据哈佛大学官方新闻网站《哈佛公报》(Harvard Gazette)4月11日的报道,美国著名汉学家宇文所安(Stephen Owen)历经八年埋头耕耘,终于出版了杜甫诗歌全集的英语全译本《杜甫诗》(The
Poetry of Du Fu),这部有3000页,共六卷,重九磅的大部头是学界关于杜甫作品第一次完整的英文翻译。
花费8年时间翻译
“如果你不得不被某个人缠身八年,你会希望这个人是你喜欢的,能够使你保持兴趣的。”哈佛大学教授宇文所安接受采访时说道。
他的确没为杜甫少花功夫,因为即使是形式最简单的诗,翻译起来也绝非易事。宇文所安举了个例子,比如“鸟飞空(bird fly sky)”,可以被阐释为“一只鸟在天空中飞翔(A bird flies in the sky)”,也可以说是“一群鸟在天空中飞翔(Birds fly in the sky)”。
杜甫作为一个高产的诗人,留下了大量的诗作,现存达1400首。宇文所安原本预计花三年完成的翻译,因为教学、讲座任务缠身,花了八年时间。
“它占据了我的生活。我虽然有多个学期都不用教书,但我不停地工作、工作再工作,并没有偷懒。”今年69岁的宇文所安大部分时候都是一个人在进行这项翻译工作,只是在作品完成后有一个研究生帮助他进行校对。
“杜甫的作品非常值得翻译,但是这占据了我生命中的八年时间。我终于完成了。”他感叹道。
全译本开学界之先
《哈佛公报》写道,杜甫被称为“中国莎士比亚”。正如莎士比亚一样,杜甫的写作涵盖了广泛的内容,他的诗歌包括各种各样的风格,没有定式。
《杜甫诗》中肯定了《月夜》等诗歌的成就并做了重点分析,但宇文所安表示,如果跳出这些众所周知的诗歌去看杜甫,会更有趣,“杜甫打破了诗歌的定式,多年之后,后世的诗人回头再看他的成就,才明白他是最伟大的诗人。”宇文所安表示。
英译本《杜甫诗》是根据一个有批注的中文版本翻译而来,主体是一个最早可以上溯到宋代的版本,还参照了一些其他来源。
该书依据清代仇兆鳌《杜诗详注》的顺序翻译,但没有加入仇兆鳌的点评。《杜诗详注》是仇兆鳌搜集各家注本,汇集写就,是阅读杜诗的一本重要参考著作。
美国梅隆基金会2005年度杰出成就奖(Mellon Foundation
Distinguished Achievement Award,该奖项授予在美国人文领域做出杰出贡献的学者)资助宇文所安启动多个项目,翻译杜甫诗歌这项长期项目便是其中之一。
宇文所安也借此发起一套名为“中华经典文库(Library of Chinese Humanities)”的丛书,由学术出版机构德古伊特(De Gruyter)出版社出版,致力于长期而系统地翻译介绍中华人文经典,扩大和加深中华人文典籍在全球范围内的影响,使中华文明与文学成为世界文明和世界文学传统的有机组成部分。这次《杜甫诗》的翻译出版为丛书的第一部出版作品。
享有盛誉的汉学家宇文所安出版过非常多关于中国文学的论述,曾编译巨著《中国文学选集:从先秦到1911》,集中国古典文学精品之大成,另有《初唐诗》、《盛唐诗》、《中国“中世纪”的终结:中唐文学文化论集》、《他山的石头记》等多部重要研究著作,还负责新版《剑桥中国文学史》的编著,这次的《杜甫诗》是他第十三部出版作品。
他希望这部书能够进入学校图书馆,以及美籍华人的家庭,帮助这些家庭中的孩子从小熟知这个被称为“中国莎士比亚”的伟大诗人和他的诗歌。他也表示“这本书是面向普通读者和学者的,最能帮助到的是那些懂一点中文,但又不足以读杜甫的人”。
西方对中国诗歌的翻译向已有之,成果丰硕,长久以来已有大量选集、专集面世。西方世界首部杜甫诗全译本是德国汉学家的查赫(Erwin Von Zach)德译《杜甫诗集》,后亦有选集如美国诗人汉米尔(Sam Hamill)的《对雪:杜甫的视域》,美国著名汉学家华兹生(Burton Watson)的《杜甫诗选集》等等。但对杜甫全部诗歌的英语翻译是少之又少,有民间学者曾做过尝试,宇文所安的全译本可谓开学界之先。
宇文所安的译诗赏析
选自The Poetry of Du Fu 第一卷
望岳
岱宗夫如何?齐鲁青未了。
造化钟神秀,阴阳割昏晓。
荡胸生层云,决眦入归鸟。
会当凌绝顶,一览众山小。
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.
Exhilarating 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
国破山河在,城春草木深。
感时花溅泪,恨别鸟惊心。
烽火连三月,家书抵万金。
白头搔更短,浑欲不胜簪。
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.
兵车行
车辚辚,
马萧萧,
行人弓箭各在腰,
爷娘妻子走相送,
尘埃不见咸阳桥。
牵衣顿足拦道哭,
哭声直上干云霄。
道旁过者问行人,
行人但云点行频。
或从十五北防河,
便至四十西营田。
去时里正与裹头,
归来头白还戍边。
边亭流血成海水,
武皇开边意未已。
君不闻,
汉家山东二百州,
千村万落生荆杞。
纵有健妇把锄犁,
禾生陇亩无东西。
况复秦兵耐苦战,
被驱不异犬与鸡。
长者虽有问,
役夫敢申恨?
且如今年冬,
未休关西卒。
县官急索租,
租税从何出。
信知生男恶,
反是生女好。
生女犹得嫁比邻,
生男埋没随百草。
君不见,
青海头,
古来白骨无人收。
新鬼烦冤旧鬼哭,
天阴雨湿声啾啾。
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.
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