【#StartChing分享】19歲港人英國英詩比賽奪冠：「能寫出這首詩已是一種特權」——Eric Yip
不少港人難以克服「f」和「th」等英語發音，例如是「free」和「three」。一位19歲的劍橋大學經濟系香港學生Eric Yip，以此「借題發揮」寫出一首詩《#Fricatives》，並憑詩在 #英國國家詩詞比賽 奪得冠軍，更成為這個獎項史上最年輕的得主。
《Fricatives》一詩涉獵多個議題，包括是殖民、種族、移民、歸屬感等，「希望透過作品觀照香港今昔的變化，以及抒發伴隨而來的憤怒、沮喪和離鄉內疚之愁。」Eric在接受外媒訪問時表示。
作為離鄉別井的「異鄉港人」，他指出在香港經歷最大規模的 #移民潮 下，不是所有人都能夠離港移民，因此在詩中抒發了倖存者的內疚之愁。「我能夠寫出這一首詩，其實已經是一種特權。」
Fricatives by Eric Yip
To speak English properly, Mrs Lee said, you must learn
the difference between three and free. Three men
escaped from Alcatraz in a rubber raft and drowned
on their way to Angel Island. Hear the difference? Try
this: you fought your way into existence. Better. Look
at this picture. Fresh yellow grains beaten
till their seeds spill. That’s threshing. That’s
submission. You must learn to submit
before you can learn. You must be given
a voice before you can speak. Nobody wants to listen
to a spectacled boy with a Hong Kong accent.
You will have to leave this city, these dark furrows
stuffed full with ancestral bones. Know
that death is thorough. You will speak of bruised bodies
skinnier than yours, force the pen past batons
and blood, call it fresh material for writing. Now
they’re paying attention. You’re lucky enough
to care about how the tongue moves, the seven types
of fricatives, the articulatory function of teeth
sans survival. You will receive a good education
abroad and make your parents proud. You will take
a stranger’s cock in your mouth in the piss-slick stall
of that dingy Cantonese restaurant you love and taste
where you came from, what you were made of all along.
Put some work into it, he growls. C’mon, give me
some bite. Your mother visits one October, tells you
how everyone speaks differently here, more proper.
You smile, nod, bring her to your favourite restaurant,
order dim sum in English. They’re releasing
the students arrested five years ago. Just a tad more
soy sauce please, thank you. The television replays
yesterday on repeat. The teapots are refilled. You spoon
served rice into your mouth, this perfect rice.
Steamed, perfect, white.
文：高妹記者
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