上一次我们一起看了Thomas Mann 写的The Delicatessen, 一片很不错的场景描写。Mann 通过他的眼睛让我们和他一起观察，而今天，我们将和Christopher Morley一起用耳朵来感受。

Chestnut Street


Just outside our office window is a fire-escape with a little iron balcony. In warm days, when the tall windows are wide open, that rather splendid platform is our favorite vantage ground for watching Chestnut Street. We have often thought how pleasant it would be to have a pallet spread out there, so that we could do our work in that reclining posture that is so inspiring.


But we can tell a good deal of what is going on along Chestnut street without leaving or desk. Chestnut street sings a music of its own. Its genial human sympathy could never be mistaken for that of any other highway. The various strands of sound that compose its harmony gradually sink into our mind without our paying conscious heed to them. For instance, there is the light sliding swish of the trolley poles along the wire, accompanied by the deep rocking rumble of the car, and the crash as it pounds over the cross-tracks at Sixth street. There is the clear mellow clang of the trolley gongs, the musical trill of fast wagon wheels running along the trolley rails, and the rattle of hoofs on the cobbled strip between the metals. Particularly easy to identify is the sound every citizen knows, the rasping, sliding clatter of a wagon turning off the car track so that a trolley can pass it. The front wheels have left the track, but the back pair are scraping along against the setts before mounting over the rim.


Every street has its own distinctive noises and the attentive ear accustoms itself to them until they become almost a part of the day's enjoyment. The deep-toned bell of Independence Hall bronzing the hours is part of our harmony here, and no less familiar is the vigorous tap—tap of Blind Al's stick. Al is the well-known news dealer at the Corner of Chestnut and Fifth. Several times a day he passes along under our windows, and the tinkle of his staff is a well-known and pleasant note in our ears. We like to imagine, too, that we can recognize the peculiarly soft and easy-going rumble of a wagon of watermelons.

Morley是美国的一位小说和散文作家。在这段节选中，他的生花妙笔如录音机一般使我们仿佛也置身于Chestnut Street之中，让我们真切地体会到这条小街的特色。


这段节选的文字在结构上非常严密。第一段以自豪的口吻描写在窗外的阳台上看小街景色的惬意，引出描写对象，并为下面的听觉描写作铺垫。


然后，在第二段开头，作者写道：“But we can tell a good deal of what is going on along Chestnut street without leaving our work.”轻轻松松地就将话题转向了小街的声音。Chestnut street 会唱自己的歌，各个声部组合在一起，便构成了作者熟悉的节奏。这些声音主要是由各种交通工具发出来的，而且不间断的在小街上响起，因此作者将它们归入一段。


不仅仅如此，Chestnut street 上还会传来与众不同的声响，作者在了第三段当中进行了描写，比如悠扬低沉的钟声、嘀嘀嘟嘟的拐杖敲地声和柔和亲切的西瓜车声音。
同时，在巧妙的结构中，作者还运用了不少高超的描写技法。最值得一提的是通感。通感，简单地说，就是将一种感觉用描写另外一种感觉的话写出来。比如说“红杏枝头春意闹”就是一个典型的通感，将视觉转化为听觉。在写作的过程中，我们最惯用的就是视觉向听觉的转换，因为我们平时对外界世界的观察了解多半来自于视觉，视觉使我们最依赖的一种感觉。在文中，像 “The deep-toned bell of Independence Hall bronzing the hours…”也是视觉到听觉的通感。


作者还试图通过节奏感把声音传递给我们。他使用了头韵如rocking rumble,和音如the light sliding swish of the trolley poles和类韵如light sliding等，在音韵中，我们似乎感受到了马车、电车、汽车驶过时的音响效果。


另外，拟声也是一个有效的手法。Morley的作品和Mann的作品不同，这篇文章主要是听觉方面的内容，显然，要用大量的拟声词才能达到传声的目的。你声词主要集中在第二段，如swish, rumble, clang, trill, rattle, clatter等等。


现在，你能不能也用两三段的笔墨来一个听觉描写呢？要写好这类文章，你最好也必须强迫自己只用耳朵来感受。不要用眼睛看你的描写对象，闭上眼睛或者把头调到其他方向，专心听。有很多题目可供你选择，你可以像Morley一样写一条街，也可以写写音乐会开始前的音乐厅或者是木工的工作间。