2015年12月15日 星期二

梅利爾(James Merrill)詩選 "The Octopus" ,等等......



"The Octopus" by James Merrill

There are many monsters that a glassen surface
Restrains. And none more sinister
Than vision asleep in the eye’s tight translucence.
Rarely it seeks now to unloose
Its diamonds. Having divined how drab a prison
The purest mortal tissue is,
Rarely it wakes. Unless, coaxed out by lusters
Extraordinary, like the octopus
From the gloom of its tank half-swimming half-drifting
Toward anything fair, a handkerchief
Or child’s face dreaming near the glass, the writher
Advances in a godlike wreath
Of its own wrath. Chilled by such fragile reeling
A hundred blows of a boot-heel
Shall not quell, the dreamer wakes and hungers.
Percussive pulses, drum or gong,
Build in his skull their loud entrancement,
Volutions of a Hindu dance.
His hands move clumsily in the first conventional
Gestures of assent.
He is willing to undergo the volition and fervor
Of many fleshlike arms, observe
These in their holiness of indirection
Destroy, adore, evolve, reject—
Till on glass rigid with his own seizure
At length the sucking jewels freeze.


*



許久以前的一篇舊雜文 2005-6-10?

all is translation:老師們、殘月、J. Merrill的Lost in Translation



今年適逢台灣歌謠之父鄧雨賢百歲誕辰,新竹縣政府籌畫一系列包括音樂會、研討會、影像展等活動,向這位譜寫「雨夜花」、「望春風」、「四季紅」的台灣音樂先驅致敬。
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昨天,在問津堂翻覽紀念未晚齋主人百歲之書(北京商務去年出版紀念)。知道:他家鄉丹陽中學改名呂叔湘中學;他教書時寫信建議研究生,出題考試甚難,何如 以翻譯某書替代考試……可惜,這本書內容不夠充實(幾年的留英生活,採取僅用一段方式加以掃瞄)……真是的。你有機會讀他的書/選集/全集 更好…..
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馬里奧.薩瓦多里/著『建築生與滅:建築物為何站起來? 』(Why Buildings Stand Up),顧天明,吳省斯 譯,田園城市出版社,2004

很好的書。譯者序末行說他們在921之後讀到這本書,感動,「僅」(sic)將它翻譯出來…….


***** hc懷念他的初中老師們

hc答殘月:「我一直記得,初一(1967)讀朱自清、徐志摩等人散文集,許多地方都不懂。不過,初二時國文老師竟將他的大學用書『中國文學發達史』借 我,他要我讀,其實,我那懂。又,初一上英文時,我完全傻住,因為連abc都不懂,之後,高一可以讀許多英文著作,包括G. Orwell 的 Animal Farm(數十年之後重讀,我很懷疑當時懂多少,或許,我沒什麼長進…..)……」

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殘月:「……我想,有生之年 我至少會看懂一篇……」
哇! simon university 的作者們問題多多? 我想我們挾帶太多外文…….
你(殘月)選一篇比較感興趣的,我(們)願意完全翻譯給妳,增進你的了解能力或我們的表達能力。

(戲筆:睡前讀『超現實主義』。發現它們對於(殘)月的界定(by Breton),似乎如我們談過的『巴黎的憂鬱』書中之「可惡的玻璃工匠」。)


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史景遷《王氏之死》(The Death of Woman Wang, (1977):《婦人王氏之死》李孝愷譯,(台北:麥田,2001))卷首引James Merrill【(1926–1995. American poet whose works include Divine Comedies (1976), which won a Pulitzer Prize.)http://www.answers.com/James%20Merrill%20


「失去的,埋塟了嗎?又一個(sic)失落的文件?

但沒有任何東西消逝。或者,一切都是翻譯
我們的每個片段都消逝於其中……」

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李孝愷之譯文,沒說明此引詩出處。


James Merrill這首長詩Lost in Translation"大大有名,所以http://www.answers.com/網頁有解讀。(據說Divine Comedies (1976), 收有"Lost in Translation" 和 The Book of Ephraim)

我們介紹過『梅利爾(James Merrill)詩選』(河北教育:書中有此詩之譯和注(由於它引用里爾克德文翻譯 Paul Valery的「棕櫚樹」,並將此詩獻給當代翻譯法文的名家 R. Howard,牽涉法-德-英和許多人物-地方-事情,所以要解-翻譯……))


『梅利爾(James Merrill)詩選』對於末段之翻譯為:
But nothing's lost. Or else: all is translation
And every bit of us is lost in it...
And in that loss a self-effacing tree,
Color of context, imperceptibly
Rustling with its angel, turns the waste
To shade and fiber, milk and memory.


失去了,它,就被埋葬了嗎,另一個失去的片段?

但什麼也沒有失去,或不如說,一切都是翻譯
我們的每一點都消失在它之中

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