芬威大道300號

即將學成歸國的友人，提起希望能在回國前看到下雪的景致，雖然年年剷雪的經驗仍舊畢生難忘。第一次看到雪很興奮，等到經歷過下完雪之後的痛苦，就會深刻體會到浪漫的代價有多高。

第一次讀到詩人Wallace Stevens的作品"The Snowman"，是在當年的美國詩選的課上。那時絞盡腦汁要擠出一篇關於Wallace Stevens的心得報告，讀著"The Snowman"，英國圖畫書作者Raymond Briggs的經典作品《雪人》The Snowman就這麼跳了出來。書中場景搭配著改編的電影配樂，一幕幕出現在腦海裡，讓我順利即時交出作業。雖然當時是情急之下趕出來的作業，可是事後再回想，這首詩與同名圖畫書的確有相呼應的地方。尤其最後的結尾，兩者同樣讓人傷感。

The Snowman

by Wallace Stevens

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

Raymond Briggs的《雪人》所改編成的動畫電影也成了經典，以下有動畫片段，包含著名主題曲"Walking in the Air"：