许多诗歌一经翻译,原有的形式特征就会丢失或改变。试比较惠特曼《我自己的歌》(之一)的原文和译文,体味两首有什么不同,试着自己翻译一下。
原诗:
Song of Myself
I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.
Creeds and schools in abeyance,
Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,
I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,
Nature without check with original energy.
译诗:
我自己的歌
我赞美我自己,歌唱我自己,
我承担的你也将承担,
因为属于我的每一个原子也同样属于你。
我闲步,还邀请了我的灵魂,
我俯身悠然观察着一片夏日的草叶。
我的舌,我的血液的每个原子,
是在这片土壤,这个空气里形成的,
是这里的父母生下的,父母的父母也是在这里生下的,他们的父母也一样,
我,现在三十七岁,一生下来身体就十分健康,
希望永远如此,直到死去。
信条和学派暂时不论,
且后退一步,明了当前的情况已足,但也决不是忘记,
不论我从善从恶,我允许随意发表意见,
顺乎自然,保持原始的活力。
(赵萝蕤译)