The Choral Copse

丛林合唱队

 

By Aldo Leopold

文/奥尔多·利奥波德

译析/曹明伦*

 

By September, the day breaks with little help from birds. A song sparrow may give a single half-hearted song, a woodcock may twitter overhead en route to his daytime thicket, a barred owl may terminate the night’s argument with one last wavering call, but few other birds have anything to say or sing about.

 

到九月的时候，破晓已很少借助众鸟啼鸣。歌雀兴许还会心不在焉地来段清唱，山鹬在飞往其白天待的灌丛途中也许会在你头顶啁啾两声，横斑林鸮也可能会用最后一声颤鸣来结束其夜间辩论，但其他鸟儿几乎已无话可说，无歌想唱。

 

It is on some, but not all, of these misty autumn daybreaks that one may hear the chorus of the quail. The silence is suddenly broken by a dozen contralto voices, no longer able to restrain their praise of the day to come. After a brief minute or two, the music closes as suddenly as it began.

 

就是在某些个这样秋雾蒙蒙的黎明（并非每个秋日黎明），你也许会听见林鹑合唱。寂静会突然被十余个女低音歌手的歌声打破，似乎歌手们再也抑制不住对白日将至的赞美。歌声会延续短短的一两分钟，然后会像突然开始那样戛然而止。

 

There is a peculiar virtue in the music of elusive birds. Songsters that sing from top-most boughs are easily seen and as easily forgotten; they have the mediocrity of the obvious. What one remembers is the invisible hermit thrush pouring silver chords from impenetrable shadows; the soaring crane trumpeting from behind a cloud; the prairie chicken booming from the mists of nowhere; the quail’s Ave Maria in the hush of dawn. No naturalist has even seen the choral act, for the covey is still on its invisible roost in the grass, and any attempt to approach automatically induces silence.

 

禽鸟隐身表演的音乐，自有一种特殊的魅力。在高枝上演唱的歌唱家容易引人注目，但同样也容易被人遗忘，此类表演者因醒目而显平庸。令人难忘的是那些隐身音乐家，是从浓荫中倾泻出银铃般和声的画眉，是在高翔的云间吹奏小号的灰鹤，是从蒙蒙薄雾中敲出低沉鼓声的草原松鸡，是在黎明的寂静中合唱《万福马利亚》的林鹑。迄今尚无博物学家目睹林鹑合唱队的演出，因为合唱队总是躲在其草丛间的栖息地，任何接近那隐秘处的企图，都必然导致众鹑齐喑。

 

In June it is completely predictable that the robin will give voice when the light intensity reaches 0.01 candle power, and that the bedlam of other singers will follow in predictable sequence. In autumn, on the other hand, the robin is silent, and it is quite unpredictable whether the covey-chorus will occur at all. The disappointment I feel on these mornings of silence perhaps shows that things hoped for have a higher value than. The hope of hearing quail is worth half a dozen risings-in-the-dark.

 

六月里，知更鸟会在光照亮到0.01烛光度时开始鸣唱，这是完全可以预知的；其他鸟儿会随之嘤嘤呖呖，这也是可以预知的。可是到了秋天，知更鸟不再亮歌喉，其他鸟儿是否还会齐声合唱，这就完全不可预知了。在这些没有鸟儿啼鸣的清晨，我会感到怅然若失，而这种失落感兴许能证明，人之所望总是比所得更有价值。希望听到林鹑合唱，这值得我多次冒黑钻出被窝。

 

My farm always has one or more coveys in autumn, but the daybreak chorus is usually distant. I think this is because the coveys prefer to roost as far as possible from the dog, whose interest in quail is even more ardent than my own. One October dawn, however, as I sat sipping coffee by the outdoor fire, a chorus burst into song hardly a stone’s throw away. They had roosted under a white-pine copse, possibly to stay dry during the heavy dews.

 

秋天里，我农场上总会有一两群林鹑，但其清晨合唱通常都是在远处。我想，这是因为那些合唱队更喜欢待在离狗尽可能远的地方，毕竟狗对林鹑的兴趣甚至比我还浓。然而，十月里一天早上，我正坐在屋外的火堆旁喝咖啡，忽闻一石之遥处骤然传出合唱队的歌声。那群林鹑住到了附近一片松树林下，也许是想在这露重时节暂住在干燥的地方。

 

We felt honored by this daybreak hymn sung almost at our doorstep. Somehow the blue autumnal needles on those pines became thenceforth bluer, and the red carpet of dewberry under those pines became even redder.

 

我们为能在家门口欣赏这曲黎明颂歌而感到荣幸。从那之后，也不知何故，那些松树上泛蓝的松针在秋色中看上去更蓝，而松树下那一地红露莓也变得更红。

 

【背景知识】这篇散文选自美国生态作家利奥波德的自然随笔《沙乡年鉴》。此文可谓一篇别出心裁的“秋声赋”，不过此秋声不是风声，而是鸟声，写秋声不为伤怀，而为抒怀议事。从不同鸟鸣声中联想到“因醒目而显平庸”，从听不到鸟鸣之失落引出“人之所望总是比所得更有价值”，作者借描写自然，宣扬了一种价值观和人生态度。

 

【第一段】此处day breaks不译“黎明”或“拂晓”而译“破晓”，倒不是仅仅为了注重原文breaks，而更是为了观照其后的help（借助），从而表现原作者构思之精妙和遣词造句之匠心（颇具浪漫意味的借力而破）。这或许就是傅雷先生所说的译者“敏感之心灵”（参见《翻译论集》，商务印书馆，1984年版第695页；2009年修订本第773页）之细微体现。

 

【第二段】这里把daybreaks译成“黎明”就比译作“破晓”熨贴了，同时也符合傅雷先生关于翻译文学作品须“用字丰富”的要求（参见《翻译论集》1984年版第694页，或修订本第772页）。

 

【第三段】有人把elusive birds翻译成“难以捉摸的鸟”，此乃脱离语境的典型表现。根据后句中与之对照的easily seen和obvious，以及下文两次出现的invisible，这里的elusive应结合语境选用tending to escape the notice or perception of或difficult to find这个义项。反之，把automatically induces silence 翻译成“必然导致众鹑齐喑”（化用成语“万马齐喑”）则是结合语境的产物，较之“自动导致一片宁静”或“必然会招来一阵寂静”，前者似乎更能再现原文的意趣。

 

【第四段】此段可特别注意译者对第三句的处理。此句原文主语是带有一个定语从句的名词（disappointment），谓语是及物动词show，宾语则是由that引导的一个从句，若按原文句式译出，译文可能会显得冗长。另请注意things hoped for可译“人之所望”，things assured可译“（人之）所得”，而不必非得译成“期待的东西”和“已到手的东西”。

 

【第五段】英语定语从句不仅可以对其先行词起修饰限定作用，还可以对其先行词所在的主句起补充说明作用。本段第二句中由whose引导的定语从句就属于后一种情况（详见《英汉翻译二十讲》，商务印书馆，2013年版第244—247页）。

 

【第六段】Somehow、autumnal 和thenceforth 这三个词在译文中并未依照原文中的位置和顺序出现，这样微调无损于原文的意趣，同时又照顾了译文的韵味和节奏。

 

【小结】美国翻译理论家奈达曾在《语言与文化：翻译中的语境》第6章中对翻译这类文学语篇提出过基本要求，那就是要译出其“统一、平衡、节奏和谐等美学特征（Aesthetic features as unity, balance, and rhythm）”。要达到这个要求，译者就得将原文的内容和形式、思想和感情、情调和韵味都融会贯通，然后用妥切的译文语言将其再现。

 

注释：

 

*成都大学特聘教授，四川大学二级教授、博士生导师，本刊顾问。研究领域：翻译与跨文化传播。