中國文學(xué)英譯絮談
劉禹錫兩首詩
“沉舟側(cè)畔千帆過,
病樹前頭萬木春。”
這是唐朝劉禹錫的名句。
這兩句詩,有人譯為:
A thousand sails pass by the shipwreck,
Ten thousand saplings shoot up beyond the withered tree.
“病樹”譯作“withered tree”,甚佳。
劉禹錫的《烏衣巷》,也是有名的,選進了《唐詩三百首》,全詩是:
朱雀橋邊野草花,
烏衣巷口夕陽斜。
舊時王謝堂前燕,
飛入尋常百姓家。
這一首七絕,和上引的兩句,都道出了新舊交替。劉禹錫是唐朝革新派人物,與柳宗元等合稱為“八司馬”。
現(xiàn)介紹這一首詩的英譯,先錄 Bynner 的譯文:
Grass has run wild now by the Bridge of Red-Birds,
And swallows' wings, at sunset, in Blacktail Row
Where once they, visited great homes,
Dip among doorways of the poor.
他把“swallow”(燕)提上第二句,而把“尋常百姓家”譯作“the poor”,都不大好。
吳經(jīng)熊則譯成如下:
By the side of the Red-Sparrow Bridge,
The wild grasses are bursting into flowers.
At the mouth of Black-Clothes Lane
Are shining the slanting beams of the evening sun.
The swallows that used to frequent
The towering mansions of the erstwhile great men,
Now are flying into the humble homes
Of the ordinary people.
這一英譯,顯勝于前者了。
《唐詩三百首》還選了劉禹錫的另一首七絕《宮詞》,全詩如下:
新妝宜面下朱樓,
深鎖春光一院愁。
行到中庭數(shù)花朵,
蜻蜓飛上玉搔頭。
前一首,是借“燕子”,后一首,則借“蜻蜓”,寫來含蓄,而更動人。
In gala robes she comes down from her chamber
Into her courtyard,
enclosure of spring......
When she tries from the center to count the flowers,
On her hairpin of jade a dragon-fly poises.
Bynner 把“新妝”當(dāng)作“新衣”解。
Giles 也是如此,譯成如下:
A gaily dressed damsel steps forth from her bower,
Bewailing the fate that forbids her to roam
In the courtyard she counts up the buds on each flower,
While a dragon-fly flutters and sits on her comb.
林如斯則不把“新妝”當(dāng)作“新衣”解,譯成如下:
Freshly painted, the pretty one descends from the vermillion tower,
To find spring light locked in a courtyard of grief.
She pauses before the few potted flowers, and
The dragon-fly seeks and rests on her jade hairpin.
這一首詩,難譯的是第二句“深鎖春光一院愁”,林如斯把“春光”直譯作“spring light”。
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