中國文學英譯絮談

沙楓

龔自珍詩的幾種英譯

龔自珍的詩及其英譯，拙作《中詩英譯絮談》曾經(jīng)介紹過兩首，后來又看到這兩首飾有楊憲益等人的英譯，現(xiàn)在將之抄錄在一起，以便做一比較?！都汉ルs詩》第一百二十五首原文是：

九州生氣恃風雷，萬馬齊喑究可哀。
我勸天公重抖擻，不拘一格降人才。

楊憲益的英譯如下：

Our whole land needs wind and thunder to revive it,
Sad it is when all horses are mute;
I beg Old Man Heaven to bestir himself,
And send down talents of more kinds than one.

《己亥雜詩》第五首原文是：

浩蕩離愁白日斜，吟鞭東指即天涯。
落紅不是無情物，化作春泥更護花。

羅旭龢的英譯如下：

Like a mighty flood is my grief at parting as the sun declined,
My singing whip points east to the far horizon.
But fallen petals are not heartless matter,
Transmuted into spring soil they will again nurture flowers.

楊憲益的英譯如下：

Boundless my grief at leaving as the white sun sinks west,
And the poet points east with his whip to the far horizon;
Red blossoms, though fallen, have some feeling still,
Turned into mud in spring they want to protect the tree.

吳經(jīng)熊的英譯如下：

Boundless sorrows of parting seethe,
in the white beams of the setting sun.
The moment I turn my singing whip eastward,
I find myself already on the border of the sky.
The red flowers, lying on the ground,
Are the things without a heart!
When they are transformed into spring mud,
They nourish coming flowers with their blood!

“落紅不是無情物”這一句，羅、楊兩人都是直譯，吳經(jīng)熊卻故意反譯，譯作“Without a heart”，故意強調(diào)出最后一句最后一個字的“blood”（血）——那也是原詩所無得。早就有人指出，這是翻譯的浪漫手法，隨意引伸，并非翻譯的正宗，殊不信實。

此外，龔自珍另兩首詩，也有英譯。

一首是《己亥雜詩》之一：

少年哀樂過于人，歌泣無端字字真。
既壯周旋雜癡黠，童心來福夢中身。

楊憲益夫婦的英譯如下（刊“Chinese Literature”一九六六年第四期）：

In my youth I felt more intensely than my fellows,
Sang or wept for no reason, and wrote nothing that was untrue;
A man, forced to play the fool or resort to cunning,
I become a child at heart again in my dreams.

另一首是《有所思》：

妙心苦難住，住即與之期。
文字都無著，長空有所思。
茶香砭骨骺，花影上身時。
終古天西月，亭亭悵望誰？

劉德爵的英語如下（刊“Sitting Up At Night And other Chinese Poems”一書）：

A subtle state of mind is difficult to arrest,
Its stay is only of short duration.
Language cannot fix meaning,
in immense space my thoughts afloat.
After the aroma of tea has penetrated me to the bone,
The shadow of flowers climbs on my laps.
In eternity the moon peeps over the west pavilion,
For whom is she so patiently waiting?

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