All Souls' Night - by W.B. Yeats 萬靈節之夜
2007-03-27 02:57:48
W.B.葉慈的詩還真不好譯！譯此詩因博弈的一個帖子而起，他對此詩的解讀提了不少意見，對此表示感謝！
All Souls' Night
Epilogue to ‘A Vision’
by W.B. Yeats
萬靈節之夜(1)
《幻像》(2)跋
Midnight has come and the great Christ Church bell
And many a lesser bell sound through the room;
And it is All Souls' Night.
And two long glasses brimmed with muscatel
Bubble upon the table. A ghost may come;
For it is a ghost's right,
His element is so fine
Being sharpened by his death,
To drink from the wine-breath
While our gross palates drink from the whole wine.
午夜降臨，基督教堂學院(3)的大鐘
還有許多小鐘，響徹
房間；這是萬靈節之夜。
桌上兩個長腳玻璃盅
注滿了麝香葡萄酒，泛著
泡沫。某個鬼魂大約
會來；因為，一個鬼魂經過了死的磨礪，
其構成元素变得如斯精细，當我们
的肉顎吞咽著酒漿的整體，那鬼魂
有权饮用酒的气息。
I need some mind that, if the cannon sound
From every quarter of the world, can stay
Wound in mind's pondering,
As mummies in the mummy-cloth are wound;
Because I have a marvellous thing to say,
A certain marvellous thing
None but the living mock,
Though not for sober ear;
It may be all that hear
Should laugh and weep an hour upon the clock.
我需要一個心靈，即使
大炮從世界每個角落
響起，也能裹在沉思中的
那種，就像木乃伊
被裹在尸布中那樣；因為我
有一件奇事要說，一件只有活人才會嘲笑的
奇特的事，
雖不是要說給清醒的
耳朵聽；也許所有聽到的
都會又笑又哭一個小時。
Horton's the first I call. He loved strange thought
And knew that sweet extremity of pride
That's called platonic love,
And that to such a pitch of passion wrought
Nothing could bring him, when his lady died,
Anodyne for his love.
Words were but wasted breath;
One dear hope had he:
The inclemency
Of that or the next winter would be death.
我首先召喚霍頓。他愛怪誕的觀念，
他知道高傲的極度美妙，
即所謂柏拉圖式的戀愛，
他的激情已錘煉
至如此的強度，沒任何東西能給予他止痛藥，
在他妻子死去時，以安撫他的愛。
話語不過是浪費掉的呼吸；
他只有一個心願：
那個或下一個冬天的嚴寒
會是死。
Two thoughts were so mixed up I could not tell
Whether of her or God he thought the most,
But think that his mind's eye,
When upward turned, on one sole image fell;
And that a slight companionable ghost,
Wild with divinity,
Had so lit up the whole
Immense miraculous house
The Bible promised us,
It seemed a gold-fish swimming in a bowl.
兩種觀念如此混亂，我說不上
他想的最多的是她還是神，
我只想到他心靈的眼睛
向上望的時候，看到那唯一的影像；
那是個瘦小友好的鬼魂，
狂野而帶有神性，
令聖經上預示的那棟
廣大神奇的房子
平添生氣，
猶如一條金魚在碗中游泳。
On Florence Emery I call the next,
Who finding the first wrinkles on a face
Admired and beautiful,
And by foreknowledge of the future vexed;
Diminished beauty, multiplied commonplace;
Preferred to teach a school
Away from neighbour or friend,
Among dark skins, and there
Permit foul years to wear
Hidden from eyesight to the unnoticed end.
接著我召喚弗羅倫絲·愛默麗，
在她那令人羡慕的美麗面容
第一次發現有皺紋的時候，
那惱人的未來，她已可預知；
美麗會減退，平凡會遞增；
她寜可遠離鄰居或朋友，
到黑皮膚人中間
去教書，在那兒可聽任可怕的歲月流逝
而避開他人的注視，
直至無人察覺的終點。
Before that end much had she ravelled out
From a discourse in figurative speech
By some learned Indian
On the soul's journey. How it is whirled about
Wherever the orbit of the moon can reach,
Until it plunge into the sun;
And there, free and yet fast,
Being both Chance and Choice,
Forget its broken toys
And sink into its own delight at last.
在到達那終點之前
有位博學的印度人曾向她論述
靈魂的歷程，從他的譬喻之中
她領悟了許多哲理。它如何到處回旋
遍及月亮所到之處，
直至投入太陽之中；
在那裏，自由卻又永恒，
既是選擇也是機遇，
終能忘掉它那些破爛的玩具
而沉入自身的歡欣之中。
I call MacGregor Mathers from his grave,
For in my first hard spring-time we were friends,
Although of late estranged.
I thought him half a lunatic, half knave,
And told him so, but friendship never ends;
And what if mind seem changed,
And it seem changed with the mind,
When thoughts rise up unbid
On generous things that he did
And I grow half contented to be blind!
我把麥格雷葛·邁瑟斯從墳墓裏喚起，
因為在我青春的最初艱難時期我們曾是朋友，
雖然近來我們疏遠了。
我曾認為他是半個瘋子，半個痞子，
我這樣對他說過，但我們的友誼卻又能持久；
要是心靈看似變了又如何，
似乎這友誼確已隨心靈而改變，
當思緒不由自主地升起
想起他做過的那些慷慨事跡
我便是瞎了眼也有些情願！
He had much industry at setting out,
Much boisterous courage, before loneliness
Had driven him crazed;
For meditations upon unknown thought
Make human intercourse grow less and less;
They are neither paid nor praised.
but he'd object to the host,
The glass because my glass;
A ghost-lover he was
And may have grown more arrogant being a ghost.
他當初很勤勉，
非常勇敢，那是在
孤寂把他逼瘋以前；因為
冥想未知的觀念
會使人之間的交流越來
越少；既不會有酬勞也不會
得到贊賞，但是他
會拒絕主人的敬酒，因為那是我的酒杯；
他本是個愛鬼的人，而現在做了鬼，
可能變得更加傲慢自大。
But names are nothing. What matter who it be,
So that his elements have grown so fine
The fume of muscatel
Can give his sharpened palate ecstasy
No living man can drink from the whole wine.
I have mummy truths to tell
Whereat the living mock,
Though not for sober ear,
For maybe all that hear
Should laugh and weep an hour upon the clock.
但名字算不了什麽。是哪一位并不要緊，
他的構成元素變得如此精細，
麝香葡萄酒的氣味能給予他敏銳的
味覺以狂喜，活人
縱使品嘗酒漿的整體
也喝不到的狂喜。我要說說
活人會嘲笑的木乃伊的真理，
雖不是要說給清醒的
耳朵聽；也許所有聽到的
都會又笑又哭一個小時。
Such thought — such thought have I that hold it tight
Till meditation master all its parts,
Nothing can stay my glance
Until that glance run in the world's despite
To where the damned have howled away their hearts,
And where the blessed dance;
Such thought, that in it bound
I need no other thing,
Wound in mind's wandering
As mummies in the mummy-cloth are wound.
Oxford, autumn 1920
這種觀念 — 持這種觀念的我
緊緊地抱著它，直到
冥想掌握了它各個部分，沒東西能阻擋
我的目光，直到那目光在世間的
怨恨中奔跑到受詛咒者痛心哀號
和受祝福者跳舞的地方；
這種觀念，我不需要
任何其他東西綁在裏面，
在心靈的漫游中盤旋，
就像木乃伊被尸布纏繞。
牛津，1920年秋
注：
1.這是葉慈用散文闡述自己哲學思想系統的書，於1925年出版，葉慈將本詩附於其後。
2.天主教節日，紀念已逝世的信徒即生前受過洗禮但有輕微罪過而被認為是在煉獄中進行滌罪的亡魂，通常為11月2日。根據天主教教義，在世信徒的祈禱有助於這些亡魂的滌罪，使他們得以進天堂。
3.牛津大學的一所學院。
曾載《詩天空》
