Roald Dahl

2012.6.5


這是我與原文小說的第一次接觸。
在國外這是給國小的小朋友看的，可是裡面的單字量完全沒有比其他地方少，而且故事情節發展過程中，主角們一興奮作者就會搭配一段詩歌形式的"韻文"來交代接下來的發展，那裏面的用字就會有很多現在較少見的，或是為了押韻使用冷門單字。不然就是作者配合人物情緒的起伏，有時候會讓一個單字變形(這種最麻煩)表現出他的驚訝、憤怒、懷疑之類的。我覺得讀原文小說超累的，光查單字就會覺得天昏地暗沒完沒了，但是從故事裡面記單字比較自然而然，也比較不會忘。尤其是當你很想知道這一句是甚麼意思，可是最關鍵的單字看不懂的時候，我猜背單字的祕訣就在於那股想要知道的渴望吧!練習用非母語來想像一個畫面，或是理解一個完整的故事會讓人覺得原來英文也是有血有肉的，很生動。還有，因為作者是以英語為母語，所以他不會讓差不多意思的詞重複，所以能夠學到的也更多。

《from "James and the Jaint Peach"》
"James stared into the bag , and sure enough there was a faint rustling sound coming up from inside it , and then he noticed that all the thousands of little green things were slowly , very very slowly stirring about and moving over each other as though they were alive.  "

""Crocodile tongues!"he cried."One thousand long slimy crocodile tongues boiled up in the skull of a dead witch for twenty days and nights with the eyeballs of a lizard! Add the fingers of a young monkey , the gizzard of a pig , the beakof a green parrot , the juice of a porcupine , andthree spoonfuls of sugar.Stew for another week , and then let the moon do the rest!""

"The garden lay soft and silver in the moonlight.The grass was wet with drew and a million dewdrops were sparkling and twinkling like diamonds around his feet.And now suddenly , the whole place , the whole garden , seemed to be alive with magic."←視覺摹寫

"James Henry Trotter and his companions crouched close toghther on top of the peach as the night began closing in around them.Clouds like mountains towered high above their heads on all sides , mysterious , menacing , overwhelming.Gradually it grew darker and darker , and then a pale threequarter moon came up over the tops of the clouds and cast an eerie light over the whole scene.The giant peach swayed gently from side to side as it floated along , and the hundreds of silky white strings going upward from its stem were beautiful in the moonlight.So also was the great flock of seagulls overhead."←視覺摹寫

Roald Dahl還有很多有名的童書:
《Charlie and the Chocolate Factory》(巧克力工廠的秘密)
《The Witches》(女巫)(1983年英國惠特布萊德獎得獎作品)
《The BFG》(吹夢巨人)
《Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator》(玻璃大升降機歷險記)......



作者生平、書籍介紹...→http://www.roalddahl.com/
兒童慈善機構(Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity exists to make seriously ill children's lives better)→http://www.roalddahlcharity.org/Default.asp?PageID=3