By Sholeh Wolpé
Without An Alphabet, Without A face: Selected Poems of Saadi Youssef
Translated from the Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
[Graywolf Press 2005]
Bad translation can kill even the best of poems. A brilliant melodic poem rendered into another language could become a bad poem with interesting philosophy or insights.
Fortunately, Saadi Youssef’s Without an Alphabet, Without a Face meets no such fate. It is the work of a master Iraqi poet translated by a master translator. As I recited each poem out loud, which is my test of a good translation, the poems were soft in my throat, smooth as warm milk and honey. They were melodic and not forced. In reading these poems one forgets they are translations and not the poems in their original language....
“和平的麻雀 伊拉克詩人優賽福” 【聯合報╱傅正明2007.08.02】或許也是穿鑿附會的作品。
“我稱為「和平的麻雀」的這位詩人薩迪‧優賽福（Saadi Youssef, 1934-），十七歲開始寫作，詩文著作頗豐，由Khaled Mattawa譯為英文的詩集《沒有字母表沒有面貌：優賽福詩選》（Without An Alphabet, Without A face: Selected Poems of Saadi Youssef, Graywolf Press, 2005）集作者四十多年的佳作。”
問：”An Alphabet “翻譯成「字母表」，不知道什麼意思？
看他怎麼紐曲引詩：
“不起眼的麻雀，是反戰的優賽福常用的意象，有和平鴿的象徵意味。在〈麻雀〉（1981）一詩中，詩人看見一隻麻雀飛到細長的玉米稈上，「這隻麻雀自己清潔 自己」，另一隻麻雀飛來，玉米稈微微彎曲，第三隻麻雀飛來，玉米稈彎成了一把弓──領會這樣的詩情畫意，這把弓在我眼裡成了三隻麻雀集體製造的一件奇妙的 和平武器。詩的抒情主人公感到有一千隻麻雀在他的襯衣下面震顫……”
Consider “Sparrows,” written in Yemen in 1981:
This morning I saw a sparrow
on a thin stalk of yellow corn,
the only plant adorning
the seaside hotel.
The sparrow cleaned itself;
the stalk shook.
Another sparrow came;
the stalk bent.
A third sparrow;
the stalk bowed quickly.
Then suddenly,
and in unison,
the three sparrows took off,
leaving the hotel.
And under my shirt
a thousand sparrows
shivered.
According to Youssef: “It is important that the poet develop a strong bond with life, to be able to observe and able to choose his subject matter…Afterwards, he can abstract things by abstracting coincidences, and symbolize them.”....
以上是我昨天很含蓄說:傅先生的了解能力是值得懷疑的......
今天看到兩篇文章值得參考:
演講辭中譯稿有違帕穆克原意 （萬 之） 
翻譯見木，更要見林 （傅正明） 
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