翻译佳作赏析

Translation Exercises

Two Truths to Live by

—— Alexander M. Schindler

A: 生活的妙诀在于懂得如何抓紧，何时放松，因为人生就是一对矛盾：它既令我们抓紧人生的多种赐予，同时它又要我们到头来把这些赐予放弃。

B: This is just like what the rabble f old put it this way: ―A man comes to this world with his fist clenched, but when he dies, his hand is open.‖

A: Surely we ought to hold fast of life, for it is wondrous, and full of a beauty that breaks through every pore of God’s own earth. But it is all too often we recogniz e this truth only in our backward glance when we remember what was and then suddenly realize that it is no more.

B: 我们能记起已经凋谢的美，已经消逝的爱。可是，我们更痛苦的回忆是，我们没有在鲜花怒放之际看见哪个美，没有在别人以爱对我们之时也以爱回报。

A: 生命的赐予是宝贵的，可惜对它们太掉以轻心了。

B: Here then is the first pole of life’s paradoxical demands on us: Never too busy for the wonder and the awe of life. Be reverent (respect) before each dawning day. Embrace each hour. Seize each golden minute.

A: 紧紧抓住生活——可不要紧得使你不能松手。这就是生活的另一面——矛盾的另一方：我们必须接受损失，学会放松。

B: This is not an easy lesson to learn, especially when we are young and think that the world is ours to command, that whatever we desire with the full force of our passionate being can, nay, will, be ours. But then life moves along to confront us with realities, and slowly but surely this second truth dawns upon us.

A: 在生活的每个阶段上，我们都要蒙受损失——但也是在这个过程中得到成长。我们只有在脱离母胎、失去它的庇护时，才能开始独立生活。我们要进各级学校，继而告别父母，告别童年的家。我们要结婚生育，继而送走子女。

我们要经受父母、配偶丧亡的痛苦。我们要面临体力或快或慢的消退。

B: And ultimately, as the parable of the open and closed hand suggests, we must confront the inevitability of our own demise,(death) losing ourselves as it were, all that were or dreamed to be.

A: 但是，为什么我们甘愿顺从于这些生活的矛盾需求呢？既然美转眼就会消失，那为什么我们还要去创造那些美的东西呢？既然我们所爱的人终归要被夺去，为什么我们还要对一个人倾心相爱呢？

B: In order to solve the paradox, we must seek a wider perspective, viewing our lives as through windows that open on eternity. Once we do that, we realize that though our lives are finite, our deeds on earth weave a timeless pattern.

A: 生命决不是一个静止的存在。它是变动不止的，无情地流逝不息的。我们的肉体会消亡，我们的双手会枯萎。但是，它们在真善美中所创造的一切将在日后长期永存。

B: Don’t spend and waste your lives accumulating objects that will only turn to dust and ashes. Pursue not so much the material as the ideal, for ideals alone invest life with meaning and of enduring worth.

Elegy Written to a Country Church-yard

By Thomas Gray

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,

The lowin g herd wind slowly o’er the lea,

The plowman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

卞之琳

晚钟响起来一阵阵给白昼报丧，

牛群在草原上迂回，吼声起落。

耕地人累了，回家走，脚步踉跄，

把整个世界给了黄昏与我。

郭沫若

暮钟鸣，昼已瞑，

牛羊相呼，迂回草径，

农人荷锄归，蹒跚而行，

把全盘的世界剩给我与黄昏。

丰华瞻

晚钟殷殷响，夕阳已西沉，

群牛呼叫归，迂回走草径，

农人荷锄犁，眷眷回家门，

惟我立旷野，独自对黄昏。