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古老的大鐘 |
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3/12/2003
「西風的話」教孩子季節更迭，大自然的律動；
平井堅「古老的大鐘」則是引導孩子認識生命的週期。
歌名的「鐘」是時鐘，而不是教堂的鐘，
歌曲改編自美國童謠，原名是「祖父的時鐘」。
這首在台灣很少人唱的美國童謠，四十年前傳入日本後，
落地生根，幾乎已成為日本人心中屬於自己的童謠。
平井堅的日語唱腔充滿了日本獨有的哀愁民謠風，
不經提醒的話根本察覺不出其實是美國童謠。
我們可能都會避免把死亡概念放入童謠的歌詞中，
(可能就是這首童謠過去未獲台灣青睞的原因)
「古老的大鐘」卻透過伴隨祖父一生的老時鐘故事，
帶領孩子回顧祖父由誕生、結婚而至老死的一生，
曲子在嘀答不歇的鐘擺節奏中進行，
藉由矗立家中的大時鐘娓娓敘述生命的悲喜與起落。
而老時鐘最後亦在老人百年後停擺，歌詞哀傷感人。
平井堅以截然不同於傳統的抒情唱法給歌曲注入新的生命，
歌聲彷彿教我們重新省思秒分、光陰、歲月乃至生命的面貌，
童謠之所以常感人熱淚，正是因為碰觸了人的心裡那最單純，
也最容易隨著時光而模糊甚至閉鎖的部份。
My grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf,
Ninety years, without slumbering (tick,tick,tick,tick),
In watching its pendulum swing to and fro,
My grandfather said of those he could hire,
It rang an alarm in the dead of the night
Grandfather's Clock
- lyrics & music by Henry Clay Work(1876)
So it stood ninety years on the floor;
It was taller by half than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born,
And was always his treasure and pride;
But it stopp'd short, never to go again
When the old man died.
His life seconds slumbering (tick, tick, tick, tick),
It stopp'd short never to go again,
When the old man died.
Many hours had he spent while a boy;
And in childhood and manhood the clock seemed to know
And to share both his grief and his joy.
For it struck twenty-four when he entered at the door,
With a blooming and beautiful bride;
But it stopp'd short, never to go again
When the old man died.
Not a servant so faithful he found;
For it wasted no time, and had but one desire
At the close of each week to be wound.
And kept in its place not a frown upon its face,
And ist hands never hung by its side;
But it stopp'd short, never to go again
When the old man died.
An alarm that for years had been dumb;
And we knew that his spirit was pluming for flight
That his hour of departure had come.
Still the clock kept the time, with a soft and muffled chime,
As we silently stood by his side;
But it stopp'd short, never to go again
When the old man died.
