英国诗人John Donne(约翰·邓恩，1572–1631)当年写下No Man Is An Island 这首诗时，或许不知道他这首诗对其后的英美文学影响有如此之大。二十世纪美国作家海明威的小说For Whom the Bell Tolls（丧钟为谁而鸣）以及托马斯·莫顿的小说No Man Is an Island（谁都不是一座孤岛），书名都源自本诗。

一、原诗与译稿 

二、原诗词汇与句型难点解析以及翻译理据

1、    把No man is …直译为“没有人是…”属于翻译腔；用“谁都不是…”翻译，更为符合汉语的习惯。其实，若把“谁都不是…”翻译为英语，也只有用“No man is…”。

2、    第三行的Each is译为“你我都是”，以与第一行更为呼应；the continent译为“这个大洲”，以与下面“Europe is the less”那行呼应。

3、    main在此处意为A mainland，与上一行的the continent呼应。

4、    involve意为To contain as a part，所以to be involved in…可以解释为to be contained as a part或者to be included as a part，换言之，Each man is contained/included as a part in mankind，所以说Each man’s death diminishes me, /For I am involved in mankind.

5、    send的意思是To dispatch someone to do an errand or convey a message: Let's send out for hamburgers. 诗中倒数第三行和第二行读作：send not to know for whom the bell tolls，意为：不必派人去了解丧钟为谁而鸣。

三、其他译者译文选录

来自互联网的几篇译文（标题略）：

（1）

没有人是一座孤岛，
可以自全。
每个人都是大陆的一片，
整体的一部分。
如果海水冲掉一块，
欧洲就减小，
如同一个海岬失掉一角，
如同你的朋友或者你自己的领地失掉一块
任何人的死亡都是我的损失，
因为我是人类的一员，
因此 不要问丧钟为谁而鸣，
它就为你而鸣。

译者：springsecret [http://www.jintian.net/bb/viewthread.php?tid=45136]

（2）

“没有人是一座孤岛，

在大海里独踞，

每个人都像一块小小的泥土，

连接成整个陆地。

如果有一块泥土被海水冲击，

欧洲就会失去一角，

这如同一座山岬，

也如同你的朋友和你自己。

任何人的死亡都会使我蒙受损失，

因为我包孕在人类中，

因此不要打听丧钟为谁而鸣，

它正为你而敲响。”

[http://finance.ifeng.com/stock/zjdp/20110317/3687512.shtml（没有人是一座孤岛_财经_凤凰网）]

（3）

没有谁能像一座孤岛，
在大海里独踞，
每个人都像一块小小的泥土，
连接成整个陆地。
如果有一块泥土被海水冲去，
欧洲就会失去一角。
这如同一座山岬，
也如同你的朋友和你自己。
无论谁死了，
都得是自己的一部分在死去。
因为我包含在人类这个概念里，
因此我从不问丧钟为谁而鸣。
它为我，也为你。

[http://tieba.baidu.com/p/527242314]

四、关于原诗及其作者 

英文维基百科对John Donne (读作：/ˈdʌn/) 的生平有如下介绍：

John Donne (pron.: /ˈdʌn/ DUN) (1572 – 1631) was an English poet, satirist, lawyer and a cleric in the Church of England. He is considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are noted for their strong, sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor, especially compared to that of his contemporaries. Donne's style is characterised by abrupt openings and various paradoxes, ironies and dislocations. These features, along with his frequent dramatic or everyday speech rhythms, his tense syntax and his tough eloquence, were both a reaction against the smoothness of conventional Elizabethan poetry and an adaptation into English of European baroque and mannerist techniques. His early career was marked by poetry that bore immense knowledge of British society and he met that knowledge with sharp criticism. Another important theme in Donne’s poetry is the idea of true religion, something that he spent much time considering and theorising about. He wrote secular poems as well as erotic and love poems. He is particularly famous for his mastery of metaphysical conceits.

关于他的写作风格：

Donne is considered a master of the metaphysical conceit, an extended metaphor that combines two vastly different ideas into a single idea, often using imagery. An example of this is his equation of lovers with saints in "The Canonization". Unlike the conceits found in other Elizabethan poetry, most notably Petrarchan conceits, which formed clichéd comparisons between more closely related objects (such as a rose and love), metaphysical conceits go to a greater depth in comparing two completely unlike objects. One of the most famous of Donne's conceits is found in "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" where he compares two lovers who are separated to the two legs of a compass.

Donne's works are also witty, employing paradoxes, puns, and subtle yet remarkable analogies. His pieces are often ironic and cynical, especially regarding love and human motives. Common subjects of Donne's poems are love (especially in his early life), death (especially after his wife's death), and religion.

John Donne's poetry represented a shift from classical forms to more personal poetry. Donne is noted for his poetic metre, which was structured with changing and jagged rhythms that closely resemble casual speech (it was for this that the more classical-minded Ben Jonson commented that "Donne, for not keeping of accent, deserved hanging".

 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Donne]