一个生日 A
Birthday［美］威廉·史丹利·默温 by William
Stanley Merwin
英诗中译：牛娃娃 Translated by ©H.L.Glennie
4/365/2017E2C-32/365/2017byHGVA
©H.L.Glennie
The friends have gone home far up the valley
of that river into whose estuary
the man from England sailed in his own age
in time to catch sight of the late forests
furring in black the remotest edges
of the majestic water always it
appeared to me that he arrived just as
an evening was beginning and toward the end
of summer when the converging surface
lay as a single vast mirror gazing
upward into the pearl light that was
already stained with the first saffron
of sunset on which the high wavering trails
of migrant birds flowed southward as though there were
no end to them the wind had dropped and the tide
and the current for a moment seemed to hang
still in balance and the creaking and knocking
of wood stopped all at once and the known voices
died away and the smells and rocking
and starvation of the voyage had become
a sleep behind them as they lay becalmed
on the reflection of their Half Moon
while the sky blazed and then the tide lifted them
up the dark passage they had no name for
这首诗深深地感动了我！默温热爱大自然，他对生态的关注在这首诗中有深刻的体现。他以很感性的语言和画面来写一首观念诗，通过时态的辗转往复带读者穿越时空，亲历那遥远时代今人未见过的场景，在离鸟的痕迹中推演那次艰辛的旅程。诗中的意象具有强烈的象征意义：鸟儿迁徙途中发生了什么事？什么气味？什么造成了摇滚和饥荒？最后两句很感人，天空的回应，未及命名的那些命运，自然的命运，人类的命运，时间的命运。。。。这些通过空间的变化得以显现。诗体的形式很有特征，句与句之间承上启下环环紧扣，视觉上給人一种百转千回息息相关，听觉上给予意象以不间断的一气呵成，读来声音上有一种透不出气的紧迫感（朗读此诗时重音落点与通常的朗读法不同），外界与内心的这种反差将诗意的张力发挥到极致！©H.L.Glennie
昨天 Yesterday
［美］威廉·史丹利·默温 by William Stanley Merwin
英诗中译：牛娃娃 Translated by ©H.L.Glennie6/365/2017E2C-34/365/2017byHGVA
－
他说着而我父亲转身
在门廊处看到我
在看自己腕上的表然后他
说你知道我很希望你多待一会
和我说说话
－
我说 哦是的
－
他说可是如果你忙
我就不想让你觉得你
必须
因为我而留待此地
－
我默然
－
他说我父亲
说或许
你有重要的工作正在进行
－
或者也许此刻你应该在见
某个人我不想碍你的事
－
我向着窗外远望
我的朋友比我年长
他这样说着而我那时也是这么告诉我父亲的
接着我就起身然后离开了他
你懂的
－
尽管那时我哪儿也不用去
没任何要紧事要做
©H.L.Glennie
My friend says I was not a good son
you understand
I say yes I understand
-
he says I did not go
to see my parents very often you know
and I say yes I know
-
even when I was living in the same city he says
maybe I would go there once
a month or maybe even less
I say oh yes
-
he says the last time I went to see my father
I say the last time I saw my father
-
he says the last time I saw my father
he was asking me about my life
how I was making out and he
went into the next room
to get something to give me
-
oh I say
feeling again the cold
of my father’s hand the last time
-
he says and my father turned
in the doorway and saw me
look at my wristwatch and he
said you know I would like you to stay
and talk with me
-
oh yes I say
-
but if you are busy he said
I don’t want you to feel that you
have to
just because I’m here
-
I say nothing
-
he says my father
said maybe
you have important work you are doing
-
or maybe you should be seeing
somebody I don’t want to keep you
-
I look out the window
my friend is older than I am
he says and I told my father it was so
and I got up and left him then
you know
-
though there was nowhere I had to go
and nothing I had to do
默温这首是以超现实主义的手法展呈批判现实主义的内容。这里的时态和人物代词互为交织互为转换：朋友、我和我的父亲。这里有对话有独白有内心回忆……人物进进出出映像层层叠叠，语词以复调形式演进，断断续续又似乎相互关联，给人一种说话时心不在焉的感觉，那朋友的详细回忆和自己的三言两语交相互映，看似在交流，其实是各说各的版本，间中回忆的角度和重点都有差异，令人看得有点晕头转向，谁在说谁？默温在回应父亲还是回应朋友？默温用这些纵横交错的代词到底在指谁？这种混乱是默温故意为之！因为是谁已经不是很重要，重要的是你我他她我们你们他们在亲情上友情上都是半斤八两，这是现代社会的通病，谁也不具备站在道德至高点指手划脚的话语权。©H.L.Glennie
贝里曼 Berryman
［美］威廉·史丹利·默温 by William Stanley Merwin
英诗中译：牛娃娃 Translated by ©H.L.Glennie7/365/2017E2C-56/365/2016byHGVA
我要告诉你他对我说的一切
那时战争刚结束
那场战争我们称之为
第二次世界大战
他说暂时不要放下你的冷漠
等你老了你再放下也不迟
过早放弃骄傲你就会
仅仅剩下虚荣
他建议对常规
仅做一次改变
将一首诗的一行改几个字
没有必要重复说同一件事
他建议我向缪思祈祷
双膝跪下然后祈祷
就在那个角落而他
说他的话绝对当真
©H.L.Glennie
I will tell you what he told me
in the years just after the war
as we then called
the second world war
don't lose your arrogance yet he said
you can do that when you're older
lose it too soon and you may
merely replace it with vanity
just one time he suggested
changing the usual order
of the same words in a line of verse
why point out a thing twice
he suggested I pray to the Muse
get down on my knees and pray
right there in the corner and he
said he meant it literally
it was in the days before the beard
and the drink but he was deep
in tides of his own through which he sailed
chin sideways and head tilted like a tacking sloop
he was far older than the dates allowed for
much older than I was he was in his thirties
he snapped down his nose with an accent
I think he had affected in England
as for publishing he advised me
to paper my wall with rejection slips
his lips and the bones of his long fingers trembled
with the vehemence of his views about poetry
he said the great presence
that permitted everything and transmuted it
in poetry was passion
passion was genius and he praised movement and invention
I had hardly begun to read
I asked how can you ever be sure
that what you write is really
any good at all and he said you can't
you can't you can never be sure
you die without knowing
whether anything you wrote was any good
if you have to be sure don't write
这首写的是他的朋友和导师贝里曼及其诗论，不乏幽默和深思。很有意思，也很生动有趣。©H.L.Glennie
英诗中译：牛娃娃 Translated by ©H.L.Glennie
4/365/2017E2C-32/365/2017byHGVA
这首爱情诗温馨感人，激情之火已经燃尽，留下的是温暖的回顾和持续的余温。默温的爱情诗通常比较痛或者激情炽烈，具有那种指甲与手指分离时的痛感和张力，这首则比较平缓但渗透力依然很强，云淡风轻中展示令人窒息的张力也就更感人。除了运用大量持续性的意象之外，原文的时态传递了诗人感情的式微之处和变化过程。另，诗体的形式也挺有意思，呈现割裂状，一片片碎片呀，依然拼接出初始的版图！©H.L.Glennie
另一条河 Another River
［美］威廉·史丹利·默温 by William Stanley Merwin英诗中译：牛娃娃 Translated by ©H.L.Glennie5/365/2017E2C-33/365/2017byHGVA
另一条河 Another River
［美］威廉·史丹利·默温 by William Stanley Merwin英诗中译：牛娃娃 Translated by ©H.L.Glennie5/365/2017E2C-33/365/2017byHGVA
©H.L.Glennie
The friends have gone home far up the valley
of that river into whose estuary
the man from England sailed in his own age
in time to catch sight of the late forests
furring in black the remotest edges
of the majestic water always it
appeared to me that he arrived just as
an evening was beginning and toward the end
of summer when the converging surface
lay as a single vast mirror gazing
upward into the pearl light that was
already stained with the first saffron
of sunset on which the high wavering trails
of migrant birds flowed southward as though there were
no end to them the wind had dropped and the tide
and the current for a moment seemed to hang
still in balance and the creaking and knocking
of wood stopped all at once and the known voices
died away and the smells and rocking
and starvation of the voyage had become
a sleep behind them as they lay becalmed
on the reflection of their Half Moon
while the sky blazed and then the tide lifted them
up the dark passage they had no name for
这首诗深深地感动了我！默温热爱大自然，他对生态的关注在这首诗中有深刻的体现。他以很感性的语言和画面来写一首观念诗，通过时态的辗转往复带读者穿越时空，亲历那遥远时代今人未见过的场景，在离鸟的痕迹中推演那次艰辛的旅程。诗中的意象具有强烈的象征意义：鸟儿迁徙途中发生了什么事？什么气味？什么造成了摇滚和饥荒？最后两句很感人，天空的回应，未及命名的那些命运，自然的命运，人类的命运，时间的命运。。。。这些通过空间的变化得以显现。诗体的形式很有特征，句与句之间承上启下环环紧扣，视觉上給人一种百转千回息息相关，听觉上给予意象以不间断的一气呵成，读来声音上有一种透不出气的紧迫感（朗读此诗时重音落点与通常的朗读法不同），外界与内心的这种反差将诗意的张力发挥到极致！©H.L.Glennie
昨天 Yesterday
［美］威廉·史丹利·默温 by William Stanley Merwin
英诗中译：牛娃娃 Translated by ©H.L.Glennie6/365/2017E2C-34/365/2017byHGVA
他说着而我父亲转身
在门廊处看到我
在看自己腕上的表然后他
说你知道我很希望你多待一会
和我说说话
－
我说 哦是的
－
他说可是如果你忙
我就不想让你觉得你
必须
因为我而留待此地
－
我默然
－
他说我父亲
说或许
你有重要的工作正在进行
－
或者也许此刻你应该在见
某个人我不想碍你的事
－
我向着窗外远望
我的朋友比我年长
他这样说着而我那时也是这么告诉我父亲的
接着我就起身然后离开了他
你懂的
－
尽管那时我哪儿也不用去
没任何要紧事要做
©H.L.Glennie
My friend says I was not a good son
you understand
I say yes I understand
-
he says I did not go
to see my parents very often you know
and I say yes I know
-
even when I was living in the same city he says
maybe I would go there once
a month or maybe even less
I say oh yes
-
he says the last time I went to see my father
I say the last time I saw my father
-
he says the last time I saw my father
he was asking me about my life
how I was making out and he
went into the next room
to get something to give me
-
oh I say
feeling again the cold
of my father’s hand the last time
-
he says and my father turned
in the doorway and saw me
look at my wristwatch and he
said you know I would like you to stay
and talk with me
-
oh yes I say
-
but if you are busy he said
I don’t want you to feel that you
have to
just because I’m here
-
I say nothing
-
he says my father
said maybe
you have important work you are doing
-
or maybe you should be seeing
somebody I don’t want to keep you
-
I look out the window
my friend is older than I am
he says and I told my father it was so
and I got up and left him then
you know
-
though there was nowhere I had to go
and nothing I had to do
默温这首是以超现实主义的手法展呈批判现实主义的内容。这里的时态和人物代词互为交织互为转换：朋友、我和我的父亲。这里有对话有独白有内心回忆……人物进进出出映像层层叠叠，语词以复调形式演进，断断续续又似乎相互关联，给人一种说话时心不在焉的感觉，那朋友的详细回忆和自己的三言两语交相互映，看似在交流，其实是各说各的版本，间中回忆的角度和重点都有差异，令人看得有点晕头转向，谁在说谁？默温在回应父亲还是回应朋友？默温用这些纵横交错的代词到底在指谁？这种混乱是默温故意为之！因为是谁已经不是很重要，重要的是你我他她我们你们他们在亲情上友情上都是半斤八两，这是现代社会的通病，谁也不具备站在道德至高点指手划脚的话语权。©H.L.Glennie
贝里曼 Berryman
［美］威廉·史丹利·默温 by William Stanley Merwin
英诗中译：牛娃娃 Translated by ©H.L.Glennie7/365/2017E2C-56/365/2016byHGVA
我要告诉你他对我说的一切
那时战争刚结束
那场战争我们称之为
第二次世界大战
他说暂时不要放下你的冷漠
等你老了你再放下也不迟
过早放弃骄傲你就会
仅仅剩下虚荣
他建议对常规
仅做一次改变
将一首诗的一行改几个字
没有必要重复说同一件事
他建议我向缪思祈祷
双膝跪下然后祈祷
就在那个角落而他
说他的话绝对当真
I will tell you what he told me
in the years just after the war
as we then called
the second world war
don't lose your arrogance yet he said
you can do that when you're older
lose it too soon and you may
merely replace it with vanity
just one time he suggested
changing the usual order
of the same words in a line of verse
why point out a thing twice
he suggested I pray to the Muse
get down on my knees and pray
right there in the corner and he
said he meant it literally
it was in the days before the beard
and the drink but he was deep
in tides of his own through which he sailed
chin sideways and head tilted like a tacking sloop
he was far older than the dates allowed for
much older than I was he was in his thirties
he snapped down his nose with an accent
I think he had affected in England
as for publishing he advised me
to paper my wall with rejection slips
his lips and the bones of his long fingers trembled
with the vehemence of his views about poetry
he said the great presence
that permitted everything and transmuted it
in poetry was passion
passion was genius and he praised movement and invention
I had hardly begun to read
I asked how can you ever be sure
that what you write is really
any good at all and he said you can't
you can't you can never be sure
you die without knowing
whether anything you wrote was any good
if you have to be sure don't write
这首写的是他的朋友和导师贝里曼及其诗论，不乏幽默和深思。很有意思，也很生动有趣。©H.L.Glennie
读英美诗人的诗，很少会有流泪的冲动，通常是惊叹文字的巧夺天工和智性的灿烂光华。那天读到默温的《一个生日》、《另一条河》和《昨天》时禁不住想流泪，诗中的语境是那么普适和深邃，说的都是每个人司空见惯的现象，但他却提供了一种别人没有意识到的视角。©H.L.Glennie
读诗也有缘分，普利策诗奖二度得主美国当代诗人威廉·史丹利·默温是西方诗人中留给我很深印象却很少读他诗的诗人，二十多年前已经知道他是个伟大的翻译家，我热爱他翻译的诗作，凡是我汉译的诗，我第一时间想到要参照的英译版本就是默温译版，近年来读他写的诗，却通常觉得太痛，痛在骨子里，读不下去，有种跟着他下地狱的感觉，常常读到一半就不想读了，但忘记痛时又折回去读了～～，因为这位痛点处处的诗人的诗里写着他自己的生命，那里有充满仁慈博爱的默温，也有与家庭不和甚至对祖母带点刻毒的默温，有失恋时告别得痛不欲生的默温，有脱离长老会教义拥抱佛教四大皆空的默温，更不用说沿着他踏遍全球的足迹不断追寻不断迷路不断重生的默温。©H.L.Glennie
他的诗的形式又是那么独特那么随心所欲和不羁，几十年来风格一直在变化和跳跃，他是个多么矛盾的人，他一开始是正统派，罗伯特。格雷夫斯那般规规矩矩、奥登那般讲求音韵格律的写诗人，但同时又深受庞德和贝里曼影响。他的诗涉及那么多的死亡主题，他却活得不仅长寿而且勤于笔耕硕果累累，每隔一两年就出版一批数量浩大的作品，今年是他九十诞辰。©H.L.Glennie
他的写作风格不断在变化和创新，但他又似乎没有完全摒弃以前的风格，似乎需要的时候他也会回到正统写法，这与其他一些当代诗人彻底摒弃以前的写作风格有所不同。虽然默温深受贝里曼的影响，但在他的诗中却又读不到明了的忏悔，默温的忏悔都隐藏在隐喻和意象中。©H.L.Glennie
默温是如此领先于我们的时代，我不知多少人能读懂他的诗，一般的都将他归类为超现实主义流派，在我看来，超现实主义只是默温的一部分，默温远远地要比这个类别旷大高远，如果一定要将默温划入某个流派，那默温就是诗界的肖斯塔科维奇，默温所属的流派就是“默温”。©H.L.Glennie
我翻译了默温四首风格很不相同的诗，烦请大家在文后投个票，看您最喜欢哪篇，谢谢！本文所有照片均来自网络，诚谢作者！音乐为久石让的钢琴曲《花火》。
离开新浪一阵，指望技术问题能在这段时间里可以解决，现在看看，老问题还在，有些博友的博文互动功能依然闪不出来，若互动不力，抱歉在先，继续等待。
离开新浪一阵，指望技术问题能在这段时间里可以解决，现在看看，老问题还在，有些博友的博文互动功能依然闪不出来，若互动不力，抱歉在先，继续等待。
我汉译的默温的其他诗作、诗评和译作（无连线的待发布）：
汉译默温诗：黑樱桃 Black Cherries（自由体版与永遇乐填词版）
英诗汉译默温诗：胡笳
英诗汉译默温诗：雨光
英诗汉译默温诗：记住
英诗汉译默温诗：落
眼观
诺亚的乌鸦
谢谢
指甲
为即将来临的绝种
致苏东坡
給白居易留言
论库尼兹的《触抚我》（已发布）
论约翰逊的《西利亚之歌》
《我寻觅的一切你都具备》萨比尼斯作《俳句十首》与谢芜村作
《二十首情诗与绝望之歌》聂鲁达作
（其中已发布的如下：）
第十首：我们甚至失去
第十四首：每天你嬉戏第十五首：为你我喜欢静默
第十六首：在我日暮之空
第十七首：思念，缠绵之影
汉译默温诗：黑樱桃 Black Cherries（自由体版与永遇乐填词版）
英诗汉译默温诗：胡笳
英诗汉译默温诗：雨光
英诗汉译默温诗：记住
英诗汉译默温诗：落
眼观
诺亚的乌鸦
谢谢
指甲
为即将来临的绝种
致苏东坡
給白居易留言
论库尼兹的《触抚我》（已发布）
论约翰逊的《西利亚之歌》
《我寻觅的一切你都具备》萨比尼斯作《俳句十首》与谢芜村作
《二十首情诗与绝望之歌》聂鲁达作
（其中已发布的如下：）
第十首：我们甚至失去
第十四首：每天你嬉戏第十五首：为你我喜欢静默
第十六首：在我日暮之空
第十七首：思念，缠绵之影
