经典唐诗英译欣赏
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20.暮江吟

白居易

一道残阳铺水中,半江瑟瑟半江红。

可怜九月初三夜,露似珍珠月似弓。

中文解读

《暮江吟》是白居易的一首写景七绝。诗人通过“露”“月”视觉形象的描写,创造出和谐、宁静的意境,用这样新颖巧妙的比喻来精心为大自然敷彩着色,描容绘形,给读者展现了一幅绝妙的画卷。由描绘暮江,到赞美月露,这中间似乎少了一个时间上的衔接,而“九月初三夜”的“夜”无形中把时间连接起来,它上与“暮”接,下与“露”“月”相连,这就意味着诗人从黄昏时起,一直玩赏到月上露下,蕴含着诗人对大自然的喜爱之情。

白话译文

一道残阳倒映在江面上,阳光照射下,波光粼粼,金光闪闪,一半呈现出碧绿,一半呈现出殷红。更让人怜爱的是九月的初月夜,滴滴清露就像粒粒珍珠一般,一弯新月仿佛是一张精致的弓。

英译一

Sunset over the River

Translated by Rewi Alley


A beam of the setting sun turns

Half the river dark green and the other half red.

On the lovely third night of the ninth moon

The pearly dew, the bow-shaped moon.

英译二

Ode to the Twilight River

Translated by Huang Xinqu


The water is overspread with a sunset glow,

Thus half of it is emerald and half red.

Who loves the eve of the ninth month?

The dew pearls, the moon shines like a bow.

(twilight n.黄昏 emerald adj.翠绿的)

英译欣赏

The poet described two natural sceneries in autumn in the poem. One was the setting sun spread on the river reflecting in red and dark colors. The other was the rising new moon shedding in silvery light on grass with dew-drops like pearls. The sceneries indicated the poet was in a cheerful of mind on his journey to Huangzhou.

英译一是新西兰作家Rewi Alley的翻译,英译二是四川师范大学黄新渠教授的译作。

Rewi Alley是长期生活在中国的新西兰人,熟悉中国文化,他将诗句英译成散体诗。他习惯题目采用意译,Sunset Over the River 比直译更能表达原诗的内容。他将四句诗译成长短不一的六个句子,只有第一个字母大写:主语是A beam of setting sun,谓语是turns,介词on 引导一个时间状语。

A beam of setting sun turns half of the river dark green and the other half red,一道夕阳的光亮把一半江水变得深绿,另一半江水通红。

On the lovely third night of the ninth moon, the pearly dew, the bow-shaped moon,在可爱的九月初三夜晚,有像珍珠一样像弯弓一样的月亮啊!

这里the ninth moon=the ninth lunar month,是对前面moon的重复,也是对月亮作进一步的描述。

英译二中,黄新渠教授则采用另一种译法,按格律对等译出。“一道残阳铺水中”, The water is overspread with a sunset glow,江水被一道夕阳铺满了。be overspread with为被动句式。“半江瑟瑟半江红”, Thus half of it is emerald and half red,这里有一点省略,相当于:Thus half of it is emerald and half(is)red。

此诗有另一个版本,“谁怜九月初三夜”。第三句黄教授按这个版本来翻译:Who loves the eve of the ninth month?译文对“初三”作浅化处理,不译。

“露似珍珠月似弓”, The dew pearls, the moon shines like a bow,这里the dew pearls 有点令人费解,但可以理解为省略了一个shine like:The dews shine like pearls, the moon shines like a bow。这样对原诗的表达就非常到位和准确,句子地道优美!

思考

The dews pearls, the moon shines like a bow是否可以理解为With the dew pearls, the moon shines like a bow?