme of meaning and meaningless resonated with me, and it carried through to higher levels as I moved from Jamaica to Britain and also to other works by Camus. In many ways, his ideas remained with me not in the sense that I return to him any more, but in the sense that he formed the initial foundation of my thinking. I think I moved on, but he was the right philosopher and the right novelist for me at the time.”
"Travailler et créer 'pour rien', sculpter dans l'argile, savoir que sa création n'a pas d'avenir, voir son oeuvre détruite en un jour en étant conscient que, profondément, cela n'a pas plus d'importance que de bâtir pour des siècles, c'est la sagesse difficile que la pensée absurde autorise. Mener de front ces deux tâches, nier d'un côté et exalter de l'autre, c'est la voie qui s'ouvre au créateur absurde. Il doit donner au vide ses couleurs".
Albert Camus, "Le Mythe de Sisyphe", 1942
Albert Camus, "The Myth of Sisyphus", 1942
Ben Chen 從今誰復補蒼天？
獨來獨往困刑天！
http://www.storm.mg/article/93532
「干戚如今舞已難，獨來獨往困刑天；
頭顱已斫何須好，肝膽猶存未忍捐。
垂垂老矣吳剛斧，西緒弗斯上下山。
上帝已死諸神渴，滄海橫流剩一灣。」
這是有如離騷的傷時代之作，豈是“打油詩“三字所能當？
Ben Chen 說是打油詩，到時候可以不認帳，免得被抓去關起來
「落花時節又逢君」，杜甫的《江南逢李龜年》，馬英九也寫過，不知他會想起什麼人？
邵燕祥的打油詩《從今》，結尾冒出：「茴香豆饗李龜年」，又是指何而言？
在讀邵燕祥的舊詩集，碰上幾個謎團。"滄海橫流剩一灣"、"萬里兵符出四川"到底是在說什麼？雖然我有卲燕祥的email,但不想冒然寫信去打擾老作家，於是想將這些疑問發表在刊物上。
明報月刊六月號，刊出了我這一篇《茴香豆饗李龜年---邵燕祥詠八O年代》，在中港矛盾日益突出、又到了六四敏感的時刻，香港學生的紀念活動正蓄勢待發，此文可以說是搭上香港人六四情結的便車才刊登的。從邵燕祥的舊體詩，一窺大陸代表性的知識分子如何評價趙紫陽的歷史地位和六四事件。
邵燕祥涉及六四的幾首詩的分析，可Google:風傳媒、邵燕祥、陳健邦。
當初，考慮這個題目，現在台灣可能很少人會感興趣，這篇稿子，在今年三月先寄給明報月刊，等了十天沒有回應，我又多加入一段錢鍾書「作詩作賊事相等」的説法，才寄去風傳媒登出。四月底，明報月刊的編輯才知會，準備發表這篇文章，但他們原則上不刊登已發表過的文章，希望我能撒下已發表過的網頁，這令我陷入尷尬。好在後來取得諒解，我略為修飾文句，明報月刊接受之。
邵燕祥有一本書《別了，毛澤東》，書名如此敏感，只能在香港出版。
「邵燕祥的存在，至少提示我們，中國文人的苦路正長，奮鬥正長，信念正長。」魯迅博物館館長孫郁如是說。
明報月刊，現在在台灣好像只有誠品書店找得到。
「邵燕祥的存在，至少提示我們，中國文人的苦路正長，奮鬥正長，信念正長。」魯迅博物館館長孫郁如是說。
明報月刊，現在在台灣好像只有誠品書店找得到。
邵燕祥有詩：
不求甚解不求深，但願知音知我心；
辜負錦囊好句多，偏于痛史費沈吟。
不求甚解不求深，但願知音知我心；
辜負錦囊好句多，偏于痛史費沈吟。
「文章久重春秋筆」，在關鍵時刻，卲燕祥沒有令人失望。《六里橋》、《從今》、《書憤》這幾首詩都是他對「痛史」的春秋筆，在大陸知識分子之中有許多知音。一百年後，會成為歷史名篇，得到後世的肯定。