Tuck, the everlasting 不老泉--紐伯瑞獲獎作品

Lexile:770L，AR: 5.0

不老泉的由來：

最早記載于公元前3世紀希臘歷史學(xué)家希羅多德（Herodotus）的記載中，以及希臘歷史學(xué)家卡利斯提尼斯匯編的《亞歷山大大帝傳奇》和12世紀基督教元老約翰王的傳說中。

長生不老在民間傳說中是一個永恒的主題，賢者之石（Philosopher’s stone），萬能藥（Universal Panaceas），長生不老藥（The elixir of life)等故事在歐亞大陸廣為流傳。

（順便說下，J.K.羅琳原來寫的標題是Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone，但在美國發(fā)行時出版商怕讀者不理解Philosopher在此的含義，改成了直白的 sorcerer。）

不老泉通篇的調(diào)調(diào)中隱隱有愛倫坡的味道，精致細膩又帶著股喪。

作者Natalie Babbitt小學(xué)四年級時看愛麗絲漫游奇境記，立志成為插畫家。所以她的行文很有畫面感，描寫泉水所在的林子，青翠欲流。

書末記者問她靈感從何而來？

她說：I mostly write about all the unanswered questions I still have from when I was in elementary school.

大多數(shù)時只是把初中以來一直未有答案的問題寫出來而已。

一．生死

前幾天，女兒告訴我地理課上看了紀錄片，講的是‘萬物變化誰也逃不了’，反正就是講‘生死輪回的’，I’m scared.嚇死寶寶了。好吧，這好像已經(jīng)不是第一次說了，幾年前在學(xué)校里看了空難片，就說以后再也不坐飛機了。

當Tuck與Winnie聊到一切包括生命就像旋轉(zhuǎn)的輪子，永遠有新的進來，永遠在變化，萬物大道本該如此。

Everything's a wheel, turning and turning, never stopping...

Always coming in new, always growing and changing, and always moving on. 

Winnie震驚了，之前沒有人和她認真聊過生死輪回。她實在難以想象有一天自己也會身死燈滅，不論愿或不愿。

All at once her mind was drowned with understanding of what he was saying. For she—yes, even she—would go out of the world willy-nilly someday. Just go out, like the flame of a candle, and no use protesting. It was a certainty.

She would try very hard not to think of it, but sometimes, as now, it would be forced upon her. She raged against it, helpless and insulted, and blurted at last, “I don’t want to die.”

滿是少年人對終有一死的不置信，甚至抱有僥幸心理。

That's the way it's supposed to be. That's the way it is.

老子說：天地不仁，以萬物為芻狗。

        天地尚不能久，而況于人乎？

Tuck覺得cycling是天地正道，喝了不老泉的他面對無盡的寂寞，總是幻想著再次進入這個wheel，對死亡也心向往之。

二．小女孩自我意識的覺醒

Winnie, 這個快11歲的小女孩，連屬于自己家的wood小林子都沒去過，卻有個闖蕩江湖，做些事情改變世界的夢想

Something that would make some kind of difference in the world.

當她終于克服恐懼，獨自來到林中，遇見Jesse（Tuck一家的小兒子），產(chǎn)生朦朧的感情，發(fā)現(xiàn)泉水，繼而又在被迫前往Tuck家的路上，聽到了這個有生以來最奇特的故事。

認識到Tuck’s 是她的朋友，獨自離家的恐懼忽然無影無蹤，世界在她面前打開。

The sweet earth opened out its wide four corners to her like the petals of a flower ready to be picked, and it shimmered with light and possibility till she was dizzy with it.

在Tuck家度過的半天一夜，Winnie對他們一家充滿了好感。當Tuck的妻子Mae槍殺了想獨占泉水的陌生人，Winnie被警察送回家的路上，穿過一片清涼的松樹林，世界在她面前鋪陳開來，仍然充滿了各種可能性，但這次不同，她將去阻止某事的發(fā)生。

Winnie saw again the wide world spread before her, shimmering with light and possibility.But the possibilities were different now. They did not point to what might happen to her but to what she herself might keep from happening.

回到家中，Winnie意識到了自己已經(jīng)不是原來那個Winnie了。

She was different. Things had happened to her that were hers alone, and had nothing to do with them. It was the first time. And no amount of telling about it could help them understand or share what she felt. It was satisfying and lonely, bothe at once.

Tuck幾人準備趁夜偷偷救出Mae，Winnie桃代李僵，為其掩護。

Winnie在自己房間等待午夜的降臨，她清楚知道這么做是被禁止的，違背了家人的教誨。但她必須去做。

she was about to do something which she knew would be forbidden. She didn’t have to ask.

The thought made her feel more guily than ever that she should once more take advantage of their trust. But tonight, this one last time, she had to .

最終Mae獲救，Winnie 好像聽到了遠處傳來的朦朧的樂曲聲，親愛的Tuck一家走了

She thought she heard, fading in the distance, the tinkling little melody of the music box. The Tucks-her darling Tucks-were gone.

Winnie最終沒有喝下泉水，60幾年后，當Tuck一家再次來訪，此時已經(jīng)是1950年，一切都已發(fā)生翻天覆地地變化，Winnie度過了平凡的一生，成為別人的妻子、母親，并于2年前去世。

Tuck 站在墓前，敬了個禮，說了聲“Good girl”，然后快速地離開了。

三．雙重否定表示否定

在英、美等國的許多方言中，可以用兩個或兩個以上的否定詞來表示一個簡單的否定意思。                --牛津英語用法指南

現(xiàn)今正式場合及受教育程度高的人群中很少這么用，文中也說明了Tuck一家居住偏遠，受教育程度低（文中絕不是貶義，反而是為了襯托一種未經(jīng)修飾的純真，natural），形成對比的是受過高等教育的用心險惡的陌生人。

文中雙重否定表示肯定主要出現(xiàn)在Mae (Tuck的妻子）的對話中：

We’re plain as salt, us Tucks. We don’t deserve no blessings- if it is a blessing.（any blessings）

There was a man on the road, just outside Treegap. But he didn’t say nothing. (say anything)

四．Prologue 序章

回看序章，作者的所有觀點在這短短兩頁中都已經(jīng)體現(xiàn)。

優(yōu)美簡潔，值得一再回味。