中国文学英译絮谈

沙枫

“黄河入海流”

一本画报刊登了关于黄河的一系列图文，从一九七三年六月登到一九七四年五月，从《黄河源头行》一直到《黄河入海流》。

“黄河入海流”，原是唐朝王之涣的一句诗，诗歌题为《登鹳雀楼》，全诗如下：

白日依山尽，黄河入海流。
欲穷千里目，更上一层楼。

这首诗，黄雯医生的英译是这样的：

Pale sun on hill dies,
Huang-Ho seaward flows.
To view thousand lis
One more flight we go.

Bynner 的英译是这样的：

Mountains cover the white sun,
And oceans drain the golden river.
But you widen your view three thousand miles
By going up one flight of stairs.

译者把“黄河”译作“golden river”（金黄的河），有失原意。鹳雀楼在今山西省黄河北岸。

吴经熊的英译则是这样：

The white sun has sunk behind the hills.
The Yellow River is pouring into the sea.
To see still farther into the horizon,
Let us go up one more storey.

该画报的英文版把“黄河入海流”译作“The Yellow River Pours into the Sea”，与上译相同。

该画报的中文版有此描述：

“我们坐的水文勘测船到了黄河的河口。陆地平缓地伸向海中，随着潮汐的起落，海水动辄进退几公里、十几公里。船出河口几十公里后，大陆才慢慢伸向海底深处，出现了碧蓝色的大海，然而黄色河水还成块成条地被碧波包围着，轮廓分明地伸向天水交接处。旭日从海上升起时，霞光万道。回顾黄河，像一条金光大道，延伸在锦绣大陆上。”

这样的描述，是精彩的。

后几句的英译是这样的：

Only after we had gone several dozen kms did the land gradually sink beneath the water and the sea turn aquamarine, though the turbid waters of the Yellow River could still be seen in strips and patches stretching far into the horizon. Then the morning sun jumped out of the water, tingeing the world with splendor. The Yellow River was like a broad road glowing in gold, meandering through the brocade-like territory of our motherland.

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