杜甫 《兵车行》英译

（曾冲明2017年6月4月上网收集）

      兵车行

               杜甫

车辚辚，马萧萧，行人弓箭各在腰。

耶娘妻子走相送，尘埃不见咸阳桥。

牵衣顿足阑道哭，哭声直上干云霄。

道傍过者问行人，行人但云点行频。

或从十五北防河，便至四十西营田。

去时里正与裹头，归来头白还戍边。

边亭流血成海水，武皇开边意未已。

君不闻汉家山东二百州，千村万落生荆杞。

纵有健妇把锄犁，禾生陇亩无东西。

况复秦兵耐苦战，被驱不异犬与鸡。

长者虽有问，役夫敢申恨。

且如今年冬，未休关西卒。

县官急索租，租税从何出。

信知生男恶，反是生女好。

生女犹是嫁比邻，生男埋没随百草。

君不见青海头，古来白骨无人收。

新鬼烦冤旧鬼哭，天阴雨湿声啾啾。

我上网查询，多位名家出版的英译著作收有此诗，但网上未见其译文。如瑞安.艾黎，许渊冲，等。我见到可可英语与无忧考网推荐同一首以音节押韵的译文，但都未见译者署名。从诗的内容可见，杜甫此诗写的是他当年切身经历战争给社会的伤害与痛苦。杜甫是反对战争、盼望和平的。与我们今天世界的局势与人心相似。请看：

Song of the Conscripts

                    Du Fu

Chariots rumble and horses grumble.

The conscripts march with bow and arrows at the waist.

Their fathers, mothers, wives and children come in haste

To see them off; the bridge is shrouded in dust they’ve raised.

They clutch at their coats, stamp the feet and bar the way;

Their grief cries loud and strikes the cloud straight, straightaway.

An onlooker by roadside asks an enrollee.

“The conscription is frequent,” only answers he.

Some went north at fifteen to guard the rivershore,

And were sent west to till the land at forty.

The elder bound their young heads when they went away;

Just home, they’re sent to the frontier though their hair’s gray.

The field on borderland becomes a sea of blood;

The emperor’s greed for land is still at high flood.

Have you not heard

Two hundred districts east of the Hua Mountains lie,

Where briers and brambles grow in villages far and nigh?

Although stout women can wield the plough and the hoe,

Thorns and weeds in the east as in the west o’ergrow.

The enemy are used to hard and stubborn fight;

Our men are driven just like dogs or fowls in flight.

“You are kind to ask me.

To complain I’m not free.

In winter of this year

Conscription goes on here.

The magistrates for taxes press.

How can we pay them in distress?

If we had know sons bring no joy,

We would have preferred girl to boy.

A daughter can be wed to a neighbor, alas!

A son can only be buried under the grass!”

Have you not seen On borders green

Bleached bones since olden days unburied on the plain?

The old ghosts weep and cry, while the new ghosts complain;

The air is loud with screech and scream in gloomy rain.

      同时，我在网上还见到不以音节押韵的译文。不过仔细研究，它许多四行是以单音押韵。请看：

中国英译网：

A SONG OF WAR-CHARIOTS

                                    Du Fu

The war-chariots rattle,

The war-horses whinny.

Each man of you has a bow and a quiver at his belt.

Father, mother, son, wife, stare at you going,

Till dust shall have buried the bridge beyond Changan.

They run with you, crying, they tug at your sleeves,

And the sound of their sorrow goes up to the clouds;

And every time a bystander asks you a question,

You can only say to him that you have to go.

...We remember others at fifteen sent north to guard the river

And at forty sent west to cultivate the campfarms.

The mayor wound their turbans for them when they started out.

With their turbaned hair white now, they are still at the border,

At the border where the blood of men spills like the sea --

And still the heart of Emperor Wu is beating for war.

...Do you know that, east of China's mountains, in two hundred districts

And in thousands of villages, nothing grows but weeds,

And though strong women have bent to the ploughing,

East and west the furrows all are broken down?

...Men of China are able to face the stiffest battle,

But their officers drive them like chickens and dogs.

Whatever is asked of them,

Dare they complain?

For example, this winter

Held west of the gate,

Challenged for taxes,

How could they pay?

...We have learned that to have a son is bad luck-

It is very much better to have a daughter

Who can marry and live in the house of a neighbour,

While under the sod we bury our boys.

...Go to the Blue Sea, look along the shore

At all the old white bones forsaken --

New ghosts are wailing there now with the old,

Loudest in the dark sky of a stormy day.