Magi, Meine Schweister

It was then Your sixteen, my Sister.

An infant Rose in the Garden,

You dreamed, in sweet Slumber,

Of roaming the roaring Ocean.

Some days then came on wings;

Some lays then sang like wines.

Then sunrays caught Your hair,

Of which the world has no more fair,

And opened to the Ocean wide and deep,

Die Tuer von dem Garten.

Were You raring or did You weep

On Your way to river’s loop.

那时你十六岁，我的妹妹。

好似花园里初生的玫瑰，

人还睡在甜甜梦霭，

心却早已神游沧海。

几叠日夜，飞也来得鳞次栉比；

几片歌谣，让人醉得不能自已。

直到某时，当阳光散若雪霰，

撒上你那柔美无比的发线，

这花园大门也随之敞开，

直面深邃未知的沧海。

当时踏上航程的你，

是急不可耐，还是暗暗抽泣。

It is now your twenty, my Sister.

You’re, farer in the wild of surge,

Thinking ’bout Life and Weight to bear:

“Petal on a wet black hedge”.

Some days do leave like light;

Some lays do change grey with red.

Though blows the wind so keen ’nd cold,

Of daily mind and trivial faint,

Bin sicher, Es kann gefunden werden:

Another land for another Garden,

Where You keep Love and the Seed,

And raise a Rose under Your guard.

今天你二十岁，我的妹妹。

已是徜徉了几多涟漪，

你正思考着生活与责任的意谓：

“一片花瓣飞过湿冷的树篱”。

几叠日夜，飞也去得遥无踪影；

几片歌谣，不经意地暖了心境。

纵使往复纠缠的忧思繁冗，

绾成百转不离得彻骨逆风，

你也定能寻得一片新的乐土：历历在目

那是一斜远离风浪的花圃，

那里等着你内心的真爱与希望，

那里睡着你自己的玫瑰和守望。

复习时遇到的好文，寒假翻译然后就收起来了，现在。。。。。。贴出来。

All Rights Reserved.

大家可能都知道海明威的For Whom the Bell Tolls（《丧钟为谁而鸣》,一译《战地钟声》），却不太了解其书名由来。如果有空英文维基一下，就会发现，“丧钟为谁而鸣”其实来自John Donne的散文。

John Donne是英国文艺复兴前期著名的玄学派诗人。因为极其怕死，诗人留下了不少探讨生命与死亡的文章诗作（比较有名的有Death Be No Proud），其中情绪有悲有喜。本文作于诗人弥留之际，观点比较中肯。

Donne写作的一个重要特点就是conceit（抽象比喻）的运用，这种貌似奇怪的比喻往往可以营造特殊的效果（诗人曾在去法国出差时把自己两口子比作圆规的两脚，即使有短暂的分别，二人也是永远相连，终于团圆）。

说到具体的翻译，感觉最难的就是措辞和语气。Donne是一个研究玄学的学者，所以，在翻译的时候尽量使用书面语。最满意的地方是把“it tolls for thee. ”译成了“丧钟为君而鸣”，觉得这样比译成“汝”或“你”好得多。

还有要解释的一点，就是“寤者”，“ 寤”是这几天看《诗经》的时候学到的字，它和“寐”相对，是“醒”的意思。鉴于文中原句的双关意义，就也用了汉语的双关（“ 寤”可以引申为“悟”， “醒悟”）。

Meditation XVII

                       by John Donne

《沉思录之十七》

 ( The poet, confined to his bed with a serious illness, hears the bells of the church adjoining, and is thereby reminded of death and the transiency of human life.)

（诗人重病卧床，忽闻教堂丧钟，感于大限将至，人生须臾。）

Perchance he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that. 

也许，有人病得太重，听到自己的丧钟，也浑然不觉。

也许，是我不知病重，旁人正为我鸣钟，竟充耳不闻。

The church is catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to that head which is my head too, and ingrafted into that body whereof I am a member.

教会博爱，其行也善，一切圣事，皆为世人。当她为新生之灵浸礼时，我亦为之欣喜：因为此时，我们共属的圣灵又接纳了新的生命。

And when she buries a man, that action concerns me; all mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated; God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God’s hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall like open to one another. 

当她为老去之躯葬殓时，我亦为之悲恸：你我好比书简章节，皆由一人所书，同属一部藉著。那些去世的人，不会被生生撕去，却被译成更美字句。其后的每一章节也都将如此，静待转译。上帝携章译句，可以疾患，亦可战乱，抑或审判，但凡有别，因人而异。上帝亲手译人，整编散页，然后收纳成集，一一摊开，藏于书室。

As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come, so this bell calls us all; but how much more me, who are brought so near the door by this sickness. There was a contention as far as a suit ( in which both piety and dignity, religion and estimation, were mingled ), which of the religious orders should ring to prayers first in the morning; and it was determined, that they should ring first that rose earliest.

由此而知，传道之钟，不仅为信众而鸣，也为众生而鸣。所以，此时丧钟，同为你我而鸣。只是我重病残喘，才更显为我而鸣。人们常常争论，教诲信众的晨钟先由何人鸣响,其中不知包含了多少虔诚与尊贵，信仰与敬重，一如那纠缠不休的庭堂攻辩。然而，无论结果如何，这钟声都会先为寤者所知。

If we understand aright the dignity of this bell that tolls for our evening prayer, we would be glad to make it ours by rising early, in that application, that it might be ours as well as his, whose indeed it is. The bell does toll for him that thinks it does; and though it intermit again, yet from that minute that that occasion wrought upon him, he is united to God.

此时钟声，正是为你我的晚祷而鸣:如果真能知晓其中尊贵，我们就会乐于省悟，欣然接受。如此以来，超度亡灵之钟，便也同为你我而鸣。此时钟声，正是为虔诚的智者而鸣:尽管他们只听得一时钟鸣，然而一旦觉悟，便能与上帝同在。

Who casts not up his eyes to the sun when it rises? But who takes off his eyes from a comet when that breaks out? Who bends not his ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings? But who can remove it from that bell which is passing a piece of himself, out of this world!

有谁愿意回避初升的太阳？有谁宁可错过闪逝的流星？有谁不愿聆听那频频鸣响的钟声？又有谁，听到这送别手足的丧钟，还能冷漠地置若罔闻！

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of the friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminished me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

你我并非孤立的岛屿，我们同属人类这片完整的大陆。海水每化去一捧泥土，欧陆就会减小一寸。正如海岬失去了棱角，或是乡绅损失了田园，每每有人离世，我都若有所失，因为世人本为一体。所以，不要再去追问丧钟为何人而鸣，丧钟为君而鸣。

Neither can we call this a begging of misery, or a borrowing of misery, as though we were not miserable enough of ourselves, but must fetch in more from the next house, in taking upon us the misery of our neighbors. Truly it were an excusable covetousness if we did, for affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it.

这不是自求伤痛，也不是过分悲哀，好像我们自己的痛苦不够受用，还要向邻里讨借。不过真要如此，也没人怨你贪得无厌，因为痛苦本来就是难得宝藏。

No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and ripened by it, and made fit for God by that affliction. If a man carry treasure in bullion, or in a wedge of gold, and have none coined into current money, his treasure will defray him as he travels. Tribulation is a treasure in the nature of it, but it is not current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer our home, Heaven , by it.

饱经痛苦的人，会变得成熟而完满，并由之得到上帝的垂怜。然而，空有金条银锭，却不将其铸成通货，人生之途仍会穷困潦倒。苦难天然是宝藏，但天然不可使用。只有化为通货，助人回归天园，才能物尽其用。

Another man may be sick too, and sick to death, and this affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a mine, and be of no use to him; but this bell, that tells me of his affliction, digs out and applies that gold to me: if by this consideration of another’s danger I take mine own into contemplation, and so secure myself, by making my recourse to my God, who is our only security.

或许，有人已经病逝。他的痛苦也如金矿一般，深深藏入尸骨，对逝者再无他用。然而，此时丧钟，正将其痛苦告知于我，并把那探得的黄金嵌诸我身。思量垂危之人，明了了自己的残生，我也因此求诸上帝，这世人唯一的庇护，以得永恒的安乐。

Dimensional Sentiment

A silent river flows aside

A necked fellow leans beside

When falls the curtain chill and still

On face caressed by fear and thrill

Ye see the bound on vault that seals

The birds and stratus fly on wings

Some ways to make ahead of day

Would less to come than who delay

And silent river flows aside

And necked fellow leans beside

When perfume brume too much at noon

No rains encounter any grain

Ye make thy wish of ice and hail

But falls the leaf on trees so frail

And then ye find the exit out

That leads to entrance back to start

最近不经意地看了不少物理学的东西，

象征性地思索：

从第一维（或者零：点）世界

到第十维世界的伸延。

How to understand the 10^th dimension?

其实，就连已知的零，一维和二维

也仅仅是我们观念中的产物吧。

维度之间界限真能打破吗？

不要列举什么蚂蚁爬报纸的试验，

试验本身就已经跳出二维而进入了三维。

虫洞，或许只是观念中的构造。

文科人妄谈理科，错就错了，

也不值得深究。

胡乱写写，只求晚上别再胡思乱想。

ps. 2nd stanza 的 perfume 是动词，

倒装了。