中国文学英译絮谈

沙枫

中学会考的李白诗

香港中学会考中国文学课程中，所选的一首李白诗是《送孟浩然之广陵》，是一首七绝，全诗如下：

故人西辞黄鹤楼，
烟花三月下扬州。
孤帆远影碧空尽，
唯见长江天际流。

这一首诗，有人用白话文翻译如下：

朋友，
你从西方离别了黄鹤楼，
在烟雾迷茫
春花灿烂的时节去扬州。
我伫立江边，
眺望着你乘坐的那艘帆船远去，
消失在水天一色的天边。
什么也看不到了，
只看见那滚滚的长江水朝天边奔流！

英译又如何呢？美国人 Bynner 的译文如下：

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.

“烟花三月下扬州”这一句，有人称之为“千古丽句”，Bynner 将“烟花三月”译作“in the misty month of flowers”，是译得绮丽的。

刘师舜的英译如下：

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.

刘师舜对“烟花三月”略去不译，“碧空尽”则另用新词，译作“Vanish in the green space of the sea”。

英人 Robert Payne 的译文则是这样：

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.

这一英译，力求忠实于原诗。

另一英人翟理士（Giles）则译成如下：

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.

翟理士的译文，一向以音韵取胜，有时是宁顺而不信的。