中国文学英译絮谈

沙枫

“黄河”还是“黄沙”?

黄河远上白云间,一片孤城万仞山。
羌笛何须怨杨柳,春风不度玉门关。

这是唐朝王之涣的一首《凉州词》。Payne 的英译这样:

The Yellow River climbs amid the white clouds,
A lonely city stands amid heaven-piercing peaks.
Why should the Tartars complain of the willows?
The wind of spring never crosses the Jade Gate Pass.

吴经熊的英译是这样:

The Yellow River climbs up far into the white clouds,
The Great Wall runs through all the ridges like a continuous thread.
Why should the western pipe "complain about the willows"?
The breath of spring has never passed beyond the Gate of Jade.

“一片孤城”译作“The Great Wall”(万里长城),是不当的。

这是 Bynner 的英译:

Where a yellow river climbs to the white clouds,
Near the one city-wall among ten-thousand-foot mountains.
Tartar under the willows is lamenting on his flute,
That spring never blows to him through the Jade Pass.

一位林先生来信说:“黄河远上白云间”英译,论及这句应为“黄沙直上白云间”,并引竺可桢《物候学》一书为证。爰据此说,另译如下:

A stream of yellow sands swirls up to the white clouds,
A lonely castle stands amid the sky-scraping mountains.
Why should the Tartar flute remind us of the season of willows?
For the breeze of spring has never come across the Jade Pass.

竺可桢、宛敏渭合著的《物候学》一书,也这样说:

也有一些原来不错的诗句,被后人改错了。如王之涣《凉州词》:“黄河远上白云间,一片孤城万仞山。羌笛何须怨杨柳,春风不度玉门关。”这是很合乎凉州以西玉门关一带春天情况的。和王之涣同时而齐名的诗人王昌龄,有一首《从军行》诗:“青海长云暗雪山,孤城遥望玉门关。黄沙百战穿金甲,不破楼兰终不还!”也是把玉门关和黄沙联系起来。在唐朝开元时代的诗人,对于玉门关一带情况比较熟悉,他们知道玉门关一带到春天几乎每天到日中要刮风起黄沙,直冲云霄。但后来不知何时,王之涣《凉州词》第一句便被改成“黄河远上白云间”。到如今,书店流行的唐诗选本,统沿用改过的句子。实际黄河和凉州及玉门关谈不上有什么关系,这样一改,便使这句诗与河西走廊的地理和物候两不对头。

王昌龄这首《从军行》,有 Wang Sheng-chih 的英译如下:

Over the Kokonor the long clouds darken the snow mountains;
The lonely city in the distance looks toward the Yumen Pass.
There is the yellow sand of a hundred battles, armor was pierced through;
We swear we shall defeat the tribesmen before we return.

在喻守真编注的《唐诗三百首详析》中,第一句是作“黄沙直上白云间”,并在注解中说“此句是写风卷黄沙直上云中之境,一本作‘黄河’,特殊费解。”

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