2017年1月15日星期日

Draft on translating 'Ash Wednesday'

《聖灰星期三》- 叶澍苍 释译

因为我不再乞求变卦
因为我不乞求
因为我不乞求变卦
渴望拥有此人的天才和彼人的天赋
我不再努力不再费心于這些琐事
(为何老鷹必然想要展開翅膀?)
為什麼我必需哀悼
人权,人命与人性的自然完了?
因为我不再乞望我能洞解
浩渺的历史时流
因为我无心思考
因为我知道我永远无法领悟
唯一的千变万化的神通
因为我无能化源
在彼岸,树木开花,春泉叮咚,
在彼岸,万事不复,万物皆空。

因为我知道时空永远是时空
故土终归只是故土
事故若为真,必仅有一回
也尽在一方
我开心于千事依旧万物自然
我不求红脸的关公
也不怕黑脸的张飞
因为我不再乐意改造我的本性
自然而然我欣喜若狂,尽心尽意标新立异
神游于我的世外桃源,怡然自乐无穷稚趣。

我只求菩萨勒令道长多存怜悯之心
只求我能够忘却或超脱
千情百酬中的自相矛盾
因为我不肯回首
且让我的言语答应
好事多磨,何苦无事生非,
但愿裁决之甲不得以压抑我等俗人。

原来此翼已不再是比翼双飞之翼
而仅仅是落魄的苟延残喘
空气稀薄又干燥
比意念还要渺小
我们由此领悟到
无所不在的关怀
无念的屏息静坐。

请为我等罪人祈禱, 
此刻及死神降临之时
请为我祈祷,
此刻及临终之际。

2017年1月3日星期二

John Masefield: On Reading "Bridge to Heaven" (1942)

On Reading The Bridge of Heaven  《天桥》written by 熊式一

by John Masefield Oct. 15th, 1942

To Ta Tung, as a boy,
This hope gave gentle joy,
To plant, in some green close,
A plum-tree or white rose,

That, so, in Spring or June
The lamp of the full Moon
Might show to Man the flower
White, in its whitest hour,

That, those who came to seek,
Would whisper: "Will she speak
This Wonder? Will she bless
Our woes to nothingness?
Will she descend the green
Sweet sprays, and be our Queen?
Our Saviour Queen? O, still ...
She moves... She will."

Then, growing-up, be found
No garden-close, no ground,
In all wide China's space
To be a planting-place.
Instead, an iron will
To learn to kill, and kill
The tangle of the weeds
That thwart men's needs.

Thus is Man's youth today,
An April without May,
A May without a June,
Night without Moon.
But Hope from thwarted lives
In unquenched beauty strives
Slowly its glimmer breaks
The darkness of mistakes.
So many million flames
Will burn away the shames;
Ta Tung will surely find
His plot of Peace of Mind;
His blossomed plum will lift
White as the snow in drift,
Under a Moon of Peace
In skies like the still seas.

2016年12月30日星期五

熊式一《天桥》

史学大师陈寅恪1945年秋到英伦“疗治目疾”时获赠《天桥》,“听读佉卢百感加”,先后“题赠二绝句”和一首七律,其一云:
海外林熊各擅场,卢前王后费评量。
北都旧俗非吾识,爱听天桥话故乡。
陈寅恪祖籍江西南昌府宁州,少时曾居南昌,与熊式一谊属同乡。诗中把熊式一与林语堂在英语世界的影响相提并论,借用“初唐四杰”中杨炯“愧在卢(照邻)前,耻居王(勃)后”的典故“评量”《天桥》和《京华烟云》,认为自己“不识”林语堂笔下的“北都旧俗”,还是偏爱描写故乡的《天桥》(小说中“天桥”首尾呼应,“楔子”写乡绅李明在南昌城外赣江支流修建新桥,命之曰“天桥”;“尾声”又写李明之子李大同重造新的“既美丽又坚固”的“天桥” ),评价不可谓不高。

世人谁识熊式一?与早已名满天下的林语堂不同,熊式一先生的文学成就,特别是他作为20世纪中国屈指可数的双语作家对中外文学交流所作的贡献,至今鲜为人知。《王宝钏》中英文对照本2006年3月才由北京商务印书馆推出,《天桥》中文本现已经在内地出版。《天桥》1943年英文版伦敦首印后重印十余次,被译为多国文字,畅销海外。时隔近七十年,经外语教学与研究出版社的努力,简体字版首次在中国大陆问世。熊式一与林语堂并称海外的双语作家,在英语世界撰写并执导戏剧的中国第一人。其英文话剧《王宝钏》,连演三年近千场而不衰,轰动欧美。因此,我以为把他晚年所作的《八十回忆》以及《天桥》、《大学教授》中文本序跋等篇章编集出版,以补现代文学史之阙,正其时矣。

source: http://baike.baidu.com/view/4240421.htm

http://character.workercn.cn/363/201603/04/160304164030332.shtml

2016年12月21日星期三

林语堂英译陶渊明《归去来兮辞》

林语堂英译陶渊明《归去来兮辞》


Ah, homeward bound I go!
Why not go home, seeing that my field
and gardens are overgrown?
Myself have made my soul serf to my body:
why have vain regrets and mourn alone?

Fret not over bygones
and the forward journey take.
Only a short distance have I gone astray,
and I know today I am right,
if yesterday was a complete mistake.


2016年10月24日星期一

Writing Verse in Classic Chinese

This poem of mine came to me through 'conversational' writing in March 2005 between myself and an unknown netizen who served in Iraqi war.

Writing Verse in Classic Chinese
I was smashed by a pale spirit
out of Bath a misty winter morn
it haunts hours away
from my X-Window frames.
Alas by this end of hours
and by this end of day
oh How i cut and paste
in every way
to restore a dream I've dreamt
yet lost ever since I left.
O blessed is the hours so ardently spent
waiting by wings of angelic forms
whereby beauty and grace behold
a forgotten tongue
a rusty art
of making ancient music
with silent sound
echoing between thousands of years
and thousands of miles around.
[fiveshinylights: comrade, dost you speaketh the china man's tongue?]

Brother 'cool hand luke', yes i do.
now as i remember my mother tongue
endured warring kingdoms hundreds of centuries strong
it is not to speak
but to paint, silently
out of gentle brushes rainfalls of firm strokes
thy worst enemy and thyself's speck of mind
for words uttered always turning into querrels by hauling wind
for words carved into oracles smoked by time and shifted by sand
can mean many things to one eye kings
thus bind thy people with one faith
no words no names
but mixing bloody drops from unquenchable dreams