中國文學(xué)英譯絮談

沙楓

“每逢佳節(jié)倍思親”

每年到了重陽節(jié)，提起重陽的詩，總會想起王維那首七絕：

獨在異鄉(xiāng)為異客，每逢佳節(jié)倍思親。
遙知兄弟登高處，遍插茱萸少一人。

這一首詩，收入《唐詩三百首》內(nèi)，早就有 Bynner 的英譯：

All alone in a foreign land,
I am twice as homesick on this day.
When brothers carry dogwood up the mountain,
Each of them a branch, and my branch missing.

這一首詩，被人引用的最多的是第二句“每逢佳節(jié)倍思親”，這里，“倍”字是譯作“Twice”，而“佳節(jié)”則只譯作“This day”，只譯成“此日”，當然也可指“佳節(jié)”，不過這一句如果被單獨引用，“I am twice as homesick on this day”，看了未必知道是指“佳節(jié)”。

一九七三年出版的企鵝叢書的“Poems of Wang Wei”中，G. W. Robinson 就明確地把“佳節(jié)”譯作“This festival”，他把全詩譯成如下：

Here I am alone in a strange place a stranger,
And always this festival revives thoughts of my people.
From far I know my brothers are climbing some high place,
All crowned with dogwood their number one short.

在這里，“倍思親”的“倍”，只譯作“Revives thoughts”，只譯成“又思親”或“復(fù)思親”，而非“倍思親”。

Robert Payne 把“倍”字也是譯作“Twice”，而把“每逢佳節(jié)”譯成“Whenever one feasts”，譯成“人每過節(jié)”，把重點放在“人”而不放在“節(jié)”，與原詩歌意思有所出入。他把全詩譯成如下：

To be a stranger in a strange land,
Whenever one feasts, one thinks of one's brother twice as much as before.
There where my brother far away is ascending,
The dogwood is flowering, and a man is missed.

他把“思親”的“親”，只譯作“Brother”，是把親人的范圍縮小了，思的絕不會只是“兄弟”。

Chang Yin-nan 與 Lewis Walmsley 則把“思親”的“親”譯作“Homefolk”，而“倍思親”的“倍”則譯作“Doubly”，似比“Twice”更強有力。兩人合譯成的全詩如下：

I am a stranger of a strange land,
On every annual festival, I doubly long for my homefolk.
I think of my far-away brothers climbing the mountains,
Surely they will miss me when they pin on sprigs of dogwood!

“每逢佳節(jié)”，這里詳譯作“On every annual festival”，唯恐不足，而整句“每逢佳節(jié)倍思親”，則譯為“One every annual festival, I doubly long for my homefolk”，把原句意思譯到十足，雖然譯得相當?shù)拈L，似乎還是詩味十足。

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