《智慧的七柱》(Seven Pillars of Wisdom) (閱記之三)

T. E. Lawrence是個文人。將他與其筆下的戰友相比，你能感受到他那富感性的柔和，不是軟弱，只是擁有剛烈軍人所沒有的敏感直覺。他常自嘲，內心充滿掙扎，不斷反思，否定自己，心底卻是好勝。可能是這複雜的性格，成就這場非一般的戰事。

戰場是男人的舞台，加上亞拉伯男尊女卑，鮮有女性出現。而書中人與人的情感寫得細膩，同袍手足之情只是其中一樣，還有其他其他。像，像書中其中一對自小在山區牧羊的陽光少年，機敏靈巧，本質純真卻又帶點狡猾天性，而雙方相親相愛得Lawrence形容為 ”give and take” 的關係。我不盡理解，卻聯想到《斷背山》。

Lawrence未婚，有說他是同性戀。

書的開頭有首詩，據說是寫給他的愛人，一個戰前Lawrence作考古時曾協助他的亞拉伯少年:

To S.A.

I loved you, so I drew these tides of

 Men into my hands

 And wrote my will across the

 Sky and stars

 To earn you freedom, the seven

 Pillared worthy house,

 That your eyes might be

 Shining for me

 When we came

Death seemed my servant on the

 Road, 'til we were near

 And saw you waiting:

 When you smiled and in sorrowful

 Envy he outran me

 And took you apart:

 Into his quietness

Love, the way-weary, groped to your body,

 Our brief wage

 Ours for the moment

 Before Earth's soft hand explored your shape

 And the blind

 Worms grew fat upon

 Your substance

 

Men prayed me that I set our work,

 The inviolate house,

 As a memory of you

 But for fit monument I shattered it,

 Unfinished: and now

 The little things creep out to patch

 Themselves hovels

 In the marred shadow

 Of your gift.