清明三題雙語(yǔ)詩(shī)
Trio Bilingual Poems on Qingming
Preface:
Qingming (清明) is a special Chinese day/festival. The Wikipedia has it that Qingming also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day in English. During Qingming, Chinese families visit the tombs of their ancestors to clean the gravesites, pray to their ancestors, and make ritual offerings, as written in Poem 1 below. Qingming can also be translated according to what a poem is depicted. For example, a certain period around Qingming is vernal, people also go out for spring outing, and then Qingmingis known as the Spring Outing Days, as in Poem 2. Sometimes it is translated into the Pure and Bright Day too, as the third poem bellow. That’s to say, translation is translating meaning, not the words one by one.
1.清明
作者｜杜牧（唐）
譯｜吳偉雄（廣東）
清明時(shí)節(jié)雨紛紛，路上行人欲斷魂。
借問(wèn)酒家何處有，牧童遙指杏花村。
The Tomb Sweeping Day*
By DU Mu（Tang Dynasty）
Tr. WU Weixiong(China)
It drizzles thick and fast this mourning day;
The mourner travels, heart lost in dismay. **
When asked for a wineshop to kill his gloomy time,
A cowkid points to Apricot Hamlet faraway.
Note:
*Why is day but not festival in this version topic? According to a study on 30 English versions of the poem, 25 ones, or 83%, are for day in topic translation. Practically, people usually sweep the ancestors’ graves in one day, mainly on the day of Qingming in a specific year, for example, 5 April, 2022.
**Then why only one mourner travels in the poem? Prof. YANG Hongru, a noted scholar, had it in a study that a single one traveling to sweep his ancestors’ tombs feels lonelier in dismay. And the man who asked for a wineshop to kill his gloomy time should be the poet himself. That is logical.
2.蘇堤清明即事
作者｜吳惟信 (宋）
英譯｜吳偉雄 （中國(guó)）
梨花風(fēng)起正清明，游子尋春半出城。
日暮笙歌收拾去，萬(wàn)株楊柳屬流鶯。
Causeway Su on the Spring Outing Days
By WU Weixin（Song Dynasty）
Tr. WU Weixiong（China)
The Spring Outing Days are greeted by pear flowers; *
Most people are outing to Causeway Su for leisure hours.
When a day’s recreation stopping at sunset time,
In the willows the homing orioles enjoy the prime. **
Note:
*Qingming Festival is also known as the Spring Outing Days（踏青節(jié)）. The wind that accompanies the florescence is called the florescence wind. The blooming pear flowers usher in the Spring Outing Days. According to the artistic conception of this poem, people outing are not lonely nor gloomy but cheerful in high spirit. Therefore, the topic is put into Causeway SU on the Spring Outing Days, according to the concrete meaning of the poem.
**The poem depicts that people are going out for spring outing on the Causeway SU during the day time; at dust when the tourists are homed, the homing orioles enjoy their prime time in the willows by the water.
3.清明
作者｜王禹偁（宋）
英譯｜吳偉雄（中國(guó)）
無(wú)花無(wú)酒過(guò)清明，興味蕭然似野僧。
昨日鄰家乞新火，曉窗分與讀書(shū)燈。
The Pure and Bright Day*
By WANG Yucheng
Tr. WU Weixiong（China)
This very Day I’ve neither wine nor flowers,
Like a monk roaming outside in lonely hours.
I begged my neighbor for a new fire** last night
To light my lamp, hence I’ve read until sky bright.
Note:
*The speaker of the poem, the poet, is poor, having neither wine nor flowers for the special day. He begged for the new fire the night before Qingming. Then,lighting a reading lamp, he vigorously studies the whole night by the window till dawn, indicating a poor scholar’s ambition for knowledge, never short of the inspirational feelings. By getting the new fire, he also gained the light. The topic, Clear and Bright Day,conforms to the poetic and the new fire implies his hope for a bright future.
** New fire: in ancient customs, the two days before the Pure and Bright Day, or the Tomb-Sweeping Day,was the Unheated-Food Festival, and because there was no fire then, people could only eat the unheated. After that, fire was light up again, hence the "new fire".
英譯者簡(jiǎn)介：
吳偉雄，廣東新會(huì)人，英語(yǔ)譯審。中國(guó)譯協(xié)四、五屆理事，專(zhuān)家會(huì)員，獲“資深翻譯家”證書(shū)。在廣東肇慶、云浮兩市從事外事管理和翻譯工作多年，外交部授“資深地方外事工作者”稱(chēng)號(hào)。曾赴五大洲20多個(gè)國(guó)家任隨團(tuán)翻譯或參加國(guó)際會(huì)議。廣東省譯協(xié)和廣州外事翻譯學(xué)會(huì)創(chuàng)會(huì)理事，肇慶、云浮兩市譯協(xié)創(chuàng)會(huì)會(huì)長(zhǎng)、榮譽(yù)會(huì)長(zhǎng)。2006-2017年，任北理工珠海學(xué)院外國(guó)語(yǔ)學(xué)院教授，授《漢英互譯》、《英語(yǔ)詩(shī)歌選讀》、《中英詩(shī)歌鑒賞》等，曾任《獨(dú)立學(xué)院外語(yǔ)界》主編。在《中國(guó)翻譯》，《中國(guó)科技翻譯》和《上海翻譯》發(fā)文16篇，出版編著5本。2005年在中國(guó)譯協(xié)和桂林市府合辦的“桂林山水甲天下”名句國(guó)際譯文征集活動(dòng)中獲連珠三獎(jiǎng)：優(yōu)秀獎(jiǎng)（第一名），入圍獎(jiǎng)和鼓勵(lì)獎(jiǎng)。
特邀金牌雙語(yǔ)主播簡(jiǎn)介：
王劫蘇，出生于遼寧省沈陽(yáng)市，北京理工大學(xué)珠海學(xué)院英語(yǔ)教師。碩士研究生畢業(yè)于法國(guó)巴黎第三大學(xué)。研究興趣：語(yǔ)言學(xué)，中西文化差異，心理學(xué)。先后開(kāi)設(shè)大學(xué)英語(yǔ)，英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)音，雅思英語(yǔ)，西方文化概論，法語(yǔ)等課程。
本期總編：靜好（英國(guó)）
注：本期配圖來(lái)自網(wǎng)絡(luò)。
