美国文学诗歌名篇翻译赏析

I shot an arrow……

我射出一支箭……

---Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I shot an arrow into the air,

我把一支箭射向空中

It fell to earth I knew not where;

不知它落在何方

For so swiftly it flew the sight

飞得那么快

Could not follow it in its fight.

眼睛难以追寻它的方向

I breathed a song into the air,

我对着天空轻轻唱歌

It fell to earth I knew not where;

不知它消逝在何方

For who has the sight so keen and strong

谁的眼光能如此敏锐犀利

That can follow the flight of a song.

能跟上歌声的翅膀

Long, long afterwards in an oak,

很久很久以后，在一棵橡树上

I found the arrow still unbroke;

我找到了那支箭，仍未折断

And the song, from beginning to end,

也发现了那支歌，自始自终

I found again in the heart of a friend.

在朋友的心中欢唱

This poem is written in a traditional iambic form with the feet “aabb aacc ddee”. In the poem, Longfellow sings the friendship implicitly and skillfully. The arrow and the song in this poem stand for the friendship. When he shot an arrow and breathed a song into the air, he did not expect to find them any more. But many years later, he came across with the arrow and found that his song was always in the heart of his friend. This suggests that the friendship is everlasting.

I’m Nobody!

我是无名之辈

Emily Dickinson

I’m nobody! Who are you?

我是无名之辈！你是谁？

Are you nobody, too?

你也是无名之辈吗？

Then there’s a pair of us----don’t tell!

那么我们就是一对儿了！千万不要透露出去

They’d banish us, you know!

不然我们都会被他们驱逐，你知道。

How dreary to be somebody!

做一个某某，是多么沉闷无聊

How public, like a frog

众人像是青蛙

To tell your name the livelong day

整日地把你谈论啊

To an admiring bog!

对着他们倾慕的泥沼

This poem is Dickinson’s most famous and most defense of the kind of spiritual privacy she favored, implying that to be a Nobody is a luxury incomprehensible to a dreary somebody—for they are too busy keeping their names in circulation. But to be somebody is not as fancy as it seems to be.

A traveler comes to a fork in the road and needs to decide which way to go to continue his journey. After much mental debate, he picks the road “less traveled by”.The poem describes the tough choices people stand for when traveling the road of life. The words "sorry" and "sigh" make the tone of poem somewhat gloomy. Different choices will lead to different life journeys. And all these depend on one’s momentary decision.

The road not taken

未选择的路

------------Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

黄色的树林里分出两条路

And sorry I could not travel both.

可惜我不能同时去涉足

And be one traveler, long I stood

我在那路口久久伫立

And looked down one as far as I could

向着一条路极目望去

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

直到它消失在丛林深处

Then took the other, as just as fair,

但我却选择了另一条路

And having perhaps the better claim,

它荒草萋萋，十分幽寂

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

显得更诱人，更美丽

Though as for that passing there

虽然在这条小路上

Had worn them really about the same.

很少留下旅人的足迹

And both that morning equally lay

那天清晨落叶满地

In leaves no step had trodden black.

两条路都未经脚印污染

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

啊，留下一条路等改日再见

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

但我知道路径延绵无尽头

I doubted if I should ever come back.

恐怕我难以再回返

I shall be telling this with a sigh

也许多少年后在某个地方

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

我将轻声叹息将往事回顾

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I ---

一片树林里分出两条路--

I took the one less traveled by,

而我选择了人迹更少的一条

And that has made all the difference.

从此决定了我一生的道路