编者按

古诗词翻译，讲究“三美”：音美，意美，形美，因此古诗词翻译历来是中英翻译中最难的体裁之一。武汉大学2014年MTI考研初试题目就出了《桃花源记》，对小桥来说，原文背诵还是完全OK的，汉英翻译却还是要好好琢磨一番的呢ヾ(◍°∇°◍)ﾉﾞ上网一搜，原来早有名家翻过这篇古文，细细阅读之后，真真是十分惊艳！小桥特别挑选了自己最喜欢的大家——杨宪益先生的译文小作赏析，更多名家译文可以戳阅读原文欣赏，一起来围观神仙打架丫~

桃花源记

作者：陶渊明（东晋）

晋太元中，武陵人捕鱼为业。缘溪行，忘路之远近。忽逢桃花林，夹岸数百步，中无杂树，芳草鲜美，落英缤纷。渔人甚异之。复前行，欲穷其林。

林尽水源，便得一山。山有小口，仿佛若有光，便舍船，从口入。初极狭，才通人。复行数十步，豁然开朗。土地平旷，屋舍俨然。有良田美池桑竹之属；阡陌交通，鸡犬相闻。其中往来种作，男女衣着，悉如外人；黄发垂髫，并怡然自乐。

见渔人，乃大惊，问所从来；具答之。便要还家，设酒，杀鸡，作食。村中闻有此人，咸来问讯。自云先世避秦时乱，率妻子邑人来此绝境，不复出焉，遂与外人间隔。问今是何世？乃不知有汉，无论魏晋。此人一一为具言所闻，皆叹惋。馀人各复延至其家，皆出酒食，停数日，辞去。此中人语云：“不足为外人道也。”

既出，得其船，便扶向路，处处志之。及郡下，诣太守，说如此。太守即遣人随其往，寻向所志，遂迷，不复得路。

南阳刘子骥，高尚士也，闻之，欣然规往，未果，寻病终。后遂无问津者。

译文赏析

晋太元中，武陵人捕鱼为业。缘溪行，忘路之远近。忽逢桃花林，夹岸数百步，中无杂树，芳草鲜美，落英缤纷。渔人甚异之。复前行，欲穷其林。

In the reign of Taiyuan of Jin Dynasty, there was a man of Wuling who was a fisherman by trade.One day he was fishing up a stream in his boat, heedless of how far he had gone,whensuddenly he came upon a forest of peach trees. On either bank for several hundred yards there were no other kinds of tree. The fragrant grass was beautiful to look at, all patterned with fallen blossoms. The fisherman was extremely surprised and went on further, determined to get to the end of this wood.

桥说：

第一句话中的In the reign of Taiyuan of Jin Dynasty在一个短句中出现两次同样的介词of，虽然在最大程度上贴合了原文意思，但事实上读起来稍显重复。而孙大雨先生翻译这句话的时候就刻意避嫌，写作“One day in the Taiyuan period of the Jin Dynasty”。可见原文的忠实性和对译文的灵活性之间如何平衡，是译者们都要经历的一大挑战。

接下来看there was…by trade这句话，更可以看出，杨老对译文并不作过多的个人解读和创造性的发挥，而更重视忠实于原文的语句，所以这句话虽然读起来略显冗长，却很好地反映出了原句的全部意思。

第二句”One day he was fishing up a stream in his boat…trees”这句话中的when一词用的巧妙。When这个词引导的从句往往带有“出人意料”的意味，如：“We were about to go when it started to rain.”，这里正要表示渔人“忽逢桃花林”那种眼前一亮的感觉，在when后面加了suddenly一词也是为了突出这种意外感，也为后面渔人的“奇遇”打下铺垫。

第三句“On either bank of the yards…blossoms.”对应的是“夹岸数百步，中无杂树……缤纷”。原文尽是四字词语，很难处理，逻辑关系尤其难找。杨老巧妙地将原文的四个短句从中间劈开，以“夹岸数百步，中无杂树”为一个意群，“芳草鲜美，落英缤纷”为另一个意群，用平实的语言将这美丽的画面呈现给读者。这种古文的翻译手法是很值得借鉴的。

林尽水源，便得一山。山有小口，仿佛若有光，便舍船，从口入。初极狭，才通人。复行数十步，豁然开朗。土地平旷，屋舍俨然。有良田美池桑竹之属；阡陌交通，鸡犬相闻。其中往来种作，男女衣着，悉如外人；黄发垂髫，并怡然自乐。

At the end of the wood he found the source of the stream and, at the foot of a cliff, there was a small cave in which there seemed to be a faint light. He left his boat and went into the mouth of the cave. At first it was very narrow, only wide enough for a man, but after forty or fifty yards he suddenly found himselfin the open. The place he had come to was level and spacious.There were houses and cottages arranged in a planned order; there were fine fields and beautiful pools; there were mulberry trees, bamboo groves, and many other kinds of trees as well.There were raised pathways round the fields; and he heard the fowls crowing and dogs barking. Going to and fro in all this, and busied in working and planting were people, both men and women. Their dress was not unlike that of people outside, and all of them, whether old people with while hair or children with their hair tied in a knot, were happy and content with themselves.

桥说：

古文的最大特点就是极其凝练。“林尽水源，便得一山”短短八个字，就把渔人从“林”带到了“溪流的源头”，又叫他看到了“山”，所以这里其实暗含了渔人撑著小船探路前进的一个过程，在译文中，杨老也将“he”这个主人公给“拎”了出来。这段话多处暗含动作施动者（也就是渔人），如“便舍船，从口入”，又如“复行数十步”等，译者都很讲究地把这个被藏起来的“he”给翻译出来了，这样也就让读者以渔人的视野看到这个世外桃源究竟是什么样子的，同时通过连续的动词赋予译文以流动感。

杨老很重视画面感的衔接，就如放电影一般，一帧一帧断不可有任何缺漏。所以在第一句我们可以看到，“便得一山，山有小口”这一处，译者特地增加了“at the foot of a cliff”这一细节。这也提醒我们在翻译古文的时候，必要时需将语句间没有直接衔接上的部分在译文中补充上。因为英文与中文“形散神不散”的随性不同，是非常讲究形式上的流畅的。

第三句“At first it was very narrow…open.”中，译者将“复行数十步”翻译成“after forty or fifty yards”，这是因为“tens of steps”会让英美人读起来像是丈二和尚摸不著头脑，也许通过换算也许能猜测出大致的距离，但这样的思考过程会让读者从文章中“出戏”，影响了阅读的体验。此外，这句话中的“in the open”也用得十分妥帖。In the open的中文意思是在户外、在野外，这里的open与前头的narrow相映成趣，制造了反差感，读者读到这里是不是也会有种“豁然开朗”的喜悦感呢？

接下去一连串的排比又让人拍案叫绝了。“The place he had come to…There were houses and cottages…; there were…; there were…There were…”这句话原文展现给读者一副桃花源的自然风光，语言朴实，画面生动。译者为了重现这种美感，除了在遣词造句上保持平实质朴的风格，更在句式上下了工夫：第一句因为主语是place，显然无法跟进there were的句式，干脆拎出来单独成句。然后就是酣畅淋漓的四个there were引导的短句，读者读起来一气呵成，十分舒服。虽然英文对于重复的句式和用词是忌讳的，但是在一篇文章中偶尔几处用到排比句是完全没有问题的，这可以增强文章的气势。如马丁·路德金青史留名的演讲I Have a Dream在关键的一句“It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream”之后连用八个“I have a dream…”开头的句子，令人热血澎湃，写下美国名人演讲史上无比耀眼的一章。

见渔人，乃大惊，问所从来；具答之。便要还家，设酒，杀鸡，作食。村中闻有此人，咸来问讯。自云先世避秦时乱，率妻子邑人来此绝境，不复出焉，遂与外人间隔。问今是何世？乃不知有汉，无论魏晋。此人一一为具言所闻，皆叹惋。馀人各复延至其家，皆出酒食，停数日，辞去。此中人语云：“不足为外人道也。”

Seeing the fisherman, they were greatly amazed and asked him where he had come from. He answered all their questions, and then they invited him to their homes, where they put wine before him, killed chickens and prepared food in his honor. When the other people in the village heard about the visitor, they too all came to ask questions. They themselves told him that their ancestors had escaped from the wars and confusion in the time of Qin Dynasty. Bringing their wives and children, the people of their area had reached this isolated place, and had stayed here ever since. Thus they had lost all contact with the outside world. They asked what dynasty it was now. The Han they had never heard of, let alone the Wei and the Jin. Point by point the fisherman explained all he could of the world that he knew, and they all sighed in deep sorrow. Afterwards all the rest invited him to their homes, and all feasted him with wine and food. He stayed there several days and then bade them goodbye; before he departed these people said to him: “Never speak to anyone outside about this!”

桥说：

第一句中“amazed”这个词体现了翻译的“度”拿捏到位。相比于surprised，amazed的惊讶的程度更深一点，且surprised带有点“喜”的意味在里头，从这一段最后“此中人”告诫渔人“不足为外人道也”可以看出，渔人的出现可不算是个好事；但如果使用astonished或者stunned，又太“重”，从这里的村民好吃好喝款待渔人这个不速之客来看，到底人还是善良且好客的，并不因渔人的到来而感到震惊和惶恐。

在“They asked what dynasty it was now. The Han they had never heard of, let alone the Wei and the Jin.”一句中，为了使what the dynasty it was now的问题后面紧跟上答案“the Han”，译者将正常语序“they had never heard of the Han”倒装成the Han they had never heard of。这种词序的调整在诗文翻译中很常见，推荐读者们阅读许渊冲先生的古诗词英译，其中可以找到大量的词序颠倒的例子。

既出，得其船，便扶向路，处处志之。及郡下，诣太守，说如此。太守即遣人随其往，寻向所志，遂迷，不复得路。

南阳刘子骥，高尚士也，闻之，欣然规往，未果，寻病终。后遂无问津者。

So he went out, found his boat and went back by the same route as he had come, all along the way leaving marks. When he got to the provincial town he called on the prefect and told him all about his experience. The prefect at once sent men to go with him and follow up the marks he had left. But they became completely confused over the marks and never found the place.

Liu Ziji, a scholar of high reputation from Nanyang, heard of this and enthusiastically offered to go out with the fisherman to try again. But he fell ill and died before realizing his plan. After that on one went any more to look for the way.

桥说：

原文中的“遂迷”其实并不讲究到底“怎么迷”，杨老在译文中点出了自己的看法，他认为是confused over the marks，也许原作者本来也不打算说清楚怎么“迷”的。不过，无论是原文还是译文，一个不解释，一个解释了却更显得扑朔迷离（做好了标记怎么反而还更找不着路了呢？），都十分耐人寻味。

以上就是著文翻译小桥读过杨宪益大师的译文的一些笔记，如果有不合理的地方，或者您有其他想法，在留言区进行讨论。