翻译精粹(3)

英语文选翻译精粹（3）

原文：

Happily lived Mankind in the peaceful Valley of Ignorance.

To the north, to the south, to the west and to the east stretched the ridges of the Hills Everlasting.

A little stream of Knowledge trickled slowly through a deep worn gully.

It came out of the Mountain of the Past.

It lost itself in the Marshes of the Future.

It was not much, as rivers go. But it was enough for the humble needs of the villagers.

In the evening, when they had watered their cattle and had filled their casks, they were content to sit down to enjoy life.

The Old Men Who Knew were brought forth from the shady corners where they had spent their day, pondering over the mysterious pages of an old book.

They mumbled strange words to their grandchildren, who would have preferred to play with the pretty pebbles, brought down from distant lands.

译文：

在宁静的无知之谷中，人类快乐地生活着。

永恒之山向四面八方延伸。

一条知识小溪从深壑幽谷中缓缓流过。

它从往昔的山脉中流来。

它消失在未来的沼泽中。

溪水不大，不及河水滚滚，但它足以应付村民们那微薄的需求了。

晚上，当他们饮罢牲口、灌满水桶之后，就坐下来心满意足地享受生活。

见多识广的老人们从阴冷的角落里出来了。整个白天他们都呆在那里，对着一本古书上的神秘文字沉思。

他们嘴里嘟哝着奇怪的话语，对着孙儿们喋喋不休。而孙儿们更愿意把玩那些从遥远的异乡带回的美丽小石子。

【英译中选段二】

原文：(by Francis Bret Hart)

But the faith of the majority proved to be securely based. Bill had scarcely ceased growling before we heard a quick step upon the porch, the trailing of a wet skirt, the door was flung open, and with flash of white teeth, a sparkle of dark eyes, and an utter absence of ceremony of diffidence, a young woman entered, shut the door, and, panting, leaned back against it.

“Oh, if you please, I’m Miggles!”

And this was Miggles! This bright-eyed, full-throated young woman, whose wet gown of coarse blue stuff could not hide the beauty of the feminine curves to which it clung; from the chestnut crown of whose head, topped by a man’s oilskin sou’wester, to the little feet and ankles, hidden somewhere in the recesses of her boy’s brogans, all was grace—this was Miggles, laughing at us, too, in the most airy, frank, offhand manner imaginable.

(节选自Miggles, Francis Bret Hart, Overland Monthly, Jun. 1869)

译文：（胡适译）

但我们多数人的意见是不错的。余八的气话还没有说完，我们就听见了门口有很快点脚步声响，还夹着湿裙子拖在门阶上的声音。门开了，一个年轻女子走进来—雪白的牙齿，晶莹的眼睛，绝无拘束又绝无狐疑的神气—她随手关上门，喘着气，靠在门上，开口说：

“哦，对不住，我是米格儿！”

原来这是米格儿—这个晶莹妙目，响亮喉咙的少年女人，她的蓝粗布的湿衣服遮不住她身上的曲线美，从她头顶上漆皮男雨帽罩着的栗色头发，到她脚下男式粗靴遮着的脚和踝骨，样样都是优美的风标—这是米格儿。（原载《短篇小说集》，胡适，上海亚东图书馆，1993）

【英译中选段三】

原文：(by Robert Browning)

You’ll Love Me Yet

Robert Browning You’ll love me yet! – and I can tarry

Your love’s protracted growing;

June rear’d that bunch of flowers you carry

From seeds of April’s sowing.

I plant a heartful now: some seed

At least is sure to strike,

And yield—what you’ll not pluck indeed,

Not love, but, may be, like.

You’ll look at least on love’s remains,

A grave’s one violet:

Your look? – that pays a thousand pains.

What’s death? You’ll love me yet!

(原载Pippa Passes, the Poetical Works of Robert Browning :Bells and Pomegranates, Ian Jack, Oxford University Press, 1991)

译文：（胡适译）

你总有爱我的一天