最近翻译王维的辋川集。翻译古诗时，我的目标是很单纯的：我想把诗中描绘的景色、情景说清楚，让英文读者很直接地理解，是什么外在的情况或诱因触动了诗人的艺术神经，使TA挥笔写诗？当然，诗的价值来自诗人的内心运作，是诗人对外在刺激的内部消化。但对读者来说，要想理解诗人的诗意，得先理解引发它的外在情形。我觉得，只要我能把诗人的基本情景表达清楚了，有会心的读者就能把诗的深层意义摸出来。反过来说，如果没能把诗人所见所闻表达清楚的话，说再多的深意都没有用，读者永远体会不到。
所以呢，我想把王维在辋川别业所看到的美景说清楚，但真的很难。今天的斗争对手是欹湖：
吹箫凌极浦，日暮送夫君。
湖上一回首，青山卷白云。
有人吹箫，有个极浦（极=最远，极浦是对岸的意思），有个动词“凌”。凌有侵犯、迫近、渡过的意思。那么，整体是什么意思呢？有两种解读：一个是人渡过到湖的对岸，另一个是箫声远传到湖的每个角落。从语法的角度来看，应该是前者比较合理，两个并列的短句都是“我”为省略的主语；从语义的角度出发，应该是后者比较说得过去，如果第一句是渡湖、第三句也是渡湖，诗就太混乱了，失去了王维的极简风格。
第三、四句还是不太清楚。如果是王维送某个朋友，那为什么送完了变成是王维坐船？如果太阳已经下山了，为什么回头还能看到青山白云？这个卷又是什么情况？卷一般来说是一种旋转的动作，山不能旋转，所以我们可以理解为比喻，但比喻的本意是什么呢？什么样子的云态会让王维想到“卷”这种动作？
所以还在研究中，这么简短的20字小诗还要花掉我的好几个小时甚至几十个小时的功夫！
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Normally "夫君" is used to refer to the "husband" by a female, hence in my imagination, 王维 assumed a female personality to write this poem, which is not uncommon in Chinese tradicional poems. If the poem is interpreted from this context, this is what i imagined has happened: the wife took the trouble of escorting the husband to the opposite bank of the lake, full of sadness and lingered on the bank, playing a song with "箫" to farewell the husband who has embarked on the journey, while the sun was setting (more sadness). Then she took the boat trip back to the other bank, while on the boat, she looked back (for here husband), all she could see, was white clouds folded deeply into the mountains (her husband had gone very far, I assume.) "卷"-- folded deeply, this is what i thought the imagine 王维 is trying to portray.
Thanks, that seems like a very solid reading. Most of the modern Chinese sources seem to favour the reading that has the sound of the flute as the subject of the verb 凌, and that's the image I've adopted in my translation (as it stands at the moment). This is what I've got: 11. 欹湖 吹箫凌极浦，日暮送夫君。 湖上一回首，山青卷白云。 My flute song pierced the lake's most distant quarter; I saw you off beneath the setting sun. I looked back only once from on the water, Around the dark hills, wreaths of white cloud spun.
I really like this translation of yours. True to the original narratives yet does not lose the poetic essence of the poem. It seems to me the ancient Chinese were really sentimental about seeing a wayfarer off. Lost count how many Chinese poems were dedicated to this genre. More so than what you normally find in the western literature. Do you think that's the case from your perspective?
Yeah, I mean... I think of these 送别 poems as a genre. It's just a genre that existed in China, but not really in English poetry. I don't know enough about other European countries to comment on their traditions...