美國(guó)著名漢學(xué)家宇文所安(Stephen Owen)歷經(jīng)八年埋頭耕耘,終于出版了杜甫詩歌全集的英語全譯本《杜甫詩》(The Poetry of Du Fu),這部有3000頁,共六卷,重九磅的大部頭是學(xué)界關(guān)于杜甫作品第一次完整的英文翻譯。
杜甫作為一個(gè)高產(chǎn)的詩人,留下了大量的詩作,現(xiàn)存達(dá)1400首。宇文所安原本預(yù)計(jì)花三年完成的翻譯,因?yàn)榻虒W(xué)、講座任務(wù)纏身,花了八年時(shí)間。“它占據(jù)了我的生活。我雖然有多個(gè)學(xué)期都不用教書,但我不停地工作、工作再工作,并沒有偷懶。”今年69歲的宇文所安大部分時(shí)候都是一個(gè)人在進(jìn)行這項(xiàng)翻譯工作,只是在作品完成后有一個(gè)研究生幫助他進(jìn)行校對(duì)。“杜甫的作品非常值得翻譯,但是這占據(jù)了我生命中的八年時(shí)間。我終于完成了。”他感嘆道。
Like the Bard of Avon, Du Fu's writing is layered and shows immense range. The elusive poet wrote in a wide variety of styles and registers. Inside the green-bound volumes are acclaimed verses such as “Moonlit Night” and “View in Spring,” but Owen argues that Du Fu “is a lot more fun when you get out of the well-known ones.”
像“埃文河畔的詩人”(莎士比亞)一樣,杜甫的作品層次豐富,涉獵廣泛。他的詩作風(fēng)格和用詞都很多變。這本綠皮包裝的譯作中有知名的詩作《月夜》和《春望》,不過,宇文所安教授卻表示杜甫“在這些廣為人知的詩作之外更加有趣。”
“He's a quirky poet. When he moves to Chengdu with his family, he has to set up house and writes a poem to people asking for fruit trees and crockery. No one had ever done this kind of poem. He has a poem praising his bondservant Xinxing for repairing a water-piping system in his house. It's a wonderful poem about the joy and discoveries of living in the real world instead of living in the rarefied poetic world,” Owen said.
宇文所安教授說:“他(杜甫)是個(gè)挺奇怪的詩人。他和家人搬到成都以后,他得打點(diǎn)修整宅院,還給人寫詩換果樹和陶器。從來沒有人寫過這樣的詩。他曾經(jīng)給他的家奴信行(音譯)寫了一首詩,稱贊他修好了宅子里的水管。那是一首好詩,講的是生活在現(xiàn)實(shí)世界的歡樂和新發(fā)現(xiàn),他不是生活在世人罕見的詩意世界。”
說了這么多,下面我們就一起來欣賞幾首宇文所安教授翻譯的杜甫名詩。
【望岳】
岱宗夫如何,
齊魯青未了。
造化鐘神秀,
陰陽割昏曉。
蕩胸生層云,
決眥入歸鳥。
會(huì)當(dāng)凌絕頂,
一覽眾山小。
Gazing on the Peak
And what then is Daizong like?
over Qi and Lu, green unending.
Creation compacted spirit splendors here,
Dark and Light, riving dusk and dawn.
Exhilirating the breast, it produces layers of cloud;
splitting eye-pupils, it has homing birds entering.
Someday may I climb up to its highest summit,
with one sweeping view see how small all other mountains are.
【春望】
國(guó)破山河在,
城春草木深。
感時(shí)花濺淚,
恨別鳥驚心。
烽火連三月,
家書抵萬金。
白頭搔更短,
渾欲不勝簪。
View in Spring
The state broken, its mountains and rivers remain,
the city turns spring, deep with plants and trees.
Stirred by the time, flowers, sprinkling tears,
hating parting, birds, alarm the heart.
Beacon fires stretch through three months,
a letter from family worth ten thousand in silver.
I’ve scratched my white hair even shorter,
pretty much to the point where it won’t hold a hatpin.
【兵車行】
車轔轔,
馬蕭蕭,
行人弓箭各在腰,
爺娘妻子走相送,
塵埃不見咸陽橋。
牽衣頓足攔道哭,
哭聲直上干云霄。
道旁過者問行人,
行人但云點(diǎn)行頻。
或從十五北防河,
便至四十西營(yíng)田。
去時(shí)里正與裹頭,
歸來頭白還戍邊。
邊亭流血成海水,
武皇開邊意未已。
君不聞,
漢家山東二百州,
千村萬落生荊杞。
縱有健婦把鋤犁,
禾生隴畝無東西。
況復(fù)秦兵耐苦戰(zhàn),
被驅(qū)不異犬與雞。
長(zhǎng)者雖有問,
役夫敢申恨?
且如今年冬,
未休關(guān)西卒。
縣官急索租,
租稅從何出。
信知生男惡,
反是生女好。
生女猶得嫁比鄰,
生男埋沒隨百草。
君不見,
青海頭,
古來白骨無人收。
新鬼煩冤舊鬼哭,
天陰雨濕聲啾啾。
The Army Wagons: A Ballad
Wagons rattling,
horses neighing,
men walking, each with bow and arrows at the waist.
Moms and dads, wives and children rush along seeing them off,
the dust is such you cannot see the Xianyang Bridge.
Pulling at clothes, stamping feet they block the road weeping,
weeping voices rise straight up against the clouds and high wisps.
Someone passing by the road asks a man on the march,
the man on the march says only: “They're calling up troops often now.
Some from the age of fifteen are north guarding the River,
then as soon as they reach forty they work military settlements in the
west.
When they leave, the village headman gives them turbans;
coming home, their hair is white, and then back to garrison the frontier.
The blood that has flowed on the frontiers could make up an ocean's
waters,
and our Warrior Emperor's plans to extend the frontier are not yet
done.
Haven't you heard
how in two hundred prefectures East of the Mountains of the House
of Han
a thousand villages and ten thousand hamlets grow over with thorns
and briars?
Even though there are sturdy wives to hold the hoe and plow,
the grain grows on the field boundary slopes and one can't tell east from
west.
Even worse for troops from Qin who endure the bitterest battles,
they are driven on, no different from dogs and chickens.
Though you sir may pose the question,
does a conscript dare declare his resentment?
And now in winter this year
they haven't stopped taking soldiers from West of the Passes;
County officials urgently demand taxes,
but where are the taxes to come from?
I know well to have a boy is bad,
it's better to have a daughter instead.
If you have a daughter you can still marry her to your neighbor;
if you have a boy he will be buried along with all the plants.
Haven't you seen
by Kokonor
white bones from ancient times that have never been recovered?
The new ghosts are tormented by their wrongs, the former ghosts just
weep,
the skies cloudy, the rain soaks them, their voices moaning.