Tuesday, December 08, 2020

Er redete mit dem vieh, den vogeln und den fischen and its poems

我從小最喜歡的書之一就是這一本所羅門王的指環。  作者在書裡引用了不少詩句,我還滿喜歡這種風格的。  有古典的氣氛。  我想把這些詩句收集起來已經很久了。  今天來試試看,順便利用現在網路的方便,也查一查這些詩的出處。  想想應該滿有意思的。 (補: 我滿希望知道是誰誰把這些詩翻譯成中文的。  很多地方都翻得好極了!)



從來沒有一個王,象所羅門王那樣,
從開天闢地以來也難湊到一雙,
因為所羅門王能和蝴蝶說話,
就像人與人聊天一樣。
                        --魯雅。吉卜寧

Preface

There was never a King like Solomon
Not since the world began
Yet Solomon talked to a butterfly
As a man would talk to a man.
--Rudyard Kipling 

(上面的這首詩出自叢林奇談的作者吉卜寧,這是一串的童詩,每一個詩講述一個動物的來源。 前三首是吉卜寧為他小孩編的童詩,後來集結成篇,題為 "Just so stories".  因為當作者為女兒講故事的時候, 如果作者把自己編的詩句念錯了,他女兒就會睜開眼睛,把正確的詩句唸出來糾正老爸。   第一版的插圖還是吉卜寧自己畫的哩。)


鴨子在沙沙作響的茅草中遊嬉,
好吃的梭魚卻從水邊躍起。
因為岸上響起了一陣腳部的聲音,
一隻蒼鷺忽地驚起,
伸在前面的 ---- 是牠長長的脖子。

                       --華茲華斯

The duck dabbles mid the rustling sedge
And feeding pike starts from the water's edge
And heron, as resounds the trodden shore,
Shoots upward, darting his long neck before.
--Wordsworth,  (An evening walk)

(書裡面我最喜歡的一首, 這個作者華茲華斯是常常出現在這本書,可以想見勞倫茲很喜歡這個詩人。  這一首詩我稍微查了一下,非常的長,詩人的對象是自己的妹妹。  我還沒有看整首詩,根據介紹整首詩主要是描寫那一傍晚的在水邊的情境。  以這裡的節錄來看,他的描述實在很細膩,用的詞句也是音韻十足。  我可能會想借來看。  而這是作者還在學校的時候寫出來的。 不知道是大學還是高中。  年輕時就顯露這樣的才能,也難怪可以被選作英國的桂冠詩人!)


一。 動物的麻煩

把一桶桶的醃魚打翻了胡鬧,
又在男人的禮帽做巢。
甚至連女人七嘴八舌的說笑,
也不得不為他們時高時低的尖笑
怪叫, 勢減聲消。  
                            --羅拔。布朗寧

Chapter 1.  Animal as a nuisance.

Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
Made nests inside men's Sunday hat,
And even spoiled the women's chats,
By downing their speaking
In fifty different sharps and flats.
--Robert Browning, (The pied piper of Hamelin)


(這首詩出自德國小鎮 Hameln 十三世紀的故事,一個穿著彩色衣服的吹笛手幫這個小鎮解決了老鼠的問題,可是小鎮不肯付講好的酬勞,於是吹笛手用他的魔術把小鎮上 一百三十個小孩全數帶到山腳下,山腳下裂出一個大洞,笛手和小孩消失在洞裡。 這個故事經過格林童話的傳衍,很多人都知道了,這首詩是英國布郎寧以詩的方式呈現。  單用念的就很過癮,好像在看電影一樣! 很棒的詩,這一段是描述老鼠為患小鎮的一個過場。 勞倫茲拿來用在這裡真是再好不過!)


三十年來,你一直在我的跟前,
高地低谷,都能見到你的笑靨,
但是我卻不認得你,直到今天,
現在,不論我走到那裡,眼向那邊轉,
處處只見你,一天至少也有五十遍。
                                        --華茲華斯

I have seen thee, high and low
Thirty years or more, and yet
'Twas a face I did not know;
Thou hast now, go where I may,
Fifty greetings in a day.
--Wordsworth, (To the small calendine)

(Calendine, 白屈菜。  明明是黃色的花,為啥叫白屈菜?  這東西聽說到處都是。  算是野草吧。有時候是這樣的,眼睛真的會突然一亮。。。  這首我也好喜歡)


二。不礙事的魚缸

萬物相形以生,
眾生互惠而成。

     --歌德 (浮士德)

Chapter 2.  Something that does no damage: 
The Aquarium

Wie alles sich zum Ganzen webt
Eins in dem andern wirkt und lebt
--Goethe, Faust 

(No comment, can't even read German, I will write another paragraph about the German title of the book...)


三。魚缸裡的暴行


他笑得多麼開心,
他爪子伸得多麼近,
只要他微笑的小嘴可以容得下,
隨便什麼小魚都歡迎。
                            --路易。卡洛 (愛麗絲漫遊奇境)

Chapter 3.   Robbery in the aquarium

How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in 
With gently smiling jaws.
--Louis Carroll (Alice's adventure in Wonderland)


(這首詩出自愛麗絲夢遊仙境,這是我小時候知道的書名。  我查了一下,這本書出於一八六五年。  可以想像古典氣味濃郁,裡面用了大量的詩和韻文。  有些資料上說愛麗絲創作這首詩來模仿另一首有勸善用意的詩, "Against Idleness and Mischief".  這裡愛麗絲的詩也有警世的意味。  詩中描述的鱷魚往自己身上澆水,讓自己的鱗甲發光閃亮,他又秀出笑容表現出和藹可親的樣子,表示自己容易接近。  這些描述是多麼有趣味,而表達的內容又是多麼實際,如果要記得,又有什麼比一首小詩更容易。)


四。可憐的魚

是浪中之草?是泥中之光?
還是黑色的火焰在跳躍?
造化弄物,
無晝無夜,
無止無休,無聲無息,亦無竅。
                                        --魯伯。布魯克 (魚)


Chapter 4.  Poor Fish

Weed in the wave, gleam in the mud--
The dark fire leaps along his blood;
Dateless and deathless, blind and still,
The intricate impulse works its will.
--Rupert Brooks, (The fish)



從玫瑰的花心偷到一抹暗紅,
從沒有星星的天空,剝下一層藍色青青,
還有眼後的那一勺黃金,
綠沉,紫寂,
黑黑的背影上, 該有多少彩光現現隱隱?
                                                --魯伯。布魯克 (魚)

Red darkness of the heart of the roses,
Blue brilliant from dead starless skies,
And gold that lies behind the eyes,
Lustreless Purple, hooded green,
The myriad hues that lie between 
Darkness and darkness! 
--Rupert Brooks, (The fish)

(我好奇這所羅門王的指環這本書的中文翻譯者是怎麼翻這些詩的? 如果這些詩還沒有翻譯出來,那他們還要一首一首譯嗎?  實在很厲害!  這首原文的詩我看了一遍沒看懂。  我知道是在講魚,裡面有一些非常漂亮的句子。  像這本書來做一篇文章的開頭就非常引人遐想。  不過我也得說,我覺得中文譯者也有滿多的地方隨意揮灑。  我的意思不是他們亂來,而是很多地方直譯反而失去美感或著在中文裡造成奇怪的印象。  而翻譯者的功力大概就在此顯現。  另外,此詩的英文作者似乎滿喜歡用魚作題材,他的另一首詩題為 Heaven , 那首詩裡他描寫魚在池塘裡想像池塘外的世界 : 到底有無池塘外的世界,如果有是怎麼樣的。。。  我找的那篇文章說那首詩是用魚比擬人,實際上是描寫很多人都好奇死後到底有沒有其他的世界,很有趣)


六。 對動物的惻隱之心

受苦為慈悲之母
                    --柯勒瑞凡


Chapter 6. Pitying animals

Pity--best taught by fellowship of woe.
--Samuel Taylor Coleridge


七。如何選購動物

兄弟姊妹們,
聽我來相勸;
勿將心許狗,
由他撕成片。
            --魯雅。吉卜寧

Chapter 7. Buying Animals

Brothers and sisters, I bid you beware
Of give your heart to a dog to tear.
--Rudyard Kipling, (The power of the dog)

(The power of the dog by Rudyard Kipling

There is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and women to fill our day;
And when we are certain of sorrow in store,
Why do we always arrange for more?
Brothers and sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.

Buy a pup and your money will buy
Love unflinching that cannot lie
Perfect passion and worship fed
By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.
Nevertheless it is hardly fair
To risk your heart for a dog to tear.

When the fourteen years which Nature permits
Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits,
And the vet’s unspoken prescription runs
To lethal chambers or loaded guns,
Then you will find – it’s your own affair, –
But … you’ve given your heart to a dog to tear.

When the body that lived at your single will,
With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!),
When the spirit that answered your every mood
Is gone – wherever it goes – for good,
You will discover how much you care,
And will give your heart to a dog to tear!

We’ve sorrow enough in the natural way,
When it comes to burying Christian clay.
Our loves are not given, but only lent,
At compound interest of cent per cent,
Though it is not always the case, I believe,
That the longer we’ve kept ’em, the more do we grieve;
For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,
A short-time loan is as bad as a long –
So why in – Heaven (before we are there)
Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?)

八。動物的語言

學習每一種鳥的語言,
記住他們的名字,
知道他們的秘密,
那麼,無論你什麼時候碰到牠們,
都可以和他們談一會兒天,說一會兒地。
                                    --朗費羅

Chapter 8. The language of animals

Learned of every bird its language,
Learned all their names and secrets,
Talked with them whene'er he met them.
--H. W. Longfellow, (The song of Hiawatha)

(第一位屋薩 (USA) 作家!  這是一首很長篇詩,在寫一個北美美洲人的傳奇故事)


九。馴悍記

雖說大自然的爪子染滿了凌弱暴寡血腥,
見了這等行徑,
也是心驚。
        --但尼生, (回憶)

Chapter 9. The taming of the shrew

Though Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shrieked against his creed.
--Tennyson, (In memoriam)


(我覺得這幾句翻譯和原詩不合。  就因為他的最後一句 "shrieked against his creed."  我一直想不通到底是誰的 Creed.  後來看到這一整段的全部後,才解開我的心中之謎。  

Who trusted God was love indeed 
And love Creation's final law
Tho'Nature, red in tooth and claw
With Ravine, shrieked against his creed

這首詩也很長,其中最有名的一句是:

'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.)

十。盟約

跟在後面的四隻腳。
                        --魯雅。吉卜寧

Chapter 10. The covenant

Four feet trotting behind.
--Rudyard Kipling, (Four feet)


一種感覺的力量,
超過人的一切估計。
                        --華茲華斯

The strength of feeling, great
Above all human estimate.
--Wordsworth, (Fidelity)


(華茲華斯的詩是在描述事件裡的一隻狗,我看到一篇介紹的文章,文章裡提到當時有不少批評華茲華斯的詩不是詩,而是 prose,也就是散文大白話。  我現在摘錄這一段,因為我覺得實在是很有趣!

Not that people didn't laugh at Wordsworth's poem "Fidelity" at the time. In the preface to their revolutionary Lyrical Ballads, published in 1798, Wordsworth and Coleridge warned that readers would not find here the florid conventions, the aristocratic affectations, the formality they recognised as literature: "Readers accustomed to the gaudiness and inane phraseology of many modern writers, if they persist in reading this book to its conclusion, will perhaps frequently have to struggle with feelings of strangeness and aukwardness: they will look round for poetry, and will be induced to enquire by what species of courtesy these attempts can be permitted to assume that title."

Nine years later, when Wordsworth published a poem about the death of Gough, reviewers were still sneering at the banality of his poetic voice. His unemphatic telling of the discovery of Gough's body and his loyal dog in "Fidelity" was particularly mocked. One reviewer, who as predicted in the preface to Lyrical Ballads could see no poetry whatsoever in this "poem", made that philistine point by satirically reprinting "Fidelity" as a block of prose. "The language is not only prosaic," said another, "but generally flat, and in some places absolutely mean" - "mean" having definite associations of social inferiority.  (source, the guardian, )

有趣的地方就是,我同樣覺得很多新詩也只是散文。  這裡的摘錄就是當時的人故意把 Fidelity 這首詩重新排版印刷成散文形式。  文章裡提到在 華茲華斯出版這一首詩之前,有一個人先他出版了另一首詩,也是談論同一個事件。  我去看了一下,互相參照立刻可以比較出不同。  華茲華斯的詩真的要大大個口語的多。  因為另一首詩詞語,讓我有強烈的莎士比亞的感覺。  這真是有趣的事情!)


十一。老家人

如果有樣東西因為我的關係
能活能動,能對未來有所助益
那就夠了,我們就算盡了力。
                                  --華茲華斯 (追想)

Chapter 11.  The perennial retainers

Enough, if something from our hands have power
To live, and act, and serve the future hour.
--Wordsworth, (After-thought)


即興而起的甜美歌聲,
唱出心中無限事。
                     --雪萊(百靈鳥)

Full heart 
in profuse strains of unpremeditated art.
--Shelley, (To a Skylark)

A Robin-redbreast in a Cage
Puts all Heaven in a rage
                                --William Blake, (Auguries of Innocence)

關一隻紅胸膛的知更,
普天下俱為之忿。
--布雷克

(這首詩很有名,尤其是前面幾句話

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower 
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand 
And Eternity in an hour)


雖然沒有人說得出原因,又有什麼關係?
既然眼睛見過,心裡總是有數的。
如果兩方面都在有意湊合,他們的愛情也就不用提,
要不是一見之下鍾的情,他的情就不能算真的情。
                                                        --馬羅

The reason no man knows, let it suffice
What we behold is censured by our eyes.  
Where both deliberate, the love is slight;
Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?
--Marlowe

(我覺得這首詩的最後一句不是翻譯得很好,有點囉嗦。)


她耐心地坐在石碑上,
對著憂愁微笑。
             --莎士比亞,第十二夜
Green and yellow melancholy,
She sat like Patience on a monument
Smiling at grief.
--Shakespeare, Twelfth Night




十二。道德和武器

有才者虛懷若谷
有力者恥於傷人
                --莎士比亞,十四行詩

Chapter 12. Morals and weapons

They that have power to hurt and will do none,
that do not do the thing they most do show...
--Shakespeare, Sonnets



將利劍止在空中,
不讓它落在已墜的人身上
                          --莎士比亞
Thou hast hung they advanced swords i' the air, 
Not letting it decline on the declined.
--Shakespeare, (Troilus and Cressida)


如果這就是大自然的安排,
人的進化,發展豈不令我們心寒?
                                       -- 華茲華斯

If such be Nature's holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?
--Wordsworth


(詩的摘錄,有時候超越整首詩的價值。  這並不是說一部份大於整體。  而是說,讀者藉由引用者的解貼和設計,使的文章多了不同的節奏和和意涵。  摘引的章節不一定是原來的意思, 因引用的句子還多引用者對句子的解讀。 )


這本書的德文書題實際上是: "他和牛和鳥和魚說話。"

我很好奇地查了一下題目,一切都很正常, Er 是他;redete 是說話;mit 對著什麼或著是同什麼;Dem 和 den 是冠詞; vieh 是牛; fischen 是魚。  唯一有問題的是鳥這個德文,我花了大工夫,怎麼查這個字都是肏的意思。  最後我查 Vogel 才查到是鳥單數,鳥多數 Vögel,才看到也有後面加個 N 的。  他的動詞是肏的意思。  昏倒,因為我怎麼查都不是名詞。  有一篇文章就說這字有太多 Pun 的用法了,就是有太多不同意思的雙關語。


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