2022翻译硕士(MTI)考研复习:英译中国现代散文精选(21)
路畔的蔷薇
郭沫若
清晨往松林里去散步,我在林荫路畔发见了一束被遗弃了的蔷薇。蔷薇的花色还是鲜艳的,一朵紫红,一朵嫩红,一朵是病黄的象牙色中带着几分血晕(1)。
我把蔷薇拾在手里了。
青翠的叶上已经凝集着细密的露珠,这显然是昨夜被除人遗弃了的。
这是可怜的少女受了薄幸的男子的欺绐?还是不幸的青年受了轻狂的的妇人的玩弄?
昨晚上甜蜜的私语,今朝的冷清的露珠……(2)
我把蔷薇拿到家里来了,我想找个花瓶来供养它。
花瓶我没有(3),我在一只墙角上寻了一个断了颈子的盛酒的土瓶。
––蔷薇哟,我虽然不能供养你以春酒,但我要供养你以清洁的流泉,清洁的素心。你在这破土瓶中虽然不免要凄凄寂寂地飘零(4),但比遗弃在路旁被人践踏了的好罢?
Wayside Roses
Guo Moruo
Rambling through a pine forest early in the morning, I came across a bunch of forsaken roses lying by the shady wayside. They were still fresh in colour. One was purplish-red, another pink, still another a sickly ivory-yellow slightly tinged with blood-red.
I picked them up in my hand.
The numerous fine dewdrops on the fresh green leaves clearly showed that the roses had just been cast away the previous night.
Were they pitiful maidens deflowered by fickle men? Or were they unlucky young men fooled by frivolous women?
Last night’s whispers of love this morning’s drops of cold dew…
I brought the roses home and tried to find a flower vase to keep them in.
Flower vase I had none, but I did find in a nook of my room an empty earthen wine bottle with its neck broken.
--O dear roses, though unable to treat you to spring wine, I could offer you limpid spring water and my sincere pure heart. Wouldn’t it be better for you to wither away in solitude in this broken earthen wine bottle than to lie abandoned by the roadside and be trodden down upon?
注释:
《路畔的蔷薇》是郭沫若(1892-1978)的早期小品,玲珑剔透,饶有诗意,堪称一首优美的散文诗。
(1)“一朵是病黄的象牙色中带着几分血晕”译为a sickly ivory-yellow slightly tinged with blood-red,其中sickly作“病态的”解。又,ivory-yellow和blood-red的结构都是“实物颜色词+基本颜色词”,为英语颜色词的常见形式。
(2)“昨晚上甜蜜的私语,今朝的冷清的露珠……”译为Last night’s whispers of love this morning’s drops of cold dew…,两个英语并列词组,在用词结构上前后完全对称,与原文形似,并与原文有同样的言外之意。又,“昨晚”在这里虽指过去的过去,但仍译为last night,不译为the previous night,以求语言生动,这是英语中常见的灵活用法。
(3)“花瓶我没有”译为Flower vase I have none,等于I have no flower vase,其中none作形容词用,修饰前面Flower vase。这种用法常见于文学语体中,如:Time and money he had none。
(4)“飘零”意即“凋落”,故译作to wither away。