|华章英韵|小至‖总第18期原创： 叶如钢 译诗 今天
主持人
王如利（Wang Ruli）
丁立群（Ding Liqun）
Introduction
冬至是中国二十四节气中一个非常重要的节气，也是一个传统节日，民间自古有“冬至大如年”的说法。那么，在唐朝大诗人杜甫的诗中，冬至又是怎样的一番模样呢？本期的《华章英韵》有幸邀请到久居国外的叶如钢教授执笔主译，一起品赏杜甫的《小至》和叶教授的佳译。
Winter Solstice is a very important one among the 24 solar terms in China. It is also a traditional festival, and even a saying says that “Winter Solstice is as significant as Spring Festival”. Then, in the poetry of Du Fu, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, how would he describe the occasion? For this issue of Chinese Verse in English Rhyme, we are honored to invite Professor Ye Rugang, who has lived abroad for years. Let’s read and enjoy Du Fu’s “Winter Solstice” and Professor Ye’s beautiful translation.
小至
（唐）杜甫
天时人事日相催，冬至阳生春又来。
刺绣五纹添弱线，吹葭六琯动浮灰。
岸容待腊将舒柳，山意冲寒欲放梅。
云物不殊乡国异，教儿且覆掌中杯。
Winter Solstice
Du Fu (Tang Dynasty)
Translated by Rugang Ye
Season’s steps and human tasks run,
Spring nears and winter solstice comes with sun.
To five needlework threads lasses add thin line,
Six tunes are played, reed ash blown, flutes fine.
Willows are to sprout on banks in Jan,
Plums are to bloom, mounts to shorten cold’s span.
Of the scenes, distinct from home seem none;
Poured by son, a cup of wine is great fun.
注：若使用省略，每行为八个音节。
The Translator’s Remark
冬至快到了，丁老师提供了几首诗让我选译，包括杜甫的《冬至》《小至》，白居易的《冬至夜》，陆游的《冬至》和姜特立（宋）的《冬至》。浏览之中立刻觉得很喜欢杜甫的《小至》。杜甫的诗读过不少，这首还是第一次见到。这首《小至》着眼于描写季节前行，虽然是冬至，春天却临近。每一联、每一句都有丰富的内容和含意。喜欢这首七律的主要原因正是其丰富、生动的内容和喻写。另一方面，我也感觉译成英文有相当难度，主要原因也正是其较复杂的内容。七言古体诗，我通常尽可能翻译成四音步（八音节），最多也只允许自己扩展到五音步（十音节）。（英诗汉译，我通常则保持译诗每行音节数与原作相差最多两个）。为什么这样要求呢？首先，诗贵精炼。更重要的是，每行音节数拉太长，会改变原作的节奏感和旋律感，尤其是唐诗那种行进的流畅旋律感。我想把杜甫这首《小至》翻译成四音步，其每行的丰富内容和细节自然就增加了难度。
杜甫这首《小至》的英译我采用了随韵，即aabb韵律，也就是每两句押一个韵，也称为双行韵。英语里同一个韵的词往往很少，随韵是处理这个问题的很有效的办法。曾读到一篇美国评家的文章，主张不要把中国古诗翻译成英语韵诗，盖因英语的韵词限制云云。殊不知换韵可以解决这个问题。除了aabb格式，还有abab，abba等。毫无疑问，押韵要自然，因韵害意乃韵译之大忌。一个蹩脚的凑韵就会毁掉一首韵译诗。准确翻译、表达合乎英语习惯，这两条比押韵更重要。令人惋惜的是，凑韵、因韵害意却并不罕见。以完全韵翻译常常有相当的难度。一般地来说，可以考虑使用半韵以及头韵等各种变通方式，甚或不押韵。但是，有志者翻译每一首古典韵诗都应当尽最大努力使用完全韵。
杜甫《小至》的拙译在换韵之中，每个韵都出现了n 这个辅音。所以，除了每两行各自是完全押韵之外，全诗通押了这个半韵。为了阅读方便，这里刊载的版本里没有使用音节缩略。如果使用音节缩略，每行是四音步、八个音节。
Winter solstice is about to arrive. Mrs. Ding provided a couple of poems from the Tang and Song dynasties, among which I found the great Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu’s “Little Winter Solstice”, or simply “Winter Solstice”, particularly appealing, mainly for its rich content and metaphors. However, I expected translating this poem to be very challenging, precisely because of its rich and complex content. It’s also because of a restriction I impose on my translation. Namely, if I translate a seven-character-a-line Chinese classic poem, I translate it into tetrameter whenever possible, and possibly into pentameter. There are two good reasons for this. Poems are supposed to be concise and hence the translated lines should not be too long. On the other hand, if a seven-character-a-line poem is translated into a meter longer than pentameter, the rhythm and melody of the poem tend to be altered conspicuously, in particular in the case of a Tang dynasty poem whose line progressing often has a melodic flow. I wanted to translate Du Fu’s “Winter Solstice” into tetrameter, which was made harder by the complex content in each line of the poem. Luckily, I was able to produce an English translation in tetrameter, which I hope is fairly close to the original verse and valid as an English rhyming poem.
In the translation of this poem I adopted the aabb rhyme scheme. In English, rhyming words are notoriously few for most rhymes. A very effective method for handling this trouble is to switch rhymes and, accordingly, adopt rhyme schemes such as aabb, abab and abba. In a widely circulated article an American critic asserts that one should not attempt to translate classic Chinese rhyme poems into English rhyme poems, for the reason of limited rhyming words just mentioned. It seems that he did not consider switching rhymes. Of course, rhyming should be natural and in translation one should never alter the essential connotations of a poem for the purpose of rhyming (or for any other purpose). One should not concoct odd expressions for the purpose of rhyming either. If perfect rhymes can’t be found, one can use instead partial rhymes or head rhymes. On the other hand, I strongly believe that classical Chinese rhyme poems should be translated into English poems with perfect rhymes whenever possible.
In my humble translation of Du Fu’s “Winter Solstice”, while the aabb rhyme scheme is adopted and the rhymes keep switching, the consonant “n” appears in all the rhymes, thus a partially rhyming monorhyme also appears, which makes the translated poem more melodious. This translation is indeed in tetrameter as intended. However, for reading convenience, the syllable abbreviations needed for achieving tetrameter are not used in this published version.
The Translator
叶如钢，数学家、诗人、翻译家。美国加州大学圣巴巴拉分校终身教授，中国科学技术大学长江讲座教授。曾任德国波鸿大学终身教授。翻译过英语、德语、法语、意大利语、西班牙语和瑞典语诗歌。诗作风格多样。著有诗剧/史诗作品《九大行星》和《致命华丽西娜之生死九章》，开辟了多方位诗歌写作的新方向。“第三只眼之诗人沙龙”和“叶如钢翻译交流平台”创办人和主持人。
Ye Rugang, mathematician, poet, and translator, Professor at University of California, Santa Barbara, Changjiang Lectureship Professor at University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China, previously Professor at Bochum University, Germany. His numerous poetry works include the poetry dramas/epics The Nine Planets and The Nine Chapters of the Fatal and Gorgeous Natalia which contain poems in Chinese, song lyrics in English and screenplay components. He has translated English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Swedish poems into Chinese, and Chinese poems into English and German.
《中外诗文翻译》
主办：中诗网、译诗群
协办：月印无心佛教文化平台“太原头条”、大家网、金融街电讯新媒体头条
总顾问：何功杰、李正栓、张智中、卓振英、黑马
总策划：周占林、宛城卧龙
名誉主编：周占林、释圣静
主编：王磊
名誉副主编：王永纯、德肋撒.李
副主编：黄金珠、蔡铁勇
编委：王如利、丁立群、晚枫、王琳、史潘荣、罗晓佳、赵真
发布平台：月印无心佛教文化
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