中国文学英译絮谈

沙枫

“每逢佳节倍思亲”

每年到了重阳节，提起重阳的诗，总会想起王维那首七绝：

独在异乡为异客，每逢佳节倍思亲。
遥知兄弟登高处，遍插茱萸少一人。

这一首诗，收入《唐诗三百首》内，早就有 Bynner 的英译：

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.

这一首诗，被人引用的最多的是第二句“每逢佳节倍思亲”，这里，“倍”字是译作“Twice”，而“佳节”则只译作“This day”，只译成“此日”，当然也可指“佳节”，不过这一句如果被单独引用，“I am twice as homesick on this day”，看了未必知道是指“佳节”。

一九七三年出版的企鹅丛书的“Poems of Wang Wei”中，G. W. Robinson 就明确地把“佳节”译作“This festival”，他把全诗译成如下：

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.

在这里，“倍思亲”的“倍”，只译作“Revives thoughts”，只译成“又思亲”或“复思亲”，而非“倍思亲”。

Robert Payne 把“倍”字也是译作“Twice”，而把“每逢佳节”译成“Whenever one feasts”，译成“人每过节”，把重点放在“人”而不放在“节”，与原诗歌意思有所出入。他把全诗译成如下：

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“思亲”的“亲”，只译作“Brother”，是把亲人的范围缩小了，思的绝不会只是“兄弟”。

Chang Yin-nan 与 Lewis Walmsley 则把“思亲”的“亲”译作“Homefolk”，而“倍思亲”的“倍”则译作“Doubly”，似比“Twice”更强有力。两人合译成的全诗如下：

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!

“每逢佳节”，这里详译作“On every annual festival”，唯恐不足，而整句“每逢佳节倍思亲”，则译为“One every annual festival, I doubly long for my homefolk”，把原句意思译到十足，虽然译得相当的长，似乎还是诗味十足。