中國文學(xué)英譯絮談

沙楓

中學(xué)會考的李白詩

香港中學(xué)會考中國文學(xué)課程中，所選的一首李白詩是《送孟浩然之廣陵》，是一首七絕，全詩如下：

故人西辭黃鶴樓，
煙花三月下?lián)P州。
孤帆遠(yuǎn)影碧空盡，
唯見長江天際流。

這一首詩，有人用白話文翻譯如下：

朋友，
你從西方離別了黃鶴樓，
在煙霧迷茫
春花燦爛的時節(jié)去揚州。
我佇立江邊，
眺望著你乘坐的那艘帆船遠(yuǎn)去，
消失在水天一色的天邊。
什么也看不到了，
只看見那滾滾的長江水朝天邊奔流！

英譯又如何呢？美國人 Bynner 的譯文如下：

You have left me behind, old friend, at the Yellow Crane Terrace,
On your way to visit Yang-chow in the misty month of flowers;
Your sail, a single shadow, becomes one with the blue sky,
Till now I see only the river, on its way to heaven.

“煙花三月下?lián)P州”這一句，有人稱之為“千古麗句”，Bynner 將“煙花三月”譯作“in the misty month of flowers”，是譯得綺麗的。

劉師舜的英譯如下：

Out west my old friend bids goodbye to Huang-ho-lou,
He leaves for Yang-chou in the third moon of the spring.
The distant shadows of the lonely sail
Vanish in the green space of the sea.
And on the Yangtze flows,
As if it were voyaging on to Heaven.

劉師舜對“煙花三月”略去不譯，“碧空盡”則另用新詞，譯作“Vanish in the green space of the sea”。

英人 Robert Payne 的譯文則是這樣：

Old friend, bidding farewell to Yellow Crane Tower from the west;
In March, among smoking flowers, making your way to yang-chow.
From the tower I watched your solitary sail disappear among blue mountains.
There was only the immense river running to the edge of heaven.

這一英譯，力求忠實于原詩。

另一英人翟理士（Giles）則譯成如下：

At the Yellow-Crane pagoda, where we stopped to bid adieu,
The mists and flowers of April seemed to wish good speed to you.
At the Emerald Isle, your lessening sail had vanished from my eye,
And left me with the River, rolling onward to the sky.

翟理士的譯文，一向以音韻取勝，有時是寧順而不信的。

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