中国文学英译絮谈

沙枫

刘禹锡两首诗

“沉舟侧畔千帆过，
病树前头万木春。”

这是唐朝刘禹锡的名句。

这两句诗，有人译为：

A thousand sails pass by the shipwreck,
Ten thousand saplings shoot up beyond the withered tree.

“病树”译作“withered tree”，甚佳。

刘禹锡的《乌衣巷》，也是有名的，选进了《唐诗三百首》，全诗是：

朱雀桥边野草花，
乌衣巷口夕阳斜。
旧时王谢堂前燕，
飞入寻常百姓家。

这一首七绝，和上引的两句，都道出了新旧交替。刘禹锡是唐朝革新派人物，与柳宗元等合称为“八司马”。

现介绍这一首诗的英译，先录 Bynner 的译文：

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“寻常百姓家”译作“the poor”，都不大好。

吴经熊则译成如下：

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.

这一英译，显胜于前者了。

《唐诗三百首》还选了刘禹锡的另一首七绝《宫词》，全诗如下：

新妆宜面下朱楼，
深锁春光一院愁。
行到中庭数花朵，
蜻蜓飞上玉搔头。

前一首，是借“燕子”，后一首，则借“蜻蜓”，写来含蓄，而更动人。

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“新妆”当作“新衣”解。

Giles 也是如此，译成如下：

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.

林如斯则不把“新妆”当作“新衣”解，译成如下：

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.

这一首诗，难译的是第二句“深锁春光一院愁”，林如斯把“春光”直译作“spring light”。