夏济安译文Beauty Ralph

夏济安译文Beauty Ralph Beauty Ralph Waldo Emerson from Nature, published as part of Nature; Addresses and Lectures Not less excellent, except for our less susceptibility in the afternoon, was the charm, last evening, of a January sunset. The western clouds divided and subdivided themselves into pink flakes modulated with tints of unspeakable softness; and the air had so much life and sweetness, that it was a pain to come within doors. What was it that nature would say? Was there no meaning in the live repose of the valley behind the mill, and which Homer or Shakspeare could not reform for me in words? The leafless trees become spires of flame in the sunset, with the blue east for their back-ground, and the stars of the dead calices of flowers, and every withered stem and stubble rimed with frost, contribute something to the mute music. The inhabitants of cities suppose that the country landscape is pleasant only half the year. I please myself with the graces of the winter scenery, and believe that we are as much touched by it as by the genial influences of summer. To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same field, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again. The heavens change every moment, and reflect their glory or gloom on the plains beneath. The state of the crop in the surrounding farms alters the expression of the earth from week to week. The succession of native plants in the pastures and roadsides, which makes the silent clock by which time tells the summer hours, will make even the divisions of the day sensible to a keen observer. The tribes of birds and insects, like the plants punctual to their time, follow each other, and the year has room for all. By water-courses, the variety is greater. In July, the blue pontederia or pickerel-weed blooms in large beds in the shallow parts of our pleasant river, and swarms with yellow butterflies in continual motion. Art cannot rival this pomp of purple and gold. Indeed the river is a perpetual gala, and boasts each month a new ornament. But this beauty of Nature which is seen and felt as beauty, is the least part. The shows of day, the dewy morning, the rainbow, mountains, orchards in blossom, stars, moonlight, shadows in still water, and the like, if too eagerly hunted, become shows merely, and mock us with their unreality. Go out of the house to see the moon, and 't is mere tinsel; it will not please as when its light shines upon your necessary journey. The beauty that shimmers in the yellow afternoons of October, who ever could clutch it? Go forth to find it, and it is gone: 't is only a mirage as you look from the windows of diligence. 昨日黄昏， 我又观赏一次日落美景，时虽冬令正月，但景物不减春秋，只是下午人的灵智不 顶清明罢了。西方云散，纷纷化为绛色碎片，其色调之柔和，非言辞所能达， 空气清新，充满了活力。回到屋子里来，真成了受罪。大自然有什么话要对我说呢,磨坊后面山谷安闲中有无限生机，虽荷马或莎士比亚重生，也不能将它化为文字——这里面难道没有意义吗,霞光照处，秃树皆熠熠如塔尖着火，东方一片蔚蓝，成为极妙的背景，花朵谢落，然点点犹如繁星，败枝残干，风霜之踪斑斑——这一切都构成了我面前无声的音乐。 久居都市的人，总以为乡间景色，只有半年可观。我独对于冬日风光，亦有癖好，夏日气候温和，风光固然明媚，然而冬天肃杀之气未尝没有动人之处。对于有心人来说，一年四季无时无刻没有它的美处，乡间一角，景色时时变换，这一个钟头所看见的，以前从未见。以后再也不会见到了。天色刻刻变换，其光暗明晦，就反映在下届大地上。四周田亩中的五谷，自萌芽及于成熟，每星期景况不同，大地也因此每星期换一番面目。牧场上，官道旁，野草杂树，四季代谢，宛然替大自然摆下一架无言的大钟，假如观察的人目光犀利，非但可以看见四时更替，而且还可以看出一天的朝夕变化，十二时辰的运行呢。植物兴衰，固然系于时令，鸟群虫群的出没，又何独不然,可是一年四季里头，总有地位给它们安插罢了，水涯河上，变化之迹更为显著:以七月为例，河中水浅之处，丛生的梭子鱼草兰花盛开，黄色蛱蝶蹁跹不断，飞翔其间，与水光相掩映。满眼金紫之色，其富丽堂皇，决非画师所能描绘。清溪一曲，其风光旖旎，四时不辍，每天好像都是冬节佳日，每月都有新的点缀。 可是凡是耳目所能辨认出来的美，都是自然之美的最低部分。一天的阴晴变化，多露的早晨，虹彩与星星，青山一抹，桃李满园，碧潭疏影等美景，假如求之过切，反而只成了一皮相之美，美景犹如幻境看者未免扫兴。步出斗室以望月，月亮就像一面铜盘，你不会感觉到征程旅人偶然发现月色照人的那一种快乐。十月下午那金光闪闪的美，谁能把握得住呢,你若出去找寻它，它就会化为乌有了。你从公共马车窗外望出去，秋日的美景就只成了过眼云烟。 After reading whole essay, the translating task impressed me deeply. The writing flows smoothly and coherently. His translation conforms to native style. His proficiency in the use of translating skills like amplification, diction, conversion and repetition, etc was very excellent. In the first paragraph, I amplified 此时忽略美景，走进屋子„„I think it was more fluent. In his work, his reconstruction of sentences was worth learning. The first sentence in this essay was very long. I translated it directly. But in Xia Ji’an’s translation he amplified the conjunction “虽„„但„„，只是„„” to reconstructed the sentence. In his translation, he used repetition “霞光照处，秃树皆熠熠如塔尖着火，东 方一片蔚蓝，成为极妙的背景，花朵谢落，然点点犹如繁星，败枝残 干，风霜之踪斑斑——这一切都构成了我面前无声的音乐。” He repeated the word “熠熠”，“点点”，“斑斑”, which made his translation word reached to musical effect. He used conversion frequently in his work. “The western clouds divided and subdivided themselves into pink flakes modulated with tints of unspeakable softness;” I translated the word “unspeakable” into 无法言喻的，but he converted into verb “非 言辞所能表达”. Another example “I please myself with the graces of the winter scenery.” He converted the verb-please to noun 癖好. He used the conversion to accord with the idiomatic expression of Chinese. The choices of word was very careful and proper. “以七月为例，河中水浅之 处，丛生的梭子鱼草兰花盛开，黄色蛱蝶蹁跹不断，飞翔其间，与水 光相掩映。满眼金紫之色，其富丽堂皇，决非画师所能描绘。清溪一 曲，其风光旖旎，四时不辍，每天好像都是冬节佳日，每月都有新的 点缀。” Whether the description of the scene or metaphor is faithful to the original and achieve the balance of liberal translation and literal translation. In the last paragraph, he translated the “„„，is the least part.” into “最低 的部分”. In my opinion, it was not very smooth. According to my understanding, it means “外在的，表面的，少的”. I thought “沧海一粟， or 微不足道” was more proper. In the end, I realized that for English major we must have good Chinese language ability as well. Otherwise, we can not reach the reach to the three character principle of “faithfulness", "expressiveness" and "elegance”. There is still a long way to achieve that.