郭沫若《菩提树下》 -经典散文英译-中英双语赏析

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◎　郭沫若　Guo Moruo

菩提树下

◎　郭沫若

一

我的女人最喜欢养鸡。她的目的并不在研究遗传，并不想有甚居积①，充其量只是想给孩子们多吃几个鸡蛋罢了②。

因此之故她总是爱养母鸡。每逢母鸡要生蛋的时候，她真是欢喜极了，她要多把些粮食给它，又要替它做窝。有时候一时要做两三个窝③。

鸡蛋节省着吃，吃到后来母鸡要孵卵的时候，那是她更操心的时候了，孵卵的母鸡每隔一天要飞出窝来摄取一次饮食，她要先替它预备好；又要时常留心着不使母鸡在窝里下粪，因为这样容易使孵卵腐败。还有被孵抱着的鸡卵她也要常常把微温的盐水去试验，在水上可以浮起的便是腐败了的，她便要取出，沉下去的便仍使母鸡孵抱。像这样足足要操心三个礼拜，等到鸡卵里面可以听出啾啾的叫声了，那时候她有两三天是快乐得不能安定的。

我们养鸡养过五六年，鸡雏也不知道孵化过好几次了。但是孵化了的鸡雏不是被猫鼠衔去，便是吃米过多得脚气病死了。自己孵化出的鸡雏从不曾长大过一次。

我们又是四处飘流的人，遇着要远徙他方的时候，我们的鸡不能带着同走。在那时我们的鸡不是送人，便是卖给鸡贩子去了。自己养过的鸡怎么也不忍屠杀。所以我们养鸡养了五六年，自己所养的鸡从不曾吃过一次。

所养的鸡也并不多，至多不过四五只；我们除把些残菜剩饭给它们外，平常只听它们去自行渔食罢了。

二

养了五六年的鸡，关于鸡的心理，我也留下了不少的幽凉的记忆④。鸡的生活中我觉得很有和人相类似的爱的生活⑤存在。

假如有一群鸡在园子里放着的时候，请把一些食物向鸡群里洒去罢。这鸡群里面假使有一只雄鸡，你可以看出它定要咯咯地呼唤起来，让母鸡去摄取那食物，它自己是决不肯先吃的。这样本是一个很平常的现象，但这个很平常的现象不就有点像欧洲中世纪的游吟诗人（troubadour）的崇拜女性吗⑥？

有一次我们养过三只牝鸡，两只雄鸡。这两只雄鸡中只有一只得势，把那三只母鸡都占有了。那不得势的一只，真是孤苦得可怜⑦。得势的一只雄鸡不消说要欺负它，便连那些娥皇女英们也不把它看在眼里。它有时性的冲动发作了，偷觑着自己的情敌不在，便想方设计地去诱惑它们。分明是没有食物的，它也要咯咯地叫，或者去替它们梳理羽毛，但它们总不理睬它。它弄得焦急了，竟有用起暴力来，在那时它们一面遁逃，一面戛着惊呼求救的声音，呼唤它们的大舜皇帝。等到大舜皇帝一来，那位背时的先生又拖着尾巴跑了⑧。

——啊，你这幸福的大舜皇帝！你这过于高傲了的唐璜（Don Juan）⑨！你占领着一群女性，使同类多添一位旷夫。

那回是我抱了不平，我把得势的一只雄鸡卖了。剩下的一位旷夫和三位贞淑的怨女起初还不甚相投，但不久也就成了和睦的夫妇了。

还有一件更显著的事情，要算是牝鸡们的母爱。牝鸡孵化了鸡雏的时候，平常是那么驯善的家禽，立地要变成一些鸷鸟。它们保护着自己的幼儿是一刻也不肯懈怠的。两只眼睛如像燃着的两团烈火。颈子时常要竖着向四方倾听。全身的神经好像紧张得要断裂的一样。这样加紧的防御。有时还要变为攻击。不怕你便不怀敌意走近它们，它们也要戛出一种怪的叫声，飞来啄你。摄取饮食的时候，它们自己也决不肯先吃，只是咯咯地唤着鸡雏⑩。假如有别的同类要来分争，不管是雄是雌，它们一样地总要毫不容情地扑啄。睡眠或者下雨的时候，要把自己的鸡雏抱在自己的胸胁下，可怜胸脯上的羽毛要抱来一根也没有存在的程度⑪。像这样的生活，要继续两三个月之久。在这时期之内，它们的性生活是完全消灭了的。

三

啊，今年的成绩真好，我们现在有两只母鸡，十六只鸡雏了。

我的女人在二月底从上海渡到福冈来的时候，便养了两只母鸡：一只是黄的，一只是如像鹰隼一样。

我们住在这博多湾上的房子，后园是很宽大的。园子正中有一株高大的菩提树。四月初间我来的时候还没有抽芽，树身是赤裸着的，我们不知道它的名字。我们猜它是栗树，又猜它是柿子树。但不久渐渐转青了，不是栗树，也不是柿树。我们问邻近的人，说是菩提树。

在这菩提树成荫的时候，我们的母鸡各个孵化了九只鸡雏。这鸡雏们真是可爱，有葱黄的，有黑的，有淡黑的，有白的，有如鹌鹑一样驳杂的，全身的茸毛如像绒团，一双黑眼如像墨晶，啾啾的叫声真的比山泉的响声还要清脆。

啊，今年的成绩真好，我们本有十八只鸡雏，除有一只被猫儿衔去，一只病死了外，剩着的这十六只都平安地长大了起来。现在已经是六月尾上了，鸡雏们的羽毛渐渐长出，也可以辨别雌雄了。我们的这十六只鸡雏想来总不会被猫儿衔去，不会病死了罢？鸡雏吃白米过多时，会得白米病，和人的脚气病一样，好端端地便要死去，但我们现在吃的是麦饭，我们的鸡雏们总不会再得白米病了罢。

——“啊，今年的成绩真好。”

我的女人把吃剩着的晚饭，在菩提树下撒给鸡群吃的时候，她笑着向我这样说。

鸡雏啾啾地在她脚下争食，互相拥挤，互相践踏，互相剥啄着。

Under the Linden Tree

◎ Guo Moruo

(1)

My wife is very keen on raising chickens. She does this not for studying genetics or making a profit out of it, but merely for collecting more eggs for our kids to eat.

Therefore, she always prefers to raise hens. She will be immensely delighted whenever a hen is laying, giving it additional feed, making it a new roost, etc. Sometimes she finishes making two or three roosts at one go.

We consume our eggs sparingly. My wife has to go to a lot more trouble when a hen is sitting. As the brooding hen will fly out of its roost to seek food once every other day, she has to get the feed ready for it beforehand. And she has to be careful not to let the hen leave its droppings in the roost for fear that it should cause the eggs to rot. She puts all the eggs that a hen is sitting on in lukewarm salty water by way of a test. Those that float are judged rotten and must be thrown away; those that sink are kept for the hen to continue to brood. She will thus busy herself with all that for as long as three weeks until the yeeping sound comes out of the eggs. Then she will be left in a state of great excitement for two or three days.

We have been raising chickens for five or six years, and broods upon broods of chicks have been hatched. But the baby chicks were either carried off by cats or rats, or died of beriberi caused by eating too much polished rice. None of the chicks hatched by ourselves lived until they were full-grown.

We are a family constantly on the move. When we travel to a faraway place, we can’t take our chickens with us. All we do is give them away or sell them to chicken vendors because we don’t have the heart to slaughter the chickens raised by ourselves. We ate none of our own chickens during the five or six years.

We raised only a small number of chickens, four or five at most. Apart from feeding them with the leftovers of the table, we let them out to seek food by themselves.

(2)

Five or six years of chicken raising has left me with a deep impression of how chickens behave. Like humans, chickens also live a life characterized by love.

Take for example a flock of chickens, among them a rooster, put out to feed in a courtyard. If you sprinkle some food onto the ground, you’ll invariably find the rooster start clacking to call all the hens to help themselves. The rooster himself will not eat first. This is no uncommon occurrence among chickens, but doesn’t it border on woman-worship as expressed by the medieval troubadours in their amorous lyrics?

Once we had three hens and two roosters. One rooster, however, held sway and monopolized all the three hens. The other got the worst of it and looked crestfallen. Not only was he bullied by the stronger opponent, he was also snubbed by the three females. Sometimes, driven by sexual impulse, he used every trick to seduce them in the absence of his rival in love. He clacked to call the hens when actually there was no food available. He offered to preen their feathers for them, but they just ignored him. Finally, in desperation, he resorted to the use of force. That sent the three hens scampering in panic and raising a call for help — a call to the all-powerful autocrat. As soon as the autocrat came on the scene, the poor lonely heart fled with the tail between his legs.

O you lucky all-powerful autocrat! O you haughty Don Juan! You took exclusive possession of a group of females; consequently, you have among you one more marriageable male remaining unmarried.

Hence, out of a sense of justice, I sold the domineering rooster. The three hens, at first keeping the lone rooster at arm’s length, soon became his loving mates one after another.

The maternal love shown by hens is something even more noteworthy. Hens are normally very tame and docile, but when the eggs they have been sitting on are hatched they immediately become as fierce as birds of prey. They spare no efforts to protect their young. With eyes flashing like two fiery balls, they frequently stick their necks high up to find out how things stand. Their nerves were overstrained to the point of collapse. Sometimes they acted on the offensive instead of on the defensive. Even if you approach them without any ill intention, they will squawk and peck you all the same. At feeding time, they never eat first, but cluck to call for their young. And they will mercilessly fly on any intruder, male or female, who attempts to scramble for the feed. At sleeping time or when it rains, they will clutch their young under them so much so that they pitifully end up losing all their breast feathers. They continue to live like this for two or three months. And during this period, they completely abstain from sex.

(3)

Ah, we have so far done quite well this year. We now have two hens and sixteen baby chicks.

My wife began to raise the two hens after she returned from Shanghai to Fukuoka at the end of February. One is yellow and the other looks like a falcon.

Our house on the Katakawa Bay has a very big rear garden with a giant linden tree in its centre. When I first came here early last April, the tree, with a bare trunk, had not yet put forth buds, and we didn’t even know it by name. We guessed it to be a chestnut or persimmon tree. Soon afterwards, as it was turning green, I found it to be neither a chestnut nor a persimmon tree. However, my neighbours, upon my inquiry, told me it was a linden tree.

By the time when the linden tree was leafy and made shade, the two hens had each hatched nine baby chicks. The baby chicks were just lovely. Some were yellowish, some black, some grey, some white, and some motley like quails. They were fluffy like balls of cotton wool. Their eyes were jet black. Their pippings were even more pleasant to the ear than the bubbling of a mountain spring.

Ah, we have done quite well this year. Of the original eighteen baby chicks raised by us, one was carried off by a cat and another died of some disease. The remaining sixteen, however, are growing fine. It is late June now. They have been gradually feathering out and we can already tell males and females apart. Hope they will never be carried off by cats or die of some disease. Healthy young chicks, if they eat too much polished rice, may die of a disease similar to beriberi to which humans are liable. Fortunately, instead of polished rice, we have presently taken to eating oats. So our baby chicks will no longer die of eating too much polished rice.

“Ah, we’ve done quite well this year,” exclaimed my wife beamingly as she was throwing the leftovers of our supper onto the ground under the linden tree for the chicks to eat.

The yeeping chicks scrambled for the feed like anything, pushing and shoving each other, treading on and pecking each other.

散文《菩提树下》是郭沫若（1892—1978）1924年6月8日写于日本博多湾的早期代表作之一，最初收入1926年出版的小说散文集《橄榄》，现存《郭沫若全集》。文章是他自己生活观感的直接记录，充满异乡情趣和热爱生活的感情。

注释

①“居积”在此的意思是“牟利”，不是“当作奇货留着高价出卖”或“囤积居奇”，因此译为making a profit out of it，未按字面直译为hoarding for speculation。

②“想给孩子们多吃几个鸡蛋罢了”译为merely for collecting more eggs for our kids to eat，其中“给”译为collecting，未直译为giving，更能切合原意。

③“有时候一时要做两三个窝”意即“有时候一下子要做两三个窝”，故译为Sometimes she finishes making two or three roosts at one go，其中at one go或in one go是成语，作“一下子”或“一口气”解。

④“幽凉的记忆”意即“深刻的印象”，故译为a deep impression。

⑤“爱的生活”意即“充满爱的生活”或“以爱为特征的生活”，故译为a life characterized by love。

⑥“但这很平常的现象不就有点像欧洲中世纪的游吟诗人（troubadour）的崇拜女性吗？”译为but doesn’t it border on woman-worship as expressed by the medieval troubadours in their amorous lyrics?，其中border on是动词短语，作“近似”解，用以表达原文的“有点像”。“游吟诗人”指公元1100至1350年间游荡于法国南部各宫廷间的诗人，他们的抒情诗歌大都以性爱为内容。译文中的in their amorous lyrics是增益成分，用以释义。

⑦“那不得势的一只，真是孤苦得可怜”译为The other got the worst of it and looked crestfallen，其中got the worst of it是成语，作“遭到失败”、“处于劣势”等解。又crestfallen本指公鸡的“羽冠倒垂”，转义为“垂头丧气”（dejected），用以表达原文“孤苦得可怜”，形神兼顾，最为合适。

⑧“那位背时的先生又拖着尾巴跑了”译为the poor lonely heart fled with the tail between his legs，其中“背时的先生”译为the poor lonely heart（可怜的光棍汉），比直译the unlucky gentleman更为达旨传神。又习语“拖（夹）着尾巴跑了”和英语习语to flee with one’s tail between one’s legs在内容和形式上都吻合，有相同的意义和形象，英译时可借用之。

⑨唐璜（Don Juan）是西班牙传奇中的一个风流浪荡的贵族，常以男主人公出现在欧洲诗歌、戏剧、歌剧中。

⑩“咯咯地唤着鸡雏”译为cluck to call for their young，其中cluck表示母鸡唤小鸡时的咯咯声；动词短语to call for的意思是“叫……过来”。

⑪“要把自己的鸡雏抱在自己的胸胁下，可怜胸脯上的羽毛要抱来一根也没有存在的程度”译为they will clutch their young under them so much so that they pitifully end up losing all their breast feathers。此句也可译为they will firmly hold their baby chicks under them, as a result of which, to our great pity, their breasts become utterly bare of feathers。

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