加载中…0851翻译:昆明的雨(汪曾祺)
(2021-08-06 11:48:08)
标签：
地道英语教育英文学习英语翻译 |
分类： 翻译 |
0851翻译:
昆明的雨(汪曾祺)
Translation: Kunming’s Rain
(Wang Zengqi)
(translated by: alexcwlin; edited by: Adam Lam)
[2008A16]
Ning Kun wanted me to draw him a picture with unique features of Kunming.
我想了一些时候，画了一幅：
I thought for a while and drew him one like this:
右上角画了一片倒挂着的浓绿的仙人掌，末端开出一朵金黄色的花；
At the right upper corner I drew a leaf of deep-green cactus that was hanging upside down with a golden-yellow flower coming out at its end.
左下画了几朵青头菌和牛肝菌。
At the lower left corner were several greenhead mushrooms and boletus mushrooms.
题了这样几行字：
Inscribed on it were a few lines of word like this:
“昆明人家常于门头挂仙人掌一片以辟邪，
“Kunming natives often hang a leaf of cactus at the top of their doors to ward off evils.
仙人掌悬空倒挂，尚能存活开花。
A cactus could survive and blossom even if it’s hung upside down.
于此可见仙人掌生命之顽强，
From that, we can see how tough a cactus’s life force can be.
亦可见昆明雨季空气之湿润。
Also, we can see the high humidity of Kunming during the rainy season.
雨季则有青头菌、牛肝菌，
The rainy season bring about greenhead mushrooms and boletus mushrooms.
味极鲜腴。”
Their tastes are fresh and rich.”
我想念昆明的雨。
I miss the rain of Kunming.
---------------------------------------------------------
Some time ago, I didn’t know there was such a thing as “rainy season”.
“雨季”，是到昆明以后才有了具体感受的。
After I came to Kunming, then I had that up-close-and-personal experience with “rainy season”.
---------------------------------------------------------
I can’t remember how long would Kunming’s rainy season last, and from what month to what month.
好像是相当长的。
It seemed to be considerably long.
但是并不使人厌烦。
But it didn’t get people bored.
因为是下下停停、停停下下，
It was because it rained and stopped, then it rained again.
不是连绵不断，下起来没完。
It wasn’t continuously raining without pause.
而且并不使人气闷。
Also, people wouldn’t feel suffocating.
我觉得昆明雨季气压不低，人很舒服。
I thought Kunming barometric pressure was not low during the rainy season, and people felt comfortable.
---------------------------------------------------------
Kunming’s rainy season was bright, opulent, and sentimental.
城春草木深，孟夏草木长。
In spring, grass and trees grew dense, while in early summer, grass and trees grew long.
昆明的雨季，是浓绿的。
The rainy season of Kunming was deep green everywhere.
草木的枝叶里的水分都到了饱和状态，显示出过分的、近于夸张的旺盛。
Water inside plants’ branches and leaves was filled right to the brim, which demonstrated the excessiveness, to the point of exaggeration, in exuberance.
---------------------------------------------------------
My drawing reflected reality.
我确实亲眼看见过倒挂着还能开花的仙人掌。
I truly saw upside-down hanging cactus that blossomed.
旧日昆明人家门头上用以辟邪的多是这样一些东西：
In the old days, evil-warding charms at tops of doors at Kunming households were mostly made up of a few things.
一面小镜子，周围画着八卦，
There was a mirror with the Eight-Diagrams drawn around it.
下面便是一片仙人掌，——在仙人掌上扎一个洞，用麻线穿了，挂在钉子上。
Underneath the Diagrams was a leaf of cactus, which was hung onto a nail with a string that went through a hole bored through the cactus.
昆明仙人掌多，且极肥大。
Cactuses are plentiful in Kunming, and they are plump and big.
有些人家在菜园的周围种了一圈仙人掌以代替篱笆。
Some families grow a circle of cactuses around their vegetable gardens to substitute for hedges.
——种了仙人掌，猪羊便不敢进园吃菜了。仙人掌有刺，猪和羊怕扎。
Pigs and sheep back away from cactus thorns and wouldn’t dare to go inside the gardens to eat the vegetables.
---------------------------------------------------------
Mushrooms are plentiful in Kunming.
雨季逛菜市场，随时可以看到各种菌子。
In shopping at the vegetable market during the rainy season, any time you can see all types of mushrooms.
最多，也最便宜的是牛肝菌。
Boletuses are the most abundant and the cheapest.
牛肝菌下来的时候，家家饭馆卖炒牛肝菌，
When they’re harvested, every restaurant has fried boletuses on its menu.
连西南联大食堂的桌子上都可以有一碗。
You can even have a bowl of them in the cafeteria of Southwest Associated University.
牛肝菌色如牛肝，滑，嫩，鲜，香，很好吃。
Boletuses have the same color as beef liver, and they’re smooth, tender, delicious, appetizing, and tasty.
炒牛肝菌须多放蒜，否则容易使人晕倒。
You need to put more garlic in frying boletuses, or they would make you pass out.
青头菌比牛肝菌略贵。
Greenhead mushrooms are a touch more expensive than boletuses.
这种菌子炒熟了也还是浅绿色的，格调比牛肝菌高。
These mushrooms are still light green in color when they’re cooked, and they have more class than boletuses.
菌中之王是鸡土从，
The termite-mushroom is the king of all mushrooms.
味道鲜浓，无可方比。
Its taste is fresh, rich, and unparalleled.
鸡土从是名贵的山珍，但并不真的贵得惊人。
This mushroom is rare delicacies but it’s not really prohibitively expensive.
一盘红烧鸡土从的价钱和一碗黄焖鸡不相上下，
A platter of braised termite-mushrooms is more or less the same price as a bowl of braised chicken.
因为这东西在云南并不难得。
It’s because this mushroom is not hard to get in Yunnan.
有一个笑话：
There’s a joke that goes like this.
有人从昆明坐火车到呈贡，
A man took a train from Kunming to Chenggong.
在车上看到地上有一棵鸡纵，
In the train he saw a termite-mushroom on the ground.
他跳下去把鸡土从捡了，紧赶两步，还能爬上火车。
He jumped down the train to pick it up, took a couple of quick steps, and still was able to climb back to the train.
这笑话用意在说明昆明到呈贡的火车之慢，
This joke is intended to say how slow the train is from Kunming to Chenggong.
但也说明鸡土从随处可见。
But it also shows termite-mushrooms can be found anywhere here.
有一种菌子，中吃不中看，
There is a type of mushroom which tastes good but doesn’t look good.
叫做干巴菌。
It’s called Ganba mushroom.
乍一看那样子，真叫人怀疑：这种东西也能吃？！
At first glance, people would wonder if this type of things is edible by the look at it.
颜色深褐带绿，有点像一堆半干的牛粪或一个被踩破了的马蜂窝。
Its color is dark brown with a bit greenish just like a pile of half-dried cow-dung or a stepped-on hornet’s nest.
里头还有许多草茎、松毛、乱七八糟！
There’s also a hodgepodge of grass stems and pine needles mixed in it.
可是下点功夫，把草茎松毛择净，
But you need to do some work to pick out the grass stems and pine needles.
撕成蟹腿肉粗细的丝，和青辣椒同炒，入口便会使你张目结舌：这东西这么好吃？！
Then you tear them into threads the size of crab legs, fry them with green peppers, and the taste will shock you and make you say: “Wow, this thing tastes great.”
还有一种菌子，中看不中吃，叫鸡油菌。
There’s another type of mushroom called Chicken-oil mushroom, which is good to look at but doesn’t taste great.
都是一般大小，有一块银圆那样大，的溜圆，
They are uniformly at about the size of a silver coin and perfectly round.
颜色浅黄，恰似鸡油一样。
The color is light yellow like chicken fat.
这种菌子只能做菜时配色用，没甚味道。
This type of mushrooms can only be used to add decorative colors to dishes since they are tasteless.
---------------------------------------------------------
Rainy season’s fruit is red bayberry.
卖杨梅的都是苗族女孩子，
All those who sell bayberries are ethnic Miao girls.
戴一顶小花帽子，穿着扳尖的绣了满帮花的鞋，
They all wear little flower hats, and pointed up-tilting shoes that are fully embroidered with flowers.
坐在人家阶石的一角，不时吆唤一声：“卖杨梅——”，
In sitting at corners of people’s doorsteps, they holler out “Bayberries on sale!” from time to time.
声音娇娇的。她们的声音使得昆明雨季的空气更加柔和了。
Their voices are girlish which add to the tenderness of the air during the rainy season in Kunming.
昆明的杨梅很大，有一个乒乓球那样大，
Kunming’s bayberries are huge and each of them is the size of a ping-pong ball.
颜色黑红黑红的，叫做“火炭梅”。
The color is blackish-red with the name “charcoaled bayberry”.
这个名字起得真好，真是像一球烧得炽红的火炭！
The name is very fitting because it is really like a red-hot burning charcoal.
一点都不酸！
They’re not a bit sour.
我吃过苏州洞庭山的杨梅、井冈山的杨梅，好像都比不上昆明的火炭梅。
I tasted the bayberries at Mount Dongting of Suzhou and Mount Jinggang, but neither of them was as good as Kunming’s charcoaled bayberries.
Rainy season’s flower is fragrant
北京叫做“把儿兰”（这个名字真不好听）。
In Beijing, it’s called “Ba’er Orchid” (this name doesn’t sound good).
云南把这种花叫做缅桂花，可能最初这种花是从缅甸传入的，而花的香味又有点像桂花，
In Yunnan, people call them fragrant
But really it has nothing to do with orchid.
——不过话又说回来，
But let’s take a look at it in another way.
别处叫它白兰、把儿兰，它和兰花也挨不上呀，
In other places, they are called White Orchid and Ba’er Orchid, but they have nothing to do with orchid.
也不过是因为它很香，香得像兰花。
It’s only because they smell good and their fragrance resembles that of orchid.
我在家乡看到的白兰多是一人高，
The White Orchid I see in my hometown is at a man’s height.
昆明的缅桂是大树！
Kunming’s fragrant
我在若园巷二号住过，院里有一棵大缅桂，
I once lived at Unit #2 of Ruoyuan Lane, and there was a huge fragrant
密密的叶子，把四周房间都映绿了。
Its dense leaves made every room feel green.
缅桂盛开的时候，房东（是一个五十多岁的寡妇）就和她的一个养女，搭了梯子上去摘，
When the fragrant
每天要摘下来好些，拿到花市上去卖。
Every day, they would pick quite a few and take them to the market to sell.
她大概是怕房客们乱摘她的花，时常给各家送去一些。
Possibly she was afraid the tenants would pick the flowers without permission, so she often sent each of them some.
有时送来一个七寸盘子，里面摆得满满的缅桂花！
Sometimes she sent a seven-inch platter full of those flowers.
带着雨珠的缅桂花使我的心软软的，不是怀人，不是思乡。
Those fragrant
Rain sometimes could trigger a mild sense of homesickness.
李商隐的《夜雨寄北》是为许多久客的游子而写的。
Li Shangyin’s “To Friend Up North on Rainy Night” was composed for many travellers who had been away from their homes for a long time.
我有一天在积雨少住的早晨和德熙从联大新校舍到莲花池去。
One day in the morning when a lingering rain paused for a short while, I went with Dexi from the new complex of Southwest Associated University to Lotus Pond.
看了池里的满池清水，看了作比丘尼装的陈圆圆的石像（传说陈圆圆随吴三桂到云南后出家，暮年投莲花池而死），
We saw the limpid water in the pond and the statue of Chen Yuanyuan in nun costume (legend has it that Chen Yuanyuan became a nun after she followed Wu Sangui to Yunnan, and jumped to her death at Lotus Pond in her waning years).
雨又下起来了。
Rain started again.
莲花池边有一条小街，有一个小酒店，
Beside Lotus Pond, there was a narrow lane with a small tavern.
我们走进去，要了一碟猪头肉，半市斤酒（装在上了绿釉的土磁杯里），坐了下来。
We went inside, sat down, and ordered a plate of pig’s head meat and half a jin of wine (put inside a clay cup glazed in green color).
雨下大了。
The rain got heavier.
酒店有几只鸡，
There were several chickens inside the tavern.
都把脑袋反插在翅膀下面，一只脚着地，一动也不动地在檐下站着。
They all tugged their heads inside their wings and stood motionless on one leg under the eaves.
酒店院子里有一架大木香花。
Inside the garden of the tavern was a rack of large lady-banks’ rose.
昆明木香花很多。
Banks’ roses are plentiful in Kunming.
有的小河沿岸都是木香。
At some small rivers, these flowers were grown along both shores.
但是这样大的木香却不多见。
But such large sized bank roses were seldom seen.
一棵木香，爬在架上，把院子遮得严严的。
They crawled on the rack and tightly shadowed the garden.
密匝匝的细碎的绿叶，数不清的半开的白花和饱涨的花骨朵，都被雨水淋得湿透了。
The densely packed small leaves, the innumerable half-opened white flowers, and the puffed-up buds were thoroughly soaked by the rain.
我们走不了，就这样一直坐到午后。
We couldn’t leave, and just sat there past the afternoon.
四十年后，我还忘不了那天的情味，写了一首诗：
Forty years later, I still cannot forget that day’s great feelings, and so I have written a poem:
---------------------------------------------------------
Passers-by are few outside of Lotus Pond.
野店苔痕一寸深。
Moss track in wilds’ inn measures an inch deep.
浊酒一杯天过午，
Afternoon is past after a cup of unstrained wine.
木香花湿雨沉沉。
Gardenia flowers’re heavy being loaded with rain.
我想念昆明的雨。
I really miss the rain in Kunming.
一九八四年五月十九日
May 19, 1984
喜欢
0
赠金笔