中國文學英譯絮談

沙楓

“五百光洋買得來”

“只許州官放火，不許百姓點燈?！闭媸秦M有此理。

談到了“官”，記得蘇曼殊的《斷鴻零雁記》中有幾首《捐官竹枝詞》，寫來雅謔，諷刺入微。小說寫道：

余一日無事，偶出春淙亭眺望，忽見壁上新題，墨痕猶濕。余細視之，即《捐官竹枝詞》數(shù)章也。其詞曰：

二品加銜四品階，皇然綠轎四人抬。
黃堂半跪稱卑府，白簡通詳署憲臺。
督撫請談當座揖，臬藩接見大門開。
便宜此日稱觀察，五百光洋買得來。

最后一句，“五百光洋買得來”，五百大洋，便可享受當一天“觀察”高官的待遇。一語道破，畫龍點睛了。

這首指的是“道員”。

梁社乾把《斷鴻零雁記》譯成英文，也翻譯了這幾首《捐官竹枝詞》。不過譯得比較長，這首八句譯成二十一行，如下：

With haughty head in green sedan and borne
By bearers four, there rides a parvenu
Just raised from four-class office to two grades
Above, and now is called an officer
Of second rank, how vain and grand he feels!
The lower officers half kneel when past
He rides, and call themselves, "the humble ones."
Yet, this same haughty rider pound and vain
When off ring up indictments to the man
Above, must be as self-abasing as
The man below was when he rode proud by.
The governor invites this parvenu
To have a little chat.
About they sit,
Polite they bow and smile.
Now when the men
That worked below the governor once see that favor shines on this new guest, they wait
For this new guest to pass their homes and throw
The great front door wide open with a fawning smile.
This day he's called "Official So-and-So".
Five hundred dollars bright in Mex. will buy*
This glorious state described and penned above.

原文到最后才點睛，譯文一早就點出了“Parvenu”（暴發(fā)戶）了。

譯文譯得相當通俗，所以要這樣長。例如，“黃堂”，就意譯為“the lower officers”。而“白簡通詳署憲臺”一句，就用了四行英文來表述其意。

（編者注）五百光洋，這里指的是墨西哥銀元，晚清時通用。

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