1991年到美國念書，我沒買電腦，卻把該用來買電腦的預算挪去買了音響。

「你喜歡聽人聲嗎？」我的一個朋友問。於是他借給我King's Singers "Watching the White Wheat"，男聲六重唱演唱英國民謠。那張CD的hi fi性能非常好，在我的音響上聽來簡直像能看到六個人一字排開，發聲吐氣有如就在眼前。編曲和演唱技巧都非常好，和聲完美宛若波浪層疊。

那是我第一次聽到Star of the County Down，像掉進黑洞般被這首歌吸引。一直以為它的歌詞應該很感人，多年後在網路上終於找到，卻失笑於它的silly。但是跟著CD再看幾遍，覺得質樸中更有動人之處。

Near Banbridge town in the County Down

One morning last July

From a boreen green came a sweet colleen

And she smiled as she passed me by

She looked so sweet from her two bare feet

To the sheen of her nut brown hair

Such a coaxing elf, sure I shook myself

For to see I was really there

As she onward sped sure I scratched my head

And I looked with a feeling rare

And I said, says I, to a passerby

"Who's the maid with the nut-brown hair?"

He smiled at me and he says, says he

"That's the gem of Ireland's crown

Young Rosie McCann from the banks of the Bann

She's the star of the County Down"

From Bantry Bay up to Derry Quay

And from Galway to Dublin town

No maid I've seen like the fair colleen

That I met in the County Down

At the harvest fair she'll be surely there

And I'll dress in my Sunday clothes

With my shoes shone bright and my hat cocked right

For a smile from the nut-brown rose

No pipe I'll smoke, no horse I'll yoke

To my plought rust coloured brown

Till a smiling bride by my own fireside

Sits the star of the County Down

當初那套音響的組成元件已經一個不剩，現在再聽King's Singers的CD也已經不再覺得它的錄音有那麼好，但是聽到Star of the County Down還是會感動，不知是因為心還年輕，還是老了懷舊。

每個人在不同的時間點，可能會碰上些具有特殊意義的人事物，雖然事過境遷之後未必還有同樣的感動，這些事物卻往往和當時的記憶一起封存起來。對我來說，和90年代分不開的是Rogers Studio 1a, Tower Records, Chivas Regal, Simi 1990 Chardonnay.

She's the star of the County Down.