对雨声 vs 听雨声... 【翻译栏】
2021.2.1
诗歌译者以译诗为业，且不说是事业或志业。 一个诗歌译者的翻译清单应该包括两个：诗集清单和诗人清单。 在翻译清单上，增加一本诗集可能不算难事，但如果这本诗集出自一位你不曾译过的诗人，那么，在这位译者的诗人清单上，也要增加一位诗人了。这就成了一件值得斟酌、值得犹豫迟疑的事了。 原因倒简单。对一位诗人的了解、熟悉和把握，是翻译前的必要功课，类似于项目的固定成本，是必不可少的投入，至于翻译这位诗人的一本诗集还是两本诗集，变化的只是固定成本之外的边际成本，译得多，增加的投入多，译得少，增加投入少，但一笔固定成本的投入却是少不了。 所以，在一位译者的翻译清单上，增加一本诗集期或许不算难事，但如果增加一位诗人，那就需要慎重考虑，需要严阵以待了。 如果一个译者总在翻译不同诗人的诗集，那背后无疑应该隐藏了极高的固定成本、沉没成本，倘使这位译者极其认真而又不愿翻译大家熟知的诗人，这样的固定成本恐怕是难以承受的，这种做法也是不大可能的。
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Great War another name for First World War
Waterville Valley is a ski resort in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, United States. It is located within the White Mountain National Forest.
flatlanders
The Flatlanders are an American country band from Lubbock, Texas, United States, founded in 1972 by Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely and Butch Hancock.
US derogatory a term used in various hilly or mountainous regions of North America, particularly Vermont, to denote an outsider. Ex: I am a former flatlander who has lived in Edmonton and Calgary for the past 15 years
The doc was a skinny transplanted flatlander, thought he knew everything
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旧译一首 娜塔莎•特斯维 诗《神话》
你奄奄一息时，我正沉睡。 似乎你逃过了某个裂缝，一个小山谷 那是我在沉睡和醒来之间制造的， 我一直让你留于其中的黑暗世界，仍然试图 不让离开。明天你将再次死去， 但在梦中你活着。所以我试着带着 你回到清晨。沉睡，翻身， 我双眼睁开，发现你没有跟来。 反反复复，这恒久不变的遗弃。 * 反反复复，这恒久不变的遗弃： 我双眼睁开，发现你没有跟来。 你回到清晨。沉睡，翻身。 但在梦中你活着。所以我尝试带着， 不让离开。明天你将再次死去。 我一直让你留于其中的黑暗世界——仍然，试图—— 那是我在沉睡和醒来之间所制造的。 似乎你逃过了某个裂缝，一个小山谷。 你奄奄一息时，我正沉睡。
MYTH
BY NATASHA TRETHEWEY I was asleep while you were dying. It’s as if you slipped through some rift, a hollow I make between my slumber and my waking, the Erebus I keep you in, still trying not to let go. You’ll be dead again tomorrow, but in dreams you live. So I try taking you back into morning. Sleep-heavy, turning, my eyes open, I find you do not follow. Again and again, this constant forsaking. * Again and again, this constant forsaking: my eyes open, I find you do not follow. You back into morning, sleep-heavy, turning. But in dreams you live. So I try taking, not to let go. You’ll be dead again tomorrow. The Erebus I keep you in—still, trying— I make between my slumber and my waking. It’s as if you slipped through some rift, a hollow. I was asleep while you were dying.
( from Native Guard, 2007. P.14 )
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一首理查德.奥尔丁顿的诗
随手译，一首理查德.奥尔丁顿的诗，典型的意象派诗作：
在大英博物馆
我翻开那一页，读道： “我梦见沉默的诗行，它的韵脚 如船桨无声地滑过。” 沉闷的霉味的空气，黑色的桌子， 低埋的头和沙沙的响声 在巨大的圆屋顶下 消逝…… 而 太阳悬挂在湛蓝的天空， 船儿在湖泊的浅水里飘荡， 鱼儿掠过水面，像灰色的影子穿过起伏的青草， 夹竹桃玫瑰色的花瓣落在草坪上， 燕子俯冲，回旋，叽叽喳喳 议论着康哥拉德古堡城垛的裂缝……
Richard Aldington. 1892– At the British Museum
I TURN the page and read: "I dream of silent verses where the rhyme Glides noiseless as an oar." The heavy musty air, the black desks, The bent heads and the rustling noises In the great dome Vanish... And The sun hangs in the cobalt-blue sky, The boat drifts over the lake shallows, The fishes skim like umber shades through the undulating weeds, The oleanders drop their rosy petals on the lawns, And the swallows dive and swirl and whistle About the cleft battlements of Can Grande's castle....
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清晨在云光中 听雨声，最后的雨 在破晓时嘀嘀嗒嗒 Early morning in cloud light to the sound of the last of the rain at daybreak dripping
想译作 “ 对雨声”，但不免担心这个“对”字弱了，没人去体会它的意味，“听”清晰多了，平庸多了，这算是另一种劣币驱逐良币吗？
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A Thing Worth Doing
April 29, 2012
QUESTION: I keep hearing people quote Chesterton as saying, “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.” Where did he say that? And what on earth did he mean by it?
ANSWER: To answer your first question first, he said it in his wonderful and timely book, What’s Wrong with the World, which was written in 1910. Part Four of the book is entitled, “Education: Or the Mistake about the Child.” The famous, and much abused, line comes up at the end of Chapter 14 of that section.
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Formal Verse
Formal verse is the name given to rhymed poetry that uses a strict meter (a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables). This two-line poem by Emily Dickinson is formal verse because it rhymes and its lines contain the same number of syllables (ten) with the same stress pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables: "In this short Life that only lasts an hour / How much - how little - is within our power."
Some additional key details about formal verse:
- Most poetry that consistently uses rhyme also uses meter, and is therefore formal verse.
- Formal verse is distinct from blank verse (poetry with meter but no rhyme) and free verse (poetry without meter or rhyme).
- While formal verse was very popular before the 20th century, it has fallen out of fashion among poets since the 1940s-50s. However, many contemporary songs and nursery rhymes continue to use formal verse.
