
故都的秋
文/郁达夫
译/黎历
秋天,无论在什么地方的秋天,总是好的;可是啊,北国的秋,却特别来得清,来得静,来得悲凉。我的不远千里,要从杭州赶上青岛,更要从青岛赶上北平来的理由,也不过想尝一尝这“秋”,这故都的秋味。
Autumn
In The Ancient Capital
By Yu Dafu /Tr. By Lily
Autumn is always wonderful
regardless where it is. But autumn in the
north is especially
fresher, serener and
more desolate. I have traveled thousands of miles in a rush
from Hangzhou to Qingdao and then from
Qingdao to Peking. The only reason was to taste
‘the autumn’, its flavor in the ancient
capital.
江南,秋当然也是有的;但草木雕得慢,空气来得润,天的颜色显得淡,并且又时常多雨而少风;一个人夹在苏州上海杭州,或厦门香港广州的市民中间,混混沌沌地过去,只能感到一点点清凉,秋的味,秋的色,秋的意境与姿态,总是看不饱,尝不透,赏玩不到十足。秋并不是名花,也并不是美酒,那一种半开,半醉的状态,在领略秋的过程上,是不合适的。
In the south, of
course there is autumn too. However, vegetation
there withers slow. With moist air and pale sky, it is often
more rainy and less windy. One, always
mixed in the crowds in Suzhou, Shanghai, Hangzhou,
Xiamen, Hong Kong or Guangzhou,
lives a chaotic life and only feels a bit
cool. It is never possible to fully appreciate the taste,
color, context and style of the autumn. Autumn is not
a brand flower, nor a mellow wine.
The half-bloom
or half-drunk altitude is
inappropriate in the course of
understanding the autumn.
不逢北国之秋,已将近十余年了。在南方每年到了秋天,总要想起陶然亭的芦花,钓鱼台的柳影,西山的虫唱,玉泉的夜月,潭柘寺的钟声。在北平即使不出门去罢,就是在皇城人海之中,租人家一椽破屋来住着,早晨起来,泡一碗浓茶,向院子一坐,你也能看得到很高很高的碧绿的天色,听得到青天下训鸽的飞声。从槐树叶底,朝东细数着一丝一丝漏下来的日光,或在破壁腰中,静对着象喇叭似的牵牛花(朝荣)的蓝朵,自然而然地也能感觉到十分的秋意。说道了牵牛花。我以为以蓝色或白色者为佳,紫黑色次之,淡红色最下。最好,还要在牵牛花底,教长着几根疏疏落落的尖细且长的秋草,使作陪衬。
I have not spent the autumn in
the north for almost ten years. Every autumn in the south, I always
thought of the aloe flowers of the TaoRan Pavilion, the
elegant willows of the DiaoYu Platform, the singing insets
in the Western Hills, the autumn moon of the Jade
Springs and the bell rings of the Tanzhe Temple.
In Peking, no matter whether you stay at
home, go with the crowd in the
Forbidden City or rent a shack, you’ll
see the lofty and azure sky and hear the sound
of pigeon-training under the sky when you
get up to make a bowl of hot tea and sit
in the yard in the morning. Under the shady
locust trees, counting the traces of the sunbeams sifted through
toward the east, or in the
broken wall, facing silently the blue
flowers of the trumpet-like morning
glory, you will feel naturally the authentic
autumn. Saying a morning glory, I
thought blue or white one is the
best, the purple one the second and then
follows the pink one. It would be desirable if there
are a few sparse tapering and long autumn grasses growing on the
base of the flowers to serve as a contrast.
北国的槐树,也是一种能使人联想起秋来的点缀。象花而又不是花的那一种落蕊,早晨起来,会铺得满地。脚踏上去,声音也没有,气味也没有,只能感出一点点极微细极柔软的触觉。扫街的在树影下一阵扫后,灰土上留下来的一条条扫帚的丝纹,看起来既觉得细腻,又觉得清闲,潜意识下并且还觉得有点儿落寞,古人所说的梧桐一叶而天下知秋的遥想,大约也就在这些深沉的地方。
Locust tree in the north is
also a kind of embellishment to remind us of autumn. Their fallen petals,
somehow like but unlike flowers, fully cover the ground in
the morning. Stepping on them even causes no sound or smell, only
arouses a sense of super subtlety and tenderness. After the
street cleaners sweep the streets shadowed by
the trees, the streak traces left behind by the brooms in
the dust looked soft and idle, also a bit
lonely in sub-consciousness. The ancients
said that one leaf of phoenix tree makes
the autumn known to the world, a reverie almost evidenced by
the depth of these things.
秋蝉的衰弱的残声,更是北国的特产;因为北平处处全长着树,屋子又低,所以无论在什么地方,都听得见它们的啼唱。在南方是非要上郊外或山上去才听得到的。这秋蝉的嘶叫,在北平可和蟋蟀耗子一样,简直象是家家户户都养在家里的家虫。
The fading and feeble chirping
of cicadas is a specialty of the north. Trees grow everywhere
in Peking. Houses are also
lowly sprawled. So no matter where you
are, you are able to hear their
singings. In the south, you need to go into the
countryside or up to the mountains to hear
them. In Peking, the whinny of autumn cicadas is
just simply the home insects like
crickets and mice kept in every
household.
还有秋雨哩,北方的秋雨也似乎比南方的下得奇,下得有味,下得象样。
在灰沉沉的天底下,忽而来一阵凉风,便息列索落地下起雨来了。一层雨过,云渐渐地卷向了西去,天又青了,太阳又露出脸来了;著者很厚的青布单衣或夹袄的都市闲人,咬着烟管,在雨后的斜桥影里,上桥头树底下去一立,遇见熟人,便会用了缓慢悠闲的声调,微叹着互答着的说:
“唉,天可真凉了----”(这了字念得很高,拖得很长。)
Also the rain in
autumn, it's so odder, more flavored and more decent
in the north than in the south.
Under the gloomy sky, suddenly
comes a gust of cool wind. Rain is immediately scattered
down. After this fit of raining, the clouds
gradually roll away toward
the west. The sky turns into blue and the
sun shows off its face again. The urban idlers,
wearing thick green unlined
clothes or lined jackets and
chewing tobacco pipes, stand on
the bridge shadowed by the trees after rain.
When meeting acquaintances, they would greet each
other in a slow and
leisurely tone:
"Oh, it is
really cool now----"
(the last word was pronounced in high
pitch and dragged very long.)
“可不是么?一层秋雨一层凉了!”
北方人念字,总老象是层字,平平仄仄起来,这念错的岐韵,倒来得正好。
‘Isn’t
it really? Coldness follows the autumn
rain!"
When the
Northerners speak, they are pretty like to layer
words and make the tones of the words ups and downs. So the
mispronounced rhyme sounds just alright.
北方人的果树,到秋来,也是一种奇景。第一是枣子树;屋角,墙头,茅房边上,灶房门口,它都会一株株地长大起来。象橄榄又象鸽蛋似的这枣子颗儿,在小椭圆的细叶中间,显出淡绿微黄的颜色的时候,正是秋的全盛时期;等枣树叶落,枣子红完,西北风就要来了。北方便是尘沙灰土的世界,只有这枣子、柿子、葡萄成熟到八九分的七八月之交,是北国的清秋的佳日,是一年之中最好也没有的Golden
Days。
The fruit trees of the
Northerners in the autumn are also a
spectacle too. The first one is the date
tree, which grows up one by one in the corner, on the
wall, besides the latrine and by the door of
kitchens. The size of date is similar to that of
olives and the pigeon
eggs. When their color turns yellowish and
greenish amid the fine oval leaves, it is
just the heyday of autumn. After the leaves fall off and the dates
turn red, the northwest wind is coming.
The north then is a world of dust.
At the junction of July and August when the
dates, persimmons and grapes almost ripen, it is
the best days of autumn in the north and the only golden days of
the year.
有些批评家说,中国的文人学士,尤其是诗人,都带着很浓厚的颓废色彩,所以中国的诗文里,颂赞秋的文字特别的多。但外国的诗人,又何尝不然?我虽则外国诗文念得不多,也不想开出帐来,做一篇秋的诗歌散文钞,但你若去一翻英德法意等诗人的集子,或各国的诗文的Anthology来,总能够看到许多关于秋的歌颂与悲啼。各著名的大诗人的长篇田园诗或四季诗里,也总以关于秋的部分,写得最出色而最有味。足见有感觉的动物,有情趣的人类,对于秋,总是一样的能特别引起深沉,幽远,严厉,萧索的感触来的。不单是诗人,就是被关在牢狱里的囚犯,到了秋天,我想也一定会感到一种不能自己的深情;秋之于人,何尝有别,更何尝有人种阶级之分呢?不过在中国,文字里有一个“秋士”的成语,读本里又有着很普遍的欧阳子的秋声与苏东坡的赤壁赋等,就觉得中国的文人,与秋的关系特别深了,可是这秋的深味,尤其是中国的秋的深味,非要在北方,才感受得底。
Some
critics say that Chinese
literati, especially poets, are all
tinted with a very strong color of
decadence. So in Chinese poetry, the
words in praise of the autumn are particularly
abundant. But why the
foreign poets are an exception? I have
not read a lot foreign poetry, neither do
I want to build up an account to compile
collections of poems and proses on autumn. But if
you go over the anthologies of English, French,
German and Italian poets or poets from any other nationality, you
will always see many praises and
laments about autumn. In the
lengthy pastoral poetry or
poetry on all four seasons
of the famous poets,
the best written and
most flavored parts are also about
autumn. It is clearly seen that for the autumn,
animals with sense and human beings with
taste, always arouse the same
especially deep, remote,
harsh, desolate feelings.
Not only a poet, but also a
prisoner held in a dungeon,
as to the fall, I think he will
certainly feel an uncontrollable
affectionateness. For human beings, why should autumn
be different to them, why should autumn be distinct
among different races and classes? But
in Chinese, ‘Autumn
scholar’is an idiom and ‘Autumn sound’ by Ouyang Xiu
and ‘Ode to the Red Cliff’ by Susei are frequently seen in
literature readings, etc., Chinese literati are felt
in particularly deep relationship with
the autumn. However, the deep meaning of
autumn, especially the deep meaning of
China's autumn, can be felt fully only
in the north.
南国之秋,当然是也有它的特异的地方的,比如廿四桥的明月,钱塘江的秋潮,普陀山的凉雾,荔枝湾的残荷等等,可是色彩不浓,回味不永。比起北国的秋来,正象是黄酒之与白干,稀饭之与馍馍,鲈鱼之与大蟹,黄犬之与骆驼。
秋天,这北国的秋天,若留得住的话,我愿把寿命的三分之二者去,换得一个三分之一的零头。
Of course, the autumn in the
south also has its uniqueness, such as the bright moon
over the bridge of twenty-four arched holes, the autumn tides
of the Qiantang River, the cool mist in
the Putuo Mountain, the lingering lotus in the
Lychee Bay, etc. Their hues are not
strong, but their aftertastes last long.
Compared to the north, the
autumn in the south is just as the yellow wine versus the dry
liquor, the rice porridge versus
the steamed bun, the bass
versus the big crab, and the yellow
dogs versus the camels.
Autumn, the
autumn in the north, if it can be
retained, I would like to exchange for its
one-third with the two-thirds of my
lifetime.

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