|華章英韻|小至‖總第18期原創(chuàng)： 葉如鋼 譯詩(shī) 今天
主持人
王如利（Wang Ruli）
丁立群（Ding Liqun）
Introduction
冬至是中國(guó)二十四節(jié)氣中一個(gè)非常重要的節(jié)氣，也是一個(gè)傳統(tǒng)節(jié)日，民間自古有“冬至大如年”的說法。那么，在唐朝大詩(shī)人杜甫的詩(shī)中，冬至又是怎樣的一番模樣呢？本期的《華章英韻》有幸邀請(qǐng)到久居國(guó)外的葉如鋼教授執(zhí)筆主譯，一起品賞杜甫的《小至》和葉教授的佳譯。
Winter Solstice is a very important one among the 24 solar terms in China. It is also a traditional festival, and even a saying says that “Winter Solstice is as significant as Spring Festival”. Then, in the poetry of Du Fu, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, how would he describe the occasion? For this issue of Chinese Verse in English Rhyme, we are honored to invite Professor Ye Rugang, who has lived abroad for years. Let’s read and enjoy Du Fu’s “Winter Solstice” and Professor Ye’s beautiful translation.
小至
（唐）杜甫
天時(shí)人事日相催，冬至陽生春又來。
刺繡五紋添弱線，吹葭六琯動(dòng)浮灰。
岸容待臘將舒柳，山意沖寒欲放梅。
云物不殊鄉(xiāng)國(guó)異，教兒且覆掌中杯。
Winter Solstice
Du Fu (Tang Dynasty)
Translated by Rugang Ye
Season’s steps and human tasks run,
Spring nears and winter solstice comes with sun.
To five needlework threads lasses add thin line,
Six tunes are played, reed ash blown, flutes fine.
Willows are to sprout on banks in Jan,
Plums are to bloom, mounts to shorten cold’s span.
Of the scenes, distinct from home seem none;
Poured by son, a cup of wine is great fun.
注：若使用省略，每行為八個(gè)音節(jié)。
The Translator’s Remark
冬至快到了，丁老師提供了幾首詩(shī)讓我選譯，包括杜甫的《冬至》《小至》，白居易的《冬至夜》，陸游的《冬至》和姜特立（宋）的《冬至》。瀏覽之中立刻覺得很喜歡杜甫的《小至》。杜甫的詩(shī)讀過不少，這首還是第一次見到。這首《小至》著眼于描寫季節(jié)前行，雖然是冬至，春天卻臨近。每一聯(lián)、每一句都有豐富的內(nèi)容和含意。喜歡這首七律的主要原因正是其豐富、生動(dòng)的內(nèi)容和喻寫。另一方面，我也感覺譯成英文有相當(dāng)難度，主要原因也正是其較復(fù)雜的內(nèi)容。七言古體詩(shī)，我通常盡可能翻譯成四音步（八音節(jié)），最多也只允許自己擴(kuò)展到五音步（十音節(jié)）。（英詩(shī)漢譯，我通常則保持譯詩(shī)每行音節(jié)數(shù)與原作相差最多兩個(gè)）。為什么這樣要求呢？首先，詩(shī)貴精煉。更重要的是，每行音節(jié)數(shù)拉太長(zhǎng)，會(huì)改變?cè)鞯墓?jié)奏感和旋律感，尤其是唐詩(shī)那種行進(jìn)的流暢旋律感。我想把杜甫這首《小至》翻譯成四音步，其每行的豐富內(nèi)容和細(xì)節(jié)自然就增加了難度。
杜甫這首《小至》的英譯我采用了隨韻，即aabb韻律，也就是每?jī)删溲阂粋€(gè)韻，也稱為雙行韻。英語里同一個(gè)韻的詞往往很少，隨韻是處理這個(gè)問題的很有效的辦法。曾讀到一篇美國(guó)評(píng)家的文章，主張不要把中國(guó)古詩(shī)翻譯成英語韻詩(shī)，蓋因英語的韻詞限制云云。殊不知換韻可以解決這個(gè)問題。除了aabb格式，還有abab，abba等。毫無疑問，押韻要自然，因韻害意乃韻譯之大忌。一個(gè)蹩腳的湊韻就會(huì)毀掉一首韻譯詩(shī)。準(zhǔn)確翻譯、表達(dá)合乎英語習(xí)慣，這兩條比押韻更重要。令人惋惜的是，湊韻、因韻害意卻并不罕見。以完全韻翻譯常常有相當(dāng)?shù)碾y度。一般地來說，可以考慮使用半韻以及頭韻等各種變通方式，甚或不押韻。但是，有志者翻譯每一首古典韻詩(shī)都應(yīng)當(dāng)盡最大努力使用完全韻。
杜甫《小至》的拙譯在換韻之中，每個(gè)韻都出現(xiàn)了n 這個(gè)輔音。所以，除了每?jī)尚懈髯允峭耆喉嵵?，全?shī)通押了這個(gè)半韻。為了閱讀方便，這里刊載的版本里沒有使用音節(jié)縮略。如果使用音節(jié)縮略，每行是四音步、八個(gè)音節(jié)。
Winter solstice is about to arrive. Mrs. Ding provided a couple of poems from the Tang and Song dynasties, among which I found the great Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu’s “Little Winter Solstice”, or simply “Winter Solstice”, particularly appealing, mainly for its rich content and metaphors. However, I expected translating this poem to be very challenging, precisely because of its rich and complex content. It’s also because of a restriction I impose on my translation. Namely, if I translate a seven-character-a-line Chinese classic poem, I translate it into tetrameter whenever possible, and possibly into pentameter. There are two good reasons for this. Poems are supposed to be concise and hence the translated lines should not be too long. On the other hand, if a seven-character-a-line poem is translated into a meter longer than pentameter, the rhythm and melody of the poem tend to be altered conspicuously, in particular in the case of a Tang dynasty poem whose line progressing often has a melodic flow. I wanted to translate Du Fu’s “Winter Solstice” into tetrameter, which was made harder by the complex content in each line of the poem. Luckily, I was able to produce an English translation in tetrameter, which I hope is fairly close to the original verse and valid as an English rhyming poem.
In the translation of this poem I adopted the aabb rhyme scheme. In English, rhyming words are notoriously few for most rhymes. A very effective method for handling this trouble is to switch rhymes and, accordingly, adopt rhyme schemes such as aabb, abab and abba. In a widely circulated article an American critic asserts that one should not attempt to translate classic Chinese rhyme poems into English rhyme poems, for the reason of limited rhyming words just mentioned. It seems that he did not consider switching rhymes. Of course, rhyming should be natural and in translation one should never alter the essential connotations of a poem for the purpose of rhyming (or for any other purpose). One should not concoct odd expressions for the purpose of rhyming either. If perfect rhymes can’t be found, one can use instead partial rhymes or head rhymes. On the other hand, I strongly believe that classical Chinese rhyme poems should be translated into English poems with perfect rhymes whenever possible.
In my humble translation of Du Fu’s “Winter Solstice”, while the aabb rhyme scheme is adopted and the rhymes keep switching, the consonant “n” appears in all the rhymes, thus a partially rhyming monorhyme also appears, which makes the translated poem more melodious. This translation is indeed in tetrameter as intended. However, for reading convenience, the syllable abbreviations needed for achieving tetrameter are not used in this published version.
The Translator
葉如鋼，數(shù)學(xué)家、詩(shī)人、翻譯家。美國(guó)加州大學(xué)圣巴巴拉分校終身教授，中國(guó)科學(xué)技術(shù)大學(xué)長(zhǎng)江講座教授。曾任德國(guó)波鴻大學(xué)終身教授。翻譯過英語、德語、法語、意大利語、西班牙語和瑞典語詩(shī)歌。詩(shī)作風(fēng)格多樣。著有詩(shī)劇/史詩(shī)作品《九大行星》和《致命華麗西娜之生死九章》，開辟了多方位詩(shī)歌寫作的新方向?！暗谌谎壑?shī)人沙龍”和“葉如鋼翻譯交流平臺(tái)”創(chuàng)辦人和主持人。
Ye Rugang, mathematician, poet, and translator, Professor at University of California, Santa Barbara, Changjiang Lectureship Professor at University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China, previously Professor at Bochum University, Germany. His numerous poetry works include the poetry dramas/epics The Nine Planets and The Nine Chapters of the Fatal and Gorgeous Natalia which contain poems in Chinese, song lyrics in English and screenplay components. He has translated English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Swedish poems into Chinese, and Chinese poems into English and German.
《中外詩(shī)文翻譯》
主辦：中詩(shī)網(wǎng)、譯詩(shī)群
協(xié)辦：月印無心佛教文化平臺(tái)“太原頭條”、大家網(wǎng)、金融街電訊新媒體頭條
總顧問：何功杰、李正栓、張智中、卓振英、黑馬
總策劃：周占林、宛城臥龍
名譽(yù)主編：周占林、釋圣靜
主編：王磊
名譽(yù)副主編：王永純、德肋撒.李
副主編：黃金珠、蔡鐵勇
編委：王如利、丁立群、晚?xiàng)鳌⑼趿?、史潘榮、羅曉佳、趙真
發(fā)布平臺(tái)：月印無心佛教文化
