前不久作家冯唐翻译了印度大文豪泰戈尔的著名诗集《飞鸟集》,后因内容露骨直白而被迫下架了。其实无论中文还是英文诗都是有格律的,大音乐家舒曼曾经说过:节奏是音乐的生命,没有节奏就没有音乐。如果把其中的“音乐”两字改成“诗”,说节奏是诗的生命,没有节奏就没有诗,所以诗的乐感很重要,能够把它其中的精髓与美译出来的真的是难度极高的一件事。
现在市面上《飞鸟集》的翻译版本有两个,一个版本是郑振铎的,另一个版本是吴岩译的。传闻说作家冰心也曾经翻译过《飞鸟集》,但是没有人见过。我个人更倾向于郑振铎的版本,许多地方引用《飞鸟集》中的句子,都是从郑振铎译本中引用的,可见郑振铎的译本更为出色(而且单本诗集多采用郑译本,吴译本常在全集中出现)。
今天咱们就来重温《飞鸟集》中那些经典美句。把这些美好的句子背下来,用在生活中,用在表达心情和观点时,往往很有效。
Let life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumn leaves.
生如夏花之绚烂,死如秋叶之静美。
The world puts off its mask of vastness to its lover.
It becomes small as one song, as one kiss of the eternal.
世界对着它的爱人,把它浩瀚的面具揭下了。它变小了,小如一首歌,小如一回永恒的接吻。
If you shed tears when you miss the sun, you also miss the stars.
如果你因失去了太阳而流泪,那么你也将失去群星了。
Sorrow is hushed into peach in my heart like the evening among the silent trees.
忧思在我的心里平静下去,正如暮色降临在寂静的山林中。
Wrong cannot afford defeat but Right can.
错误经不起失败,但是真理却不怕失败。
We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us.
我们把世界看错了,反说它欺骗我们。
Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.
每一个孩子出生时都带来信息说:神对人并未灰心失望。
In darkness the One appears asuniform; in the light the One appears as manifold.
在黑暗中,“一”视如一体;在光亮中,“一”便视如众多。
The dust receives insult and in return offers her flowers.
尘土受到损辱,却以她的花朵来报答。
The touch of the nameless days clings to my heart like mosses round the old tree.
无名的日子的感触,攀缘在我的心上,正象那绿色的苔藓,攀缘在老树的周身。
If you shut your door to all errors truth will be shut out.
如果你把所有的错误都关在门外时,真理也要被关在门外边了。
The clouds fill the water-cups of the river, hiding themselves in the distant hills.
云把水倒在河的水杯里,它们自己却藏在远山之中。
A mind all logic is like a knife all blade.
It makes the hand bleed that uses it.
全是理智的心,恰如一柄全是锋刃的刀。它叫使用它的人手上流血。
"I cannot keep your waves," says the bank to the river.
"Let me keep your footprints in my heart."
河岸向河流说道:“我不能留住你的波浪。让我保存你的足印在我的心里吧。”
The best does not come alone. It comes with company of the all.
最好的东西不是独来的,它伴了所有的东西同来。
My sad thoughts tease me asking me their own names.
我的忧思缠绕着我,要问我它自己的名字。
The storm is like the cry of some god in pain whose love the earth refuses.
狂风暴雨象是在痛苦中的某个天神的哭声,因为他的爱情被大地所拒绝。
Let him only see the thorns who has eyes to see the rose.
让睁眼看着玫瑰花的人也看看它的刺。
Set the bird's wings with gold and it will never again soar in the sky.
鸟翼上系上了黄金,这鸟便永不能再在天上翱翔了。
In heart's perspective the distance looms large.
在心的远景里,那相隔的距离显得更广阔了。�
This life is crossing of a sea, where we meet in the same narrow ship.
In death we reach the shore and go to our different worlds.
我们的生命就似渡过一个大海,我们都相聚在这个狭小的舟中。
死时,我们便到了岸,各往各的世界去了。
The real with its meaning read wrong and emphasis misplaced is the unreal.
“真实”的含义被误解,轻重被倒置,那就成了“不真实”
We live in this world when we love it.
我们在热爱世界时便生活在这世界上。
Let the dead have the immortality of fame, but the living the immortality of love.
让死者有那不朽的名,但让生者有那不朽的爱。
The world loved man when he smiled. The world became afraid of him when he laughed.
当人微笑时,世界爱了他;但他大笑时,世界便怕他了。
God's silence ripens man's thoughts into speech.
神的静默使人的思想成熟而为语言。
That love can ever lose is a fact that we cannot accept as truth.
说爱情会失去的那句话,乃是我们不能够当作真理来接受的一个事实。
I feel the gaze upon my heart this moment like the sunny silence of the morning upon the lonely field whose harvest is over.
我这一刻感到你的眼光正落在我的心上,象那早晨阳光中的沉默落在已收获的孤寂的田野上一样。
I have suffered and despaired and known death and I am glad that I am in this great world.
我曾经受苦过,曾经失望过,曾经体会过“死亡”,于是我以我在这伟大的世界里为乐。
Let this be my last world, that I trust thy love.
“我相信你的爱。”让这句话做我的最后的话。
最近的你离我最远,最简单的话语需要最艰苦的练习。