1
隔着树篱,我们的视线相遇了。我想,我有一些话要对她说,而她却走开了。我要对她讲的话,像一叶扁舟日日夜夜随时间的浪潮而颠簸起伏。我要对她讲的话,仿佛秋天的行云,无止无息地四处追寻,又仿佛变成了黄昏时盛开的花儿,在落霞间寻找它已失去的时光。我要对她讲的话,像萤火虫似的在我的心里熠熠闪光,在绝望的黄昏,探求它的深意。
I thought I had something to say to her when our eyes met across the hedge. But she passed away. And it rocks day and night, like a boat, on every wave of the hours, the word that I had to say to her. It seems to sail in the autumn clouds on an end- less quest and to bloom into evening flowers, seeking its lost moment in the sunset. It twinkles like fireflies in my heart, to find its meaning in the dusk of despair, the word that I had to say to her.
2
如果我占有了天空和满天的繁星,如果我占有了世界和它无量的财富,我仍有更多的要求。但是,只要我有了她,即使在这个世界上我只有一块立锥之地,我也会心满意足。
I would ask for still more, if I had the sky with all its stars, and the world with its endless riches ; but I would be content with the smallest corner of this earth if only she were mine. I would ask for still more, if I had the sky with all its stars, and the world with its endless riches ; but I would be content with the smallest corner of this earth if only she were mine.
3
我不记得我的母亲,
只在我游戏中间
有时似乎有一段歌调在我玩具上回旋,
是她在晃动我的摇篮时候所哼的那些歌调。
我不记得我的母亲,
但是当初秋的早晨
合欢花香在空气中浮动,
庙里晨祷的馨香向我吹来像母亲一样的气息。
我不记得我的母亲,
只当我从卧室的窗里外望悠远的蓝天,
我觉得我母亲凝注在我脸上的眼光
布满了整个天空。
I cannot remember my mother,
Only sometime in the midst of my play
a tune seems to hover my playthings,
the tune of some song that she used to hum while rocking my cradle.
I cannot remember my mother,
but when in the early autumn morning
the smell of the shiuli flowers floats in the air,
the scent of the morning service in the temple comes to me as the scent of my mother.
I cannot remember my mother,
Only when from my bedroom window I send my eyes into the blue of the distant sky,
I feel that the stillness of my mother's gaze on my face has spread all over the sky.
4
我醒来了,发现他的与清晨一同到来的信。
我不知道信里写些什么,因为我看不懂。
让聪明人独自去读他的书吧,我不会打扰他,因为,谁知道他能否读出信里说些什么。
让我把它擎在前额,让我把它贴在心上。
当夜深人静,繁星一个个出现时,我要把它展放膝头,默默静坐。
沙沙的林叶会为我大声朗读它,潺潺的河水会为我吟诵它,七颗智慧星也会在空中为我歌唱它。
我得不到我所寻觅的,我不理解我将学到的;可这封未读的信,却减轻了我的负担,将我的思想化成了歌曲。
I woke and found his letter with the morning.
I do not know what it says, for I cannot read.
I shall leave the wise man alone with his books, I shall not trouble him, for who knows if he can read what the letter says.
Let me hold it to my forehead and press it to my heart.
When the night grows still and stars come out one by one I will spread it on my lap and stay silent.
The rustling leaves will read it aloud to me, the rushing stream will chant it, and the seven wise stars will sing it to me from the sky.
I cannot find what I seek, I cannot understand what I would learn; but this unread letter has lightened my burdens and turned my thoughts into songs.
5
我们的爱情不仅仅是儿戏,我爱。
风雨喧嚣的夜一次次袭击了我,吹灭我的灯光;暧昧的疑虑聚拢来,遮蔽了我满天的繁星。
河堤一次次崩塌,让洪水席卷了我的庄稼,悲伤与绝望撕裂了我的蓝天。
因此我知道,你的爱情里有痛苦的打击,却没有死亡无情的冷漠。
This is no mere dallying of love between us, my lover.
Again and again have swooped down upon me the screaming nights of storm, blowing out my lamp: dark doubts have gathered, blotting out all stars from my sky.
Again and again the banks have burst, letting the flood sweep away my harvest, and wailing and despair have rent my sky from end to end.
This have I learnt that there are blows of pain in your love, never the cold apathy of death.
6
欢乐从全世界涌来,塑造了我的躯体。
天空的阳光将她吻了又吻,直到她惊醒。
匆匆赶来的夏日的花朵在她的呼吸里注入芬芳的气息,她的行动里有着风和水的韵律。
云霞和森林绚丽多彩的激情潮水般注入她的生命,大地万物的音乐的爱抚凝成她的手和足。 她是我的新娘——她在我的房里点亮了她的灯。
The joy ran from all the world to build my body.
The lights of the skies kissed and kissed her till she woke.
Flowers of hurrying summers sighed in her breath and voices of winds and water sang in her movements.
The passion of the tide of colours in clouds and in forests flowed into her life, and the music of all things caressed her limbs into shape.
She is my bride,--she has lighted her lamp in my house.
7
终有一天,我会遇到我内心的生命,遇到隐藏在生命中的欢愉,尽管时光用它慵散的灰尘蒙住了我的道路。
我曾在黎明闪烁的晨光中结识了它,它的阵阵微风吹拂着我,使我的思绪泌出片刻芳香。
终有一天,我会遇到那留在光明的屏风后的无我的外部欢愉——我要站在漫漫无尽的幽寂中,那里,世间万物团聚在造物者的身边。
I will meet one day the Life within me, the joy that hides in my life, though the days perplex my path with their idle dust.
I have known it in glimpses, and its fitful breath has come upon me, making my thoughts fragrant for a while.
I will meet one day the Joy without me that dwells behind the screen of light--and will stand in the overflowing solitude where all things are seen as by their creator.
8
你在天上举起你的灯,它将光明洒在我的脸上,它的阴影却笼罩了你。
我在心里举起爱之灯,它的光明落在你的身上,我却被抛闪在阴影背后。
When you hold your lamp in the sky it throws its light on my face and its shadow falls over you.
When I hold the lamp of love in my heart its light falls on you and I am left standing behind in the shadow.
9
细雨席卷了苍穹,素馨花在湿淋淋的狂醉的风中畅饮着自己的浓郁芳香。
不可名状的喜悦荡漾在深沉的夜的胸膛,它是蒙着面纱,藏起繁星的碧空的喜悦,它是回响着鸟鸣余音的深夜密林的喜悦。
让喜悦溢满我的心,让我把它悄悄地带到白天吧。
The rains sweep the sky from end to end.
In the wild wet wind the jasmines revel in their own perfume.
There is a secret joy in the bosom of the night, it is the joy of the veiled sky in its hidden stars, the joy of the midnight forest in its hoarded bird songs.
Let me fill my heart with it and carry it in secret through the day.
10
我和你相逢在黑夜汇合于白昼的海边;在那里,光明惊退黑暗,化作黎明;在那里, 波涛将此岸的吻传送到彼岸。
从无边无底的蔚蓝深处,喷射出金灿灿的光线,传来一声召唤,穿过迷蒙的泪雾,我专注地凝望着你的脸,却不敢肯定是不是看见了你。 I have met thee where the night touches the edge of the day;where the light startles the darkness into dawn,and the waves carry the kiss of the one shore to the other.From the heart of the fathomless blue comes one golden call,and across the dusk of tears I try to gaze thy face and know not for certain if thou are seen.
11
今天清晨,我的心灵之窗,那朝向你的心灵的窗口,突然打开了。
我惊诧地看到,我的名字,你经常呼唤的名字,写在四月的嫩叶与百花上,我默默地静坐着。
刹那间,隔在你我歌曲中间的帘幕随风飘去了。
我发现,你的晨曦里弥漫着我无法表达的、唱不出来的歌儿;我想,我应该在你的脚边学会它。我默默地静坐着。
SUDDENLY the window of my heart flew open this morning, the window that looks out on your heart.
I wondered to see that the name by which you know me is written in April leaves and flowers, and I sat silent.
The curtain was blown away for a moment between my songs and yours.
I found that your morning light was full of my own mute songs unsung; I thought that I would learn them at your feet--and I sat silent.
12
每日里,我沿着同一条老路来来去去,送水果到市场,赶牛群去牧场,划渡船过小河,条条道路对我是那么熟悉。
一天早晨,田野里到处是忙碌的人们,牧场上到处是牛群,大地的胸膛和着成熟的稻浪欢快地起伏。我走着,手里提着沉重的篮子。
忽然,一阵轻风吹过,天空仿佛在亲吻我的前额。我的心儿跳动,仿佛朝阳破雾而出。
我忘记了走熟的老路,向路边跨出了几步,熟悉的景物变得陌生了,就像一朵花,我只在它含苞欲放的时候认识它。
我为我平日的小聪明感到羞愧,我离开正途闯入了仙境般的世界。那天清晨,我迷失了道路,却找到了永存的赤子之心,这是我一生的幸运。
I TRAVELLED the old road every day, I took my fruits to the market, my cattle to the meadows, I ferried my boat across the stream and all the ways were well known to me.
One morning my basket was heavy with wares. Men were busy in the fields, the pastures crowded with cattle ; the breast of earth heaved with the mirth of ripening rice.
Suddenly there was a tremor in the air, and the sky seemed to kiss me on my forehead. My mind started up like the morning out of mist.
I forgot to follow the track. I stepped a few paces from the path, and my familiar world appeared strange to me, like a flower I had only known in bud.
My everyday wisdom was ashamed. I went astray in the fairyland of things. It was the best luck of my life that I lost my path that morning, and found my eternal childhood.
P1-16
《采果集》(一八一六年)和《爱者之贻》(一九一八年,包括《渡口》)是从一八八六到一九一七年间罗宾德拉纳特·泰戈尔的十六部诗集和三部戏剧中选出,并且大部分由诗人亲自从孟加拉文译成英文的两部诗歌选集。收入集中的二百二十四首诗歌,主要是一九零零年以后的作品,此前的诗篇入选的寥寥无几。
二十世纪到一九一六年是泰戈尔一生中最不平静,精神备受折磨的时期。在家庭生活方面。他连连失去亲人。一九零二年他的妻子去世,一九零三年他的二女儿瑞如卡病故,一九零五年他的父亲逝世,一九零七年他最心爱的小儿子苏敏德拉纳特又传染上霍乱,在五年前母亲去世的同一天离开了人间。在政治及社会活动方面,自从一九零五年泰戈尔退出轰轰烈烈的民族自治运动以后,他不断地受到批评,他苦心创办的发扬民族精神的学校又给他在经济上加重了负担。在孟加拉文坛上,他也是被抨击的对象,他的每一部作品,每一篇论文几乎都逃不脱一部分人的围攻。以至发展到一九一二年他的作品开始在西方受到赞赏,他本人又恰在国外的时候,著名的剧作家D.L_罗易竟写了讽刺剧《喜乐的告别》在剧院上演,公开对泰戈尔进行嘲笑和诽谤。虽然一九一一年孟加拉文学学会在加尔各答市政厅为祝贺他五十岁诞辰举行了隆重的庆祝活动,但也不是没有斗争,一部分人认为这种荣誉应当给予更配接受的人。
一九一三年,泰戈尔获得诺贝尔文学奖金,当五百名崇拜者从加尔各答乘专车涌到寂乡向他祝贺时,他极为愤懑的发言又触怒了他的同胞。获奖的热潮消退之后,他又隐约意识到第一次世界大战即将爆发,开始对人类的命运忧心忡忡了。
《采果集》是一部侧重宗教抒情歌曲的诗歌选集,主要选自《白鹤集》(Balaka,1916)《歌曲集》(Gitali,1914)、《歌之花环》(Gitimatya,1914)、《奉献集》(Utsarga,1914)、《摆渡集》(Khaya,1906)以及为纪念死去的妻子而写的“悼念集”(Smaran,1903)和被誉为“爱国主义教科书”的《故事诗集》(Katha,1900)。
泰戈尔的歌曲大多采用民歌曲调。一九零五年,在印度民族解放运动第一次高潮期间,他所写的许多充满爱国热情的歌曲,都是按流行在孟加拉邦的民歌曲调谱写的,如伴着独弦琴歌唱克旦涅纳和拉塔热恋的抒情曲《巴乌尔》(Baul),和着手鼓铙钹赞颂黑天功绩的节奏强烈的《吉尔丹》(Kitan)以及河上船夫所唱的欢快流畅的《渔歌小调》(Sarigan)。在表现手法上,泰戈尔喜欢采取的是中世纪信奉黑天的维湿奴派虔信诗人的抒情歌曲中接近神秘主义的象征手法。遥远的笛声象征着永恒的爱人黑天向情人拉塔发出的爱的召唤。披着长长的黑发,响着惊恐的脚铃,黑夜里迎着风雨急急奔走着的女人,是拉塔在赴黑天的约会;渴望爱情的新娘,河上的小舟、木筏,只要敞开大门就可以容纳下全世界的小屋;水像乌鸦的眼睛一般黑的深湖,都是心的象征;深夜出海的船夫,小船上的舵手代表命运和死亡。
维湿奴派诗人歌唱神,实质上是歌唱生活和人,这种象征手法最适于泰戈尔用来表达他丰富、复杂、难以准确描述的思想感情。当然,在形式方面他也有取舍创新,加上他对梵文文学的深湛造诣,使他的歌曲(抒情诗也同样)既具有民歌的朴素自然,又带着古典诗歌的典雅庄严,象征手法又为之蒙上一层朦胧神秘的色彩,增添了一种独特的艺术魅力。
泰戈尔是诗人,同时也是哲学家。在这部选集里(也包括他全部的诗作),如果愿意,每一首诗都可以看作他“梵我一体”,“有限的自我中寓有无限的绝对精神”,“人需要神,神也需要人”的宗教哲学理想的注脚,而且他的同胞中也有不少人这样做了。然而,广大的读者注意的却是这些决不脱离生活的宗教颂歌里,以精湛的创作技巧描绘下来的这一段坎坷生活中思想情感的足迹;他对真理(他的神)的执着的追求,他为之奋斗的思想被人误解,嘲笑时的“我独醒”的寂寞之感,他遭到打击、侮辱时的以笑当哭,仿佛获得自由似的欢乐,他为失去亲人而产生的深切悲痛……。更吸引读者并赢得他们的热爱的是他生活史上这一“收获季节”献出的累累硕果——他的诗歌中表现出的从失败中争取胜利,依靠自己的力量赤手空拳建造人间天堂的无限自信,决不“屈从多数,违心地改变初衷”,迎着风暴扬帆,与时代一同前进的战斗精神,对帝国主义贪婪、掠夺的谴责和对祖国母亲孩子般赤诚的依恋,即使在第一次世界大战的火海毒云中仍怀着“殉准者的鲜血,母亲的眼泪,妻子的守望,会换来天堂”,人类经过血的洗礼会有一个光明的前途的坚定信念。当然,广大读者也不会忽略闪耀在诗歌里对被压迫的卑贱者无限同情的人道主义的火花。
《爱者之贻》和《渡口》主要选自《宗教颂歌》《DhrmanSan—git,1917),《白鹤集》、《摆渡集》、《歌之花环》、《吉檀迦利》(Gitanjali,1910)和《刹那集》(Kshanika,1900)。
正如《采果集》以宗教抒曲诗歌的顶峰《歌之花环》为主一样。《爱者之贻》中选得最多的是公认为最优美的抒情诗集《刹那集》中的作品。《刹那集》是泰戈尔第一次运用孟加拉口语,为在大自然的怀抱里恋爱着的青年人而写的诗篇。它歌唱青春,歌唱生活,歌唱爱情的悲哀和欢乐,歌唱在生意盎然的大自然中所产生的幸福感。这些诗,语言特别朴素,韵律特别轻快,感情的流露也特别大胆。然而在欢歌中却带有韶华已逝,青春不再(泰戈尔当时已近四十岁)的伤感惆怅的调子。而在《渡口》中却更进一步,已是站在从此岸到彼岸,从这一世界到另一世界的渡口,镇静地等待死亡的日渐逼近。
泰戈尔的英译和孟加拉原文出入很大,是他的再创作。在翻译这几部诗集时,虽然查对了原文,但是除了一、两首由于英译意义不太明确,根据原文稍做增删外,其余的基本未加改动。
泰戈尔的英译早已有人批评是原诗提纲式的缩写本,是剥去了韵律、节奏的血肉,撕下了华美辞藻的衣衫的一副骨架。然而,泰戈尔毕竟是位大诗人,他的摒弃铅华的“再创作”不仅未失去原作的主旨,还为它增添了另一种清新的魅力。
泰戈尔的英译诗选,既不注明写作年代,又不说出选自哪一部诗集。这给只能依靠英译来欣赏或研究的读者和研究者带来很大的困难。这在西方早已引起了批评,我国的读者和研究者也遇到了同样的困难。按英译出版的先后来划分泰戈尔的创作阶段,论述他的思想发展,不可避免地会导致错误的结论。
要把选集中的二百余首诗注出写作年代,选自哪些诗集,确实是既需要时间又颇费精力的事。除了四十年前在寂乡朝夕听惯了的晨祷和晚祈的歌曲仍依稀在耳,和至今仍能背诵的一些名作可以很容易地注明出处外,大部分都要费力查找。原文诗集后面虽附有索引,但都是每首的第一行,而泰戈尔的译文却从长诗或短歌里选出几句再增添改写,困难就更大了。因为手边除了一部残缺的二十六卷《泰戈尔作品集》和一部泰戈尔自己编的《诗选》(一九三一)外,单行本不多,所以有些诗未能注明出处,有些诗原文未注明写作年代,但从诗集出版的日期也可断定写作年代,不至于有太大出入。希望这一费时费力的工作的成果能对读者和研究者多少有所帮助。
石真