【双语】狄金森到底有没有在海边遛狗

 

【引子】隐喻诗歌不好弄，一头雾水，要么被解读得天马行空，要么被稀释得“想当然”。我很喜欢看别人写的诗评，是件乐不可支的事儿——就像别人也爱看我写诗评一样，bug百出，还乐此不疲，永远都是自娱自乐型的。

 

日前一篇2009年的关于狄金森（Emily Dickinson ,1830-1886）海边遛狗的诗评又被翻了出来。它起自一首狄金森著名的诗歌《我早早出发，带着小狗》（I Started Early — Took my Dog —）。当然，网上的中译本是早就有的，我看了其中一个版本，翻译得很唯美（下例）。但是也发现了许多问题：1，破折号，音节，大写字母，这个特殊又意外的结构贯穿始终，是无法在翻译时还原其本来面目（原诗意境）的。2.诗歌中使用的意象，说是在海边，却出现了楼上，院子，地下室等词语。本文选的汉译本倒是很聪明，译者都把它们转译成了与大海结构通感的词语。但是老外诗评家罗宾·伊奇斯却不这么看，他认为出现了楼上，院子，地下室等词语，正好说明狄金森没有去海边遛狗，而恰恰是在院子里想象出了大海，并对这份超凡想象予以大赞。对这种说法我也表示部分认可，诗人的想象力是天马行空的，不奇怪。可是至于狄金森为什么不真的带小狗去海边散步，罗宾·伊奇斯给出的理由是：太冒险，不安全。这就有点让人呵呵了，去不去海边遛狗，完全取决于狄金森当时是不是逗留在海边，而与“恐惧大海”没有半点关系。

 

那么，狄金森到底有没有在海边遛狗呢？抑或她有没有去过海边呢？我的看法是“谁也说不准”，但针对写诗来说，不重要。写“青藏高原”的词作家根本就没去过西藏；写“太阳岛上”的也没去过太阳岛。我们感兴趣的是这篇原版评论，来看一下外国人怎么欣赏诗和评诗的。

 

以下诗歌译文选自网络，你认为翻译得如何？——唐凯译诗，评诗。

 

Emily Dickinson: “I Started Early — Took my Dog —”

艾米莉﹒狄金森：《我早早出发——带着我的狗——》

 

我带着小狗，早早出发，

去看大海；

美人鱼从海底

出来看我，

 

I started Early - Took my Dog

And visited the Sea

The Mermaids in the Basement

Came out to look at me

 

海面的军舰

疾速行使

沙滩上的我

像老鼠一样渺小

 

And Frigates - in the Upper Floor

Extended Hempen Hands

Presuming Me to be a Mouse

Aground - upon the Sands

 

直到浪花涧到鞋上

越过围裙和腰带

浸湿了上衣

我才挪开步子，

 

But no Man moved Me - till the Tide

Went past my simple Shoe

And past my Apron - and my Belt

And past my Bodice - too

And made as He would eat me up

 

他好像要把我

当作蒲公英上的露珠-

囫囵吞下

于是我跑向岸边。

 

As wholly as a Dew

Upon a Dandelion's Sleeve

And then - I started - too

 

他-他紧跟着；

我觉到了脚踝上

银色的浪花，-于是鞋子上

挂满珍珠似的水滴。

 

And He - He followed - close behind

I felt His Silver Heel

Upon my Ankle - Then my Shoes

Would overflow with Pearl

 

到了沙滩，

他感到陌生；

就礼貌地望了下我

退去了。

 

Until We met the Solid Town

No One He seemed to know

And bowing - with a Mighty look

At me - The Sea withdrew

 

The poet puts her vast imagination on display at the beach.

【诗评】 《诗人把她浩瀚的想象展现在沙滩上》

 

BY ROBIN EKISS

作者：罗宾·伊奇斯

唐凯   译

 

Many poets have written about the sea: Whitman, Baudelaire, Rimbaud . . . a list that goes all the way back to Homer. For some people and poets, the ocean represents adventure and escape. For others, its vastness suggests the infinite depths of the self or the unconscious, even danger, which also lurks beneath the waves. For Emily Dickinson (who’d never actually seen the ocean), its unfathomable beauty represented many of these things and more. In her poem, “I started Early — Took my Dog,” we can fully experience the ocean’s power over the poet’s imagination.

 

许多诗人都写过大海：惠特曼，波德莱尔，兰波......一份名单全都回归到荷马。对一些人和诗人来说，海洋代表着冒险与逃脱。对于另一些人来说，它的浩瀚暗示着纯粹的，或者无意识的，甚至危险的极致深渊，它们同样也潜伏在波涛之下。对于埃米莉﹒迪金森来说（实际上她从未见过大海）它高深莫测的美代表许多这类东西，甚至还不止这些。在她的诗歌里，“我早早出发——带着我的狗”，我们能充分体验到海洋的力量凌驾于诗人想象之上。

 

Though unpublished—and largely unknown—in her lifetime, Dickinson is now considered one of the great American poets of the 19th century. She spent most of her adult life at home in Amherst, Massachusetts, but her reclusive tendencies didn’t stop her from roaming far and wide in her mind.

 

尽管没有出版——也名不见经传——在她的一生中，狄金森现在被认为是19世纪美国伟大的诗人之一。她在马萨诸塞州的阿默斯特家中度过了大部分的成年时光，但是她的隐居倾向并没有阻止她脑海中的辽远徜徉。

 

Like most of Dickinson’s work, this poem relies heavily on the hymn and ballad forms. As a churchgoer, Dickinson was very familiar with hymns, whose rigid rhyme and syllable structure create a melody that’s recognizable in many of her poems, which can be sung to familiar hymn tunes, such as “Amazing Grace.” Because of its religious association, the hymn form brings a certain spiritual gravity to Dickinson’s work, lending her poems about everyday experience a kind of religious reverence.

 

像狄金森大部分作品一样，这首诗歌主要是以赞美诗和民谣形式呈现。作为一个经常去做礼拜的人，狄金森非常熟悉赞美诗，严格的韵脚音节结构构成了她诸多诗歌作品中的一个识别旋律，它可以伴随熟悉的赞美诗曲调歌唱，比如《奇异恩典》。由于其宗教联系，赞美诗形式给狄金森的作品带来了某种精神之重，给她的有关日常体验的诗歌增加了一种虔诚的（宗教）尊严。

 

Dickinson also relied on the ballad in structuring her poems. Composed of four-line stanzas with strong rhythms, repetitions, and rhymes (usually on the second and fourth lines), ballads were traditionally a form of storytelling set to music. When Dickinson’s lines are read out loud, it’s easy to see (and hear) how they create their own song that tells a story.

 

狄金森也依靠民谣来建构她的诗歌。由四行诗带着强烈的节奏，重复，和韵律组成（通常是在第二行和第四行），民谣传统上是一个对着音乐讲故事的形式。当狄金森的台词被大声读出时，很容易看到（和听到）他们是如何创作出自己的歌曲来讲述故事的。

 

That story begins with the simple-enough task of taking a dog for a walk on the beach:

 

I started Early – Took my Dog –

And visited the Sea –

 

那个故事开始于一个足够简单的任务：带一只狗在沙滩上散步：

 

我早早出发——带着我的狗——

去看海——

 

But this early-morning stroll is anything but ordinary. Though Dickinson, indeed, was known to walk her dog, Carlo, on the grounds of her house, they never ventured as far as the ocean. Having never seen it, Dickinson must imagine the sea, and she transforms it through metaphor into something much more familiar to her: a house, complete with a “Basement” and an attic (“the Upper Floor”).

 

但是这样的清晨散步绝不是件寻常的事。尽管人们都知道狄金森的确遛那只叫卡洛的狗，在她的房前屋后，但她们从不冒险到海边去。狄金森从未见过大海，她必须对它展开想象，她通过隐喻把它变成了她更为熟悉的东西：一座房子，配有一套完整的“地下室”和一个阁楼（“上层楼”）。

 

As if paying a social call, she’s greeted not at the door, but at the shore—by mermaids and frigates (square-rigged ships of the 18th and early 19th centuries), which hold out their “Hempen Hands” (their ropes) to her as though she were a shipwrecked mouse scurrying between the ship’s deck and the dock, with the possibility of escape:

 

仿佛是在做社会交际，她不是在门口受到迎接，而是在海岸上——由美人鱼和护卫舰（十八世纪和十九世纪早期的横帆船）接驾，它们向她伸出“麻绳手”（船上的绳索），就像她是一只失事的老鼠，在甲板和码头之间乱窜，带着逃走的可能：

 

The Mermaids in the Basement

Came out to look at me –

 

And Frigates – in the Upper Floor

Extended Hempen Hands –

Presuming Me to be a Mouse –

Aground – upon the Sands –

 

地下室的美人鱼

出来看着我——

 

而护卫舰——在上层

伸长麻绳手——

假定我是一只老鼠——

搁浅——在沙地上

 

In Dickinson’s imagination, the sea becomes a magical place, and the poem, filled with friendly, unthreatening creatures, is like a nursery rhyme. That comforting sense of simplicity is heightened by her unique syntax and punctuation, filled with dashes and unusual capitalization. Each dash demands that we pause for a moment between the capitalized words, emphasizing the rhythmic and lyrical qualities of the poem. Much as the full “stops” of a telegram charge every subsequent line, Dickinson’s dashes slow us down and make every inventive detail and carefully chosen image seem all the more deliberate. The effect lulls us, as waves do, and also forces us to feel the drama of the poem’s language.

 

在狄金森的想象中，大海变成一个神奇的地方，而这首诗，充满了友好、温和的生物，像一首童谣。那简单朴素的欣慰感，因她独特的句法和标点而更加强烈，充满破折号和不同寻常的大写字母。每一个破折号都要求我们在大写的词之间停顿片刻，加强着诗的韵律与抒情语气。这很像拍电报，随后每一行都充满了“停止”，狄金森的破折号使我们慢下来，使每一个善于创造的细节和精心挑选的意象都显得更加深思熟虑。这种效果使我们安宁镇定，就像波涛那样，同时也使我们专注于感受诗歌语言的戏剧效果。

 

But all is not as it seems. In the third stanza, we see a literal turning of the tide. The waves begin to take on a menacing tone:

 

But no Man moved Me – till the Tide

Went past my simple Shoe –

And past my Apron – and my Belt

And past my Boddice – too –

 

但一切并不像表面上看上去的那样。在第三节，我们看到了潮汐的一次平实转折。海浪开始呈现出威胁的语调：

 

但是没有人动我——直到潮水

漫过我朴素的鞋——

我的围裙——腰带

——也漫过我的裙上身——

 

The advancing water threatens to drown the speaker as it rises dramatically, phrase by phrase, past her chest. Taking on the characteristics of a man, the ocean becomes volatile and voracious, threatening to devour her:

 

And made as He would eat me up –

As wholly as a Dew

Opon a Dandelion’s Sleeve –

 

推进的水急剧上升，让说话者受到溺水的威胁，一句一句地漫过她的胸口。大海呈现出一个男人的特性，变得不稳定和贪婪，威胁要将她吞没：

 

那样子就好像他会吞噬我——

像一滴露珠完全把我吞噬

在蒲公英的袖子上——

 

“And then—I started—too,” the speaker says, repeating a crucial verb from the poem’s first stanza. In the poem’s first line, “started” implies “starting a journey.” Repeated here, it suggests she is “startled” by fright, retreating as the tide continues to pursue her:

 

“然后——我也——开始了，”说话者说，从诗的第一节就反复使用了一个关键性的动词。在诗歌的第一行，“出发（开始）”暗指“开启一段旅程。”在这里重复，它暗示她是被恐惧所startled的（译注：startled惊吓，与started开始、出发谐音），随着潮水持续追逐，她节节后退：

 

And He – He followed – close behind –

I felt His Silver Heel

Opon my Ancle – Then My Shoes

Would overflow with Pearl –

 

而他——他跟着——紧随其后——

我感到他的银色脚跟

碰在我的脚踝上——然后我的鞋子

会溢出珍珠——

 

The speaker who so calmly “visited” the sea with her canine companion at the start of the poem now flees from it, with the sea (still a “He”) running “close behind,” lapping at her feet. As though he is trying to consume her, his “Silver Heel” touches her ankle. She pauses to imagine what might happen if they truly become one: “Then my Shoes / Would overflow with Pearl” (the ocean’s bubbly, white-washed surf). Though she’s obviously threatened by the possibility of consummation here, there’s beauty in it, too: the way pearls are beautiful, once they’ve been released from their shells.

 

这位在诗歌开头在狗狗的陪伴下如此平静地“拜访”了大海的说话者，现在逃离了大海，大海（仍然还是一个大写的“他”）奔跑着“紧随其后”，拍打着她的脚。仿佛他是在试图吃掉她，他的“银色脚踵”触到她的脚踝。她停下来，想象着如果它们真的变成一个，会发生什么：“然后我的鞋子/会溢出珍珠”（海洋的泡沫，冲刷成白色的海浪）。虽然她显然受到了这里极致可能的威胁，但它也有美丽之处：一旦珍珠从贝壳中释放而出，珍珠的样子就美丽了。

 

But her dream of being subsumed by the sea is interrupted by the inescapable reality of the town, a place so “solid” that her imagined Poseidon must concede (and recede) back to his ocean floor:

 

Until We met the Solid Town –

No One He seemed to know –

And bowing – with a Mighty look –

At me – The Sea withdrew –

 

但是她被归入大海的梦想，被小镇无法逃避的现实给中断了，一个如此“实在”的地方，以至于她想象中的海神必须承让（并且退缩）回到他的大洋底下：

 

直到我们遇见这固体之城——

没有人他似乎认识——

鞠躬——用它那大写的眼睛——

看我——大海撤退而去——

 

 

The use of the pronoun “we” in this final stanza reiterates that the speaker and the sea are indeed united for a moment, and then separated at last. Our final sight of the sea is as a “bowing” gentleman whose “Mighty look / At me” (a lowercase “me” that contrasts with the capitalized “Me” in the third stanza) leaves her feeling a tangible sense of loss.

 

在这最后一节中，“我们”这个代词的使用重申了说话者和大海确实联手了一阵，然后最后分开。我们最后看到的大海，有如一个“鞠躬”的绅士，他的“大眼睛/看我”（小写的“我”，与第三节中大写的“我”形成鲜明对比）使她有一种明显的失落感。

 

Invited, awed, and ultimately cowed by her imagined experience, Dickinson’s speaker undergoes a true sea change in her perception. For someone who could only imagine it, the ocean, which on the surface may seem serene, comes to represent something decidedly more sinister. Dickinson’s vision portrays the sea as a place that’s both welcoming and wary, as the imagination itself can be for many writers and readers.

 

受到邀请，敬畏，而最终被她想象的体验吓到，狄金森的说话者（诗语者）经历着感知中一个真实的大海变化。对于只能凭借想象的人来说，海洋，表面上看起来似乎风平浪静，却来明确代表某种更险恶的东西。狄金森的视觉想象把大海描绘成一个既欢迎又警戒的地方，因为想象本身对许多作家和读者都是如此。

 

【本文作者】罗宾·伊奇斯，女，作家，诗人，美国获奖诗人，著有诗集《幸福大厦》（2009）。本文最初发表于2009-10-7.

 

【附】那么，按照罗宾·伊奇斯的逻辑，诗歌大意很可能是如下这个样子的——

●我早早出发——带着我的狗——

 

I started Early - Took my Dog

And visited the Sea

The Mermaids in the Basement

 

我早早出发——带着我的狗——

去看大海

美人鱼在地下室

 

Came out to look at me

And Frigates - in the Upper Floor

Extended Hempen Hands

 

出来看我

而护卫舰——在上层楼

伸长麻绳的手

 

Presuming Me to be a Mouse

Aground - upon the Sands

But no Man moved Me - till the Tide

 

假定我是一只老鼠

搁浅——在沙地上

但是没有人移动我——直到潮水

 

Went past my simple Shoe

And past my Apron - and my Belt

And past my Bodice - too

 

漫过我简单的鞋

漫过我的围裙——我的腰带

也——漫过我的裙上身

 

And made as He would eat me up

As wholly as a Dew

Upon a Dandelion's Sleeve

 

这弄得好像他要吃掉我

完如一滴露

在一只蒲公英的袖子上

 

And then - I started - too

And He - He followed - close behind

I felt His Silver Heel

 

然后——我也动身了——

而他——他跟着——紧随其后

我感到他银色的脚踵

 

Upon my Ankle - Then my Shoes

Would overflow with Pearl

Until We met the Solid Town

 

跟在我的脚踝上——然后我的鞋

会溢出珍珠

直到我们遇到那实体的小城

 

No One He seemed to know

And bowing - with a Mighty look

At me - The Sea withdrew

 

没有人他似乎认识

便鞠躬——以大大的眼神

看我——大海撤退了