Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) was an American author and journalist. He lived in Key West, Florida from 1928 to 1939, in a house now known as the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum. This house is only one street way from beach and is less than 10-minute walk from the Southernmost point of the continental of USA. We visited the Hemingway Home in late afternoon of 2022 Christmas day after three hour driving from Miami. When we arrived, the house was about to close, but we managed to enter there in the last minute.
The house is a two-story Spanish Colonial Revival-style home that was built in 1851 and originally owned by a ship captain named Asa Tift. The property features lush tropical gardens, a pool, and a number of six-toed cats. These cats are descendants of a polydactyl cat named Snow White, a gift to Hemingway from a ship’s captain, and they are now cared for by the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum. When we entered the courtyard, the first notable scene was those cats. The cats interreact with visitors well and they do not feel afraid or distractable when people approach them. These cats are so adorable and lovely that artists depicted them in several paintings.
Inside the house or museum, there are many exhibitions such as pictures and artifacts, which tell story about his life experience and career. He served as an ambulance driver in World War I, journalist covered the Spanish Civil War and World War II, a traveler to the many corners of the world, and an influential figure who met many nobles in his time, including Madam Mei-ling Soong, the first lady of China in 1941. In the garden, while the majority of plants and architecture are of tropical style, there is a small corner planed with bamboo, which may be his remembrance for his visits to Asia (he did travel to China, Japan, and the Philippines).
Ernest Hemingway is best known for his novels and prose, particularly his novels, such as “The Sun Also Rises” (1926), “A Farewell to Arms” (1929), and “The Old Man and the Sea” (1952), as well as short stories such as “Hills like White Elephants” (1927) and “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” (1936). He was awarded for The Nobel Prize in Literature 1954. However, he did write some poetry as well, although they were not as famous as his short stories. His poetry, just like his short stories, is quite simplistic, and minimalistic. In the book store of the museums, I bought “Ernest Hemingway Complete Poems, revised version, edited by Nicholas Gerogiannis).
I selected following poem from above book as a good example of his simplistic style:
The rail ends do not meet...
The rail ends do not meet The sun goes down And only rivers run no race Nor does still water run so deep Levine, Levine, the Hebrew ace Mackerel skies at night are the sailor's delight Or they break the sailor's heart A sailor's life is the life for me The ground rolls green As green as the sea
Although this poem is a simple, short and straightforward, it gives the reader an image of a sailor proud of or disappointed with unfair treatment of Charles Levine (Note: Charles Levine was world’s first transatlantic air passenger. For people interest in his story, please see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_A._Levine), but it also opens for interpretation whether a sailor was longing for and if he was struggling with of unfulfilled desires or understanding and connection in the world. Readers may interpret the poem in many different ways.
I was curious if Hemingway ever wrote something about the cats because he had so much fondness for cats and kept many of them at his home in Key West. Unfortunately, he did not write poem specifically about cats, but he did write the short story “A Cat in the Rain” in1925，which features a cat as a minor but significant character. In the story, the American wife sees the cat outside the window during a rainstorm and wishes to rescue it, which leads to a deeper contemplation of her relationship with her husband. The cat in the story is described as “a big, fat, white cat” and the wife’s desire to rescue it serves as a symbol for her own feelings of loneliness and isolation.
Hemingway’s life was marked by personal tragedy and he had struggled with depression and alcoholism throughout his life. He committed suicide in 1961 at the age of 61. He died, but his work and his 6-toed cats will live forever.
欧内斯特·海明威（1899-1961）是美国作家和记者。 他从 1928 年到 1939 年住在佛罗里达州基韦斯特，现在被称为欧内斯特·海明威故居和博物馆的一所房子。这所房子距离海滩只有一条街，距离美国大陆的最南端不到 10 分钟的步行路程。我们是在2022 年圣诞节从迈阿密驱车三个多小时, 下午近傍晚时分到达那里参观海明威故居。 我们到时，故居即将关闭，但我们在最后一分钟想法进了故居。
这座房子是一座两层楼的西班牙殖民复兴风格的住宅，建于 1851 年，最初由一位名叫 Asa Tift 的船长所有。 该物业内有郁郁葱葱的热带花园、游泳池和许多六趾猫。 这些猫是一只名叫白雪公主的多趾猫的后代，是船长送给海明威的礼物，现在由欧内斯特·海明威故居和博物馆照看。 一进院子，首先映入眼帘的就是那些猫。 这些猫与访客的相处友好，当人们接近它们时，它们不会感到害怕或分心。这些猫是如此可爱迷人，难怪艺术家把他们画进几幅画中。
博物馆内，有许多图片、文物等展品，描绘了海明威一生的人生经历和事业。 他在第一次世界大战中当过救护车司机，报道过西班牙内战和第二次世界大战，游历过世界的许多角落，也是在他那个时代结识过许多有影响力的人物，其中包括1941 年中国的第一夫人宋美龄。在花园里，虽然大部分植物和建筑都是热带风格，但有一角地方种有竹子，这可能是他对亚洲之行的纪念吧(他确实去过中国、日本和菲律宾).
欧内斯特·海明威以其的小说和散文而闻名，尤其是他的小说，例如《太阳照常升起》（1926 年）、《永别了，武器》（1929 年）和《老人与海》（1952 年） )，以及短篇小说，如《山如白象》(1927)、《乞力马扎罗的雪》(1936)。 他于1954年获诺贝尔文学奖。不过， 他也写过一些诗，只是他的诗不如他的小说出名。 但他的诗歌，就像他的短篇小说一样，非常简单、短小精悍。 在博物馆的书店里，我买了本《欧内斯特·海明威诗集诗修订版，尼古拉斯·格罗吉安尼斯主编》。
下面的这首诗作节选于这本诗集，可作为他诗作简单风格的一个例子：
轨道的两端不会相交…,,,
轨道的两端不会相交
日落
和没有追逐的大河奔腾
也没有那么深的静水灌流
莱文，莱文，希伯来王牌飞行者
夜晚的鲭鱼般的天空是水手的喜悦
或者他们把水手的心一劈两半
水手的生活就是我的向往
大地渐渐铺开绿色如茵
大海的绿色
这首诗虽然简单、短小、直白，却给读者描绘了为而查尔斯·莱文自豪，但又对他受到不公平对待感到失望的水手形象（注：查尔斯·莱文是世界上第一位跨大西洋的航空旅客。 对他的故事感兴趣的人，请看https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_A._Levine），同时也打开了如何解读一个水手是否渴望和挣扎于未实现的欲望或理解 和世界的联系。读者可以用许多不同的方式来解读这首诗。
因为海明威喜欢猫，并且在他在基韦斯特的家中养了这么多猫，我很好奇海明威是否曾经写过关于猫的东西。 令人失望的是，他并没有专门写关于猫的诗，但他确实在1925年写了短篇小说《雨中的猫》，在这篇小说中， 猫是一个次要但重要的角色。 故事里，美国妻子在一场暴雨中看到窗外的猫，想要去救它，引发了她对丈夫关系的更深思索。 故事中的猫被描述为“一只又大又肥的白猫”，妻子想要拯救它的愿望象征着她自己的孤独和孤立感。
海明威的一生充满了个人悲剧，他一生都在与抑郁症和酗酒作斗争。 他于 1961 年自杀，享年 61 岁。他死了，但他的作品和他的六趾猫将永存于世。
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