“Chai 9 Breasts” and a Kid's Sonnet

“Chai 9 Breasts” and a Sonnet by a 12-Year-Old Canadian-born-Chinese

上星期六，無意中看到紀曉風的 2014.11.14 "香港英語水平差過內地 恐被邊緣化" 的文章，又拜讀壇友上貼幾位尊貴香江議員在不同的會議或者委員會上發表的「創意英語」，精彩絕倫，令人驚嘆，真個大開眼界，耳福不淺！例如：

1. 一位議員為民請命，排眾而出，顕然不怕犧牲，慷慨陳詞：「搓 my breast！」
 
    Bravo! 如此壯言豪語！ (那是位男議員，應該說不上是 空前豪語 吧！)

2. 某議員將 infrastructure 說成「煙花塞牆。」

     好哇！祇是創意較小，在下讀名校中一 Form 1 之時，英文堂指定要全部英語對白，禾也是      用中文(粵語) ’拼音譯出’ 英文生字 vocabularies.

3. 另一位’海歸’ 「雙碩士」議員說, “You are dreaming on your office! You are not attend on your office!”

     更加厲害！立法局應有很高質素即時傳譯服務 simultaneous interpretation。棄而不用，內有      乾坤？高深莫測。在下中英文水平有限，不敢貿然置評。然則有大勇者，力譯如下：                 "You’ve been daydreaming at your office! You’ve not been attentive to your work!"

本人閱讀貼文後，感慨萬千。一名97前傳逃兵，與一家大小，去國離鄉，遠走他方，主要原因之一，是給予子女一個可以得到更好的高等教育機會！

現在，子女的子女已經超標達成了！感覺非常良好，老懷大慰。

事緣上月看見兩孫兒人人手執英文課外書一部，到處看個飽，津津有味。好奇心起，上前看看，十二歲的孫子 (Grade 7 student 即 Form 1 中學生) 正在閱讀沙翁名著 “凱撒大帝” Julius Caesar。正想看清楚是那一版本的縮短作品 abridged version，呀！原來是原裝版本！這也是我當年 FORM 5 的指定英文課本。心想：你看是看了，但不知你真的吸收了多少。寫英文句子，文法文理可以運用自如嗎？ 

答案上周末出現了。

我發現孫子正在家裡埋首寫一首十四行詩 a sonnet**！(嚇死我了，我也寫不好十四行詩。) 這是學校要求在國殤日 Remembrance Day 做的家課 (November 11: 今年是 ”一戰” 百週年紀念)。時寫時停，他獨自用了大約二小時完成以下作品 (當然不是一首"正式"的十四行詩)：

Sonnet 2: Our Brave Soldiers – by ’A 12-Year-Old’

The day of Remembrance is again come!
They fought for us in day time and in night,
Whether by sea, sky, or land they did fight.
Our soldiers fought for our freedom and won.
Steering their submarines through the water,
Flying their army planes high in the air,
Diving and avoiding mines ev’rywhere,
Bravely they fought in the midst of slaughter.
Today and forever we remember,
We remember those who  help’d in the war,
And those who are not around anymore.
We honour them greatly in November.
We commemorate those who fought for us,
So we remember, remember them – we must!


** 加拿大Grade 7 某私校學生在學校 “Grammar and Poetry” 堂的筆記：

The Sonnet
The preeminent English poet and playwright, Shakespeare published a sequence of 154 sonnets in 1609 that continue to be regarded as the highest perfection of the form in English.
 Sonnet XVIII
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (details not repeated here)
(There is another famous sonnet by William Wordsworth, not  shown here)
Sonnet

• A formal poem: rhythm and rhyme
• 14 lines of 10 syllables each
• Rhythm is iambic: an iamb is a rhythmic “foot” consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable; occasionally, for variety and effect, an iamb is replaced by a spondee, two stressed syllables following each other
• Each line is a pentameter, meaning it has five feet (“penta” means 5 in Greek)
• Sonnets come in  two main forms:

“Shakespearean” and “Petrarchan”: they use the same rhythm but differ in rhyme scheme. (details not repeated here)
A Shakespearean sonnet has 3 quatrains and a couplet; a Petrarchan sonnet has 2 quatrains and a sextet.
There is usually a change of theme or emphasis between the first 8 lines and the last 6 lines in both forms