Interpretation of The Wild Honey Suckle by Philip Freneau

       This is one of my most favorite poems. I have translated it into Chinese. It is about the common flower named the wild honey suckle. There are four stanzas in this poem and each stanza contains six lines. The last two lines of each stanza are rhyming couplet. The end rhyme of each stanza is ababcc.

 

       偏安一隅 独自静好 闲足不踏 碌手不催

       In the first stanza the beautiful flower grows quietly in the silent and dull retreat where few people came. Alliteration and visual image is used in the phrase “Fair flower”. “comely grow” is the kinesthetic image. The third and the fourth lines are parallel sentences. Alliteration and olfactory image is used in the phrase “honeyed blossoms”. The fifth and sixth lines are rhyming couplet. Because this is a silent and boring place, the fragrant flowers are not untouched by roving foot and unseen by busy hand.

 

       静水空流 兀自凋零

       Personification is used in the second stanza. The first four lines are one sentence from the perspective of syntax. Nature is personified to “she” and the flower is personified to “Thee”. The flowers are arrayed in white by nature. Nature made the flower avoid the vulgar eye and prepared the guardian shade for the flower. Murmuring soft waters flew by year in year out. When the summer goes by, the flowers withered.

 

       百花同命 万艳同枯

       Analogy and metaphors are used in the third stanza. Both the flowers in the earthly world and the flowers in Eden will die finally. Neither of them was lucky to escape the doom or the decay although I am impressed with those charms. Unpitying frosts and Autumn’s power are compared to the destroying force, which will leave no vestige of the flower.

 

       朝花夕拾 慨然一声叹人生

       The last stanza is the concluding part of the poem. “morning suns and evening dews” are compared to the begging and the ending. The metaphor is used to show that the flower’s life is so short that it is just like the hours between the morning suns and evening dews. Birth and death are similar to a circle. When a person is born, he has nothing. When a person dies, he has nothing. This reminds me of one Chinese sentence: “赤条条来去无牵挂”。The frail and short life of a flower is compared to the frail and short life of a flower. The metaphor and analogy are used to show that the space between the birth and the death is but an hour.

2022-12-23 0:15

诗歌原文

The Wild Honey Suckle

Philip Freneau

 

　　Fair flower, that dost so comely grow,

　　Hid in this silent, dull retreat,

　　Untouched thy honeyed blossoms blow,

　　Unseen thy little branches greet:

　　No roving foot shall crush thee here,

　　No busy hand provoke a tear.

野忍冬花

　　黄杲炘译

　　美好的花呀，你长得：这么秀丽，

　　却藏身在这僻静沉闷的地方——

　　甜美的花儿开了却没人亲昵，

　　招展的小小枝梢也没人观赏；

　　没游来荡去的脚来把你踩碎，

没东攀西摘的手来催你落泪。

 

By Nature's self in white arrayed,  

She bade thee shun the vulger eye,

And planted here the guardian shade,

And sent soft waters murmuring by;

Thus quietly thy summer goes,

Thy days declining to repose.

大自然把你打扮得一身洁白，

　　她叫你避开庸俗粗鄙的目光，

　　她布置下树荫把你护卫起来，

　　又让潺潺的柔波淌过你身旁；

　　你的夏天就这样静静地消逝，

　　这时候你日见萎蔫终将安息。

 

Smit with those charms, that must decay,

I grieve to see your future doom;

They died--nor were those flowers more gay,

The flowers that did in Eden bloom;

Unpitying frosts, and Autumn's power

Shall leave no vestige of this flower.

那些难免消逝的美使我销魂，

　　想起你未来的结局我就心疼，

　　别的那些花儿也不比你幸运——

　　虽开放在伊甸园中也已凋零，

　　无情的寒霜再加秋风的威力，

会叫这花朵消失得一无踪迹。

 

From morning suns and evening dews

At first thy little being came:

If nothing once, you nothing lose,

For when you die you are the same;

The space between, is but an hour,

The frail duration of flower.

朝阳和晚露当初曾把你养育，

　　让你这小小的生命来到世上，

　　原来若乌有，就没什么可失去，

　　因为你的死让你同先前一样；

　　这来去之间不过是一个钟点——

这就是脆弱的花享有的天年。