谢冰莹《樱之家》 -经典散文英译-中英双语赏析

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樱之家

谢冰莹

为了找房子,不知花费我多少时间,受过多少闲气(1)。记得在特没有来之前,我和雪影去找房子,老太婆出来回答的,不是说不租给中国人,便是说不租给独身的女人(2)。这些话不知引起我们发过多少牢骚,有时就气得啼笑皆非。你如果要质问她为什么不租给中国人,那才倒天下之大霉,她会乱七八糟地说(3)中国人如何爱闹爱吵,不讲卫生……

好容易和两个朋友一同找着了樱“阿怕拖”(公寓之英语译音)。这是一座精巧玲珑的小房子,外面漆的粉红色,完全和樱花的颜色一般。我最初望到它时,脑筋里立刻受了一个大大的刺激,呵,住在粉红色的房子里,该是多么有诗意的生活!

我一面这样想着(4),一面念着这房子的名字:“沙枯拉阿怕拖”,太美了!这名字太美了!如果有房子,我非住在这里不可!

他们听了我自言自语的话,都哈哈大笑起来,房主人告诉我还有一间楼下的房子空着,于是我看了后立刻就放下定钱,决定第二天搬来。

下了电车,走过铁路,就是一条有相当热闹的乡村的街。走到一间卖花店的面前,你会突然发现一个奇迹,摆在你眼前的原来是一座高耸入云的松林。树是那样高,笔直,而又整齐得特别可爱!因为是松树和杉树的原故,所以四时都是绿油油的。你如果要到“樱之家”去,最经济,最美丽的道路自然是穿过森林。自己在树底下行走,如果把风景看得太严重了,倒反没有什么趣味。最有意思的是自己慢慢地在后面走,看着人家一个个地从树荫下经过。若遇着晴天,人的影子迅速地在路上移动着,好像看电影似的,非常有趣;雨天,路太坏了,不但感不到什么好处,而且非常恨这块地方。下雪天,不待说,这儿是最令人留连的了!雪景,白茫茫的一片,亮晶晶的冰条,挂在屋檐上、树枝上,再加上一眼望过去的白皑皑的冰山,简直令你忘记了此身还在人间(5)。其实这些景致并不算稀奇,最妙的还是堆积在松枝上的白雪,当着行人从底下经过时,它突然轻轻地打了下来,弄得你满头满身都是雪。有时恰好落在日本的少女头上,或者粉颈(6)上,她们那娇滴滴的叫笑声,和泛着桃红色的两颊,真有描写不出的美丽。

是第二次下了春雪的第二天,我们从森林中经过,走到半途,雪块忽然掉下来,差一点打在特的头上,他连忙把帽子取下来给我戴上,自己光着头在前面打先锋。后面两个日本男学生,看我戴着男人的帽子,笑得一塌糊涂(7),我并不觉得女人戴男人的帽子好笑,而觉得他们的笑才真是好笑,于是自己也笑了起来。

是的,这里是这样一个有趣味的地方,路的右边是神社,去邮局常常要经过这里。寂静、清洁自不待言,最令人怀恋的是黄昏时晚风吹动的松涛和在清晨听到的一声声告春鸟的歌唱。

有月亮的晚上,你经过这里,一定会不知不觉地念出(8)“明月松间照,清泉石上流”的诗句,而且理解那是怎样一个情境。

森林的旁边有一湾溪水,这溪水永远在潺潺地流着,经过深邃的森林,也经过粉红色的房子。

“樱之家”,就在山水清幽的地方建筑起来的。里面虽没有外面的美丽,然而只花十二元一月,有精巧的书斋、睡房、厨房给你享受,在东京,这样便宜的地方是再也找不到的。何况早晨有太阳唤醒你起床,晚间有清朗的月亮陪伴你写作,只这两点也值得我们留恋了。

然而,这样幽静、这样美丽的地方,我们终于离开它了!

一直到搬运夫来搬行李为止,我还在犹豫地对特说:“不要搬了吧,这里太好了!”

当汽车走了半个多钟头之后,我好似在梦里似的,仍然回过头来,从玻璃窗里寻找那在森林深处的“樱之家”。

Sakura[1] Apartment

Xie Bingying

In my long seeking for lodgings,I often met with a snub.I remember how,before Te arrived,when Xue Ying and I went out hunting for a room to let,we would often encounter an elderly woman emerging from a house to announce her curt refusal to rent out a room to a Chinese or a single woman.That incurred our great displeasure and we sometimes found it both laughable as well as irritating.If we had asked her for the reason why,she would probably have,to our even greater displeasure,cooked up stories of how noisy and messy the Chinese were…

It was with great difficulty that I finally,together with two friends,managed to find a living place called Sakura Apartment.It was an exquisite small house with its exterior painted pink—of exactly the same colour as cherry blossoms.I was very much struck by it at first sight.Oh,how poetic it would be to be domiciled in a pink house!

Meditatively,I kept muttering the name of the house“Sakura”.Beautiful!What a beautiful name!I’d sure take up my lodgings here if only there was a room available!

Hearing me talk to myself,my friends burst out laughing.When the landlord told me there was a flat available downstairs,I immediately paid some earnest money and decided to move in the next day.

After alighting from a street car and crossing a railway track,I came to a busy village street.Near a florist’s shop,a wonderful scene suddenly came into view.Standing tall and erect before me in neat array was a forest of evergreen pines and firs.The shortcut to Sakura Apartment was by a beautiful track through this forest.While walking in the shade of the trees,I preferred not to focus my attention exclusively on the scenery.I found it most interesting to watch,by slowing down my pace,other people walking ahead of me one after another.On a fine day,I enjoyed watching them like on television.On a rainy day,however,the bad condition of the track was abominable.The place was,however,very charming on a snowy day when all was white.Glittering icicles hanging from eaves of houses and branches of trees plus the snow-capped mountains in sight would make you feel like living in an earthly paradise.Snow falling off branches of pines and firs would land all over on pedestrians.When it happened to land on young girls’ heads or their delicate necks,their sweet giggles and rosy cheeks would form a picture of indescribable beauty.

Once,on the second day after the second fall of snow in spring,when we were halfway through the track,a lump of snow falling from the trees almost hit Te on the head.He immediately put his own hat on my head and walked ahead of me bareheaded.Two nearby Japanese boy students,seeing me wearing a man’s hat,began to laugh out loud.I didn’t see anything funny about a woman wearing a man’s hat.I rather thought it funny for them to laugh.So I also laughed.

Yes,this was a very interesting place.On the right side of the track stood a Japanese Shinto shrine,which we often passed by on our way to the post office.All was quiet and clean.The most memorable thing was the soughing of the wind in the pines at dusk and the singing of spring birds at dawn.

On a moonlit night,when you passed through this place,you would better understand the following two lines[2] escaping your lips:

The bright moon peeps through pine trees,

Crystal-clear spring water flows over stones.

Beside the forest lay a brook,which kept babbling along,through the thick forest and by the pink house.

Sakura Apartment was tucked away in a natural environment of peace and quiet.Though the interior of the house was not so beautiful as its exterior,I paid only 12 yen a month for my flat complete with study,bedroom and kitchen.An accommodation renting so cheaply was hard to come by in Tokyo.Moreover,I could rise at the call of the early morning sun and enjoy the company of the bright moon every night.These were but two of the things I didn’t want to miss.

Yet I had to leave this quiet and enchanting place!

“Let’s stay on…in this nice place!”I kept saying falteringly to Te until the porter came.

Thirty minutes after the car left,I,in a dreamy state,still turned back to look out of the glass window in search of Sakura Apartment hidden in the depths of the forest.

[1] From a poem entitled Autumn Evening in the Mountains by the famous Tang poet Wang Wei(701-761).

[2] The Romanized Japanese word for cherry blossoms.

《樱之家》是著名女作家谢冰莹1935年3月写于日本东京的一篇散文。当时她在日本早稻田大学文学研究所攻读西洋文学。作者在文章中谈到自己所受的歧视,同时详细描述了留日生活的片段以及周围的秀丽风光,语言平实自然,朴素流畅。

注释

(1)“受过多少闲气”的译文I often met with a snub是参照文章内容而作的灵活处理。英语snub的意思是“冷落”、“怠慢”等。

(2)“不是说不租给中国人,便是说不租给独身的女人”译为to announce her curt refusal to rent out a room to a Chinese or a single woman,文字结构与原文不尽相同,也属灵活处理,其中curt作“简慢”、“三言两语”解,是译文中的添加词,原文虽无其词而有其意。

(3)“乱七八糟地说”可按“捏造”、“想出”之意译为to cook up,为英语中的习语。

(4)“我一面这样想着”译为Meditatively,意同While meditating。

(5)“简直令你忘记了此身还在人间”可按“使你感觉似乎身处人间乐土”译为would make you feel like living in an earthly paradise,其中feel like是习语,作“感到好似”解。

(6)“粉颈”意即“白嫩的脖子”,可译为white necks、fair necks、delicate necks等,不宜照字面直译为powdered necks。

(7)“后面两个日本男学生……笑得一塌糊涂”译为Two nearby Japanese boy students…began to laugh out loud,其中“后面”可按“附近”之意译为nearby,比walking behind us简洁;又“笑得一塌糊涂”意即“大笑不已”,可译为to laugh out loud(或loudly)。习语to laugh out loud(loudly)意同to laugh loudly,但往往指由“有趣的”或“滑稽的”的事物所引起的大笑。

(8)“会不知不觉地念出”意即“……会脱口而出”,故译escaping from your lips。

未经允许不得转载:帕布莉卡 » 谢冰莹《樱之家》 -经典散文英译-中英双语赏析

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