2016年3月19日 星期六

When You Are Old by William Butler Yeats. Pierre de Ronsard's "To Hélène "

When You Are Old by William Butler Yeats ,這首詩,1971年我們的【大一英文】課本有選入。當時,竟然沒將全詩翻譯,只選幾行當情詩。 (2016.2.22)
記得聽說過或讀過,這首詩受到 P. de Ronsard (龍沙)的"等你老態龍鍾"的影響。
今天(2016.3.18) 讀施穎洲先生的譯文,的確如此:
等你老態龍鍾,夜晚在燭影裏,
坐在爐火旁邊,抽絲紡線,吟詠
我的詩篇,沉思之間,你會說明:
"龍沙歌頌過我,當時我還美麗。"
......
你將成為爐邊一個傴僂老婦,
追惜我的多情,痛悔你的傲慢,
生活吧,信我的話,別等待明天,
趁今天將生命的玫瑰花折取。

張華兄找出英譯,他說的可能是嫌"老態龍鍾"是熟語,我的看法類似,可能直接譯就可。
"When you are very old" 一句,竟發現很難用中文好好表達。


Pierre de Ronsard's "To Hélène "



When you are very old, by candle’s flame,

Spinning beside the fire, at the end of day,

Singing my verse, admiring, you will say:

“When I was fair, Ronsard’s muse I become."



Your servant then, some weary old beldame-

Whoever she may be- nodding away,

Hearing “Ronsard.” Will shake off sleep, and pray

Your name will be blessed, to live in deathless fame.



Buried, I shall a fleshless phantom be,

Hovering by the shadowed myrtle tree;

You, by the hearth, a pining crone, bent low,



Whose pride once scorned my love, much to you sorrow.

Heed me, live for today, wait not the morrow:

Gather life’s roses while still fresh they grow.



When You Are Old by William Butler Yeats : The Poetry ...

www.poetryfoundation.org › Poems & Poets
When you are old and grey and full of sleep, / And nodding by the fire, take down this book, / And slowly read, and ... But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,.

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