中国文学英译絮谈

沙枫

"轻舟已过万重山"

唐代诗人李白的诗句:“朝辞白帝彩云间,千里江陵一日还。”生动地描绘出长江三峡中江流迅疾的情景。长江的最大流速每小时二十五至二十八公里。

李白这两句诗,有人英译为:

At dawn I left Paiticheng city,
High among the rosy clouds.
And came downstream in a day,
One thousand li to Chiangling town.

这两句诗,是李白《下江陵》的前两句,后两句则是:“两岸猿声啼不住,轻舟已过万重山。”

Bynner 翻译的全诗如下:

From the walls of Po-ti high in the colored dawn
To Kiang-ling by night-fall is three hundred miles,
Yet monkeys are still calling on both banks behind me
To my boat these ten thousand mountains away.

第二句,似未能译出“千里江陵一日还”之神速,而第四句也未能译出“轻舟已过万重山”之轻捷。

Payne 的英译则是这样:

At dawn amid colored clouds I left White Emperor City,
A thousand miles to Chiang-ling——I was there in a day!
Chattering monkeys on the cliffs, no end to their bawling.
So the light boat slipped past the ten thousand mountains.

第二句似乎译出了“千里江陵一日还”的神速,用“slipped”来译“轻舟已过”的“过”,也相当不错,但句首加一“So”,似反而把语气削弱。

吴经熊的英译是这样的:

At early dawn I left Po Ti among the many-colored clouds.
Now I find myself back in Chiang-ling——a thousand li in the course of a day!
The monkeys had hardly done with their continuous howling on the shores,
Before ten thousand ranges of hills had rolled away from my light skiff!

他把“已过”译作“rolled away”,也不错。

Cooper 的英译是这样的:

At dawn we leave White King, its clouds all colored,
For passage to Kiang-ling in one sun's circuit.
While both banks' gibbons cry calls still unceasing,
Our light boat has gone by many fold mountains.

“万重山”译作“many fold mountains”,颇能译出意境。

下面则是刘师舜的英译:

In the morning I leave Po-ti perched in the clouds,
The thousand li to Chiang-ling are compressed to a day.
Before the wailing of the apes on both banks ceases,
The light boat has left behind unending mountains.

“万重山”译作“unending mountains”,似不及“many fold mountains”了。

关正恒的英译则是这样:

In the morning I leave Po-ti hidden high up in the colored clouds,
And make the return trip to Chiang-ling a day affair.
While the apes' wailing on both banks keep coming without a break,
My light boat has already passed ranges and ranges of mountains.

“万重山”译作“ranges and ranges of mountains”,与译作“many fold mountains”,异曲同工。

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