試譯：〈感念無名師長〉 葉慈【Gratitude to the Unknown Instructors－William Butler Yeats】

感念無名師長　　葉慈（試譯：淺白）
 
凡乃他們最初立心做的
他們均已使之發生；
所有事儘如一滴風露
凝掛在每株綠草的刃面。
 
16/8/2022稿
 
Gratitude to the Unknown Instructors
By William Butler Yeats (From his 1933 collection The Winding Stair)
 
What they undertook to do
They brought to pass;
All things hang like a drop of dew
Upon a blade of grass. 

圖片源自網絡。

試譯：〈因尼絲弗利湖島〉 葉慈【The Lake Isle of Innisfree－William Butler Yeats】

因尼絲弗利湖島　葉慈（試譯：淺白）

我現在就動身了，動身去因尼絲弗利

一間小屋蓋起，由木條和黏泥搭成；

那裏我會種設九行豆圃，和一個釀蜜的蜂箱

再單獨生活，在那蜂聲響亮的林間空地

而在那裏我將覓得些許平靜。平靜源自滴落──

由晨起的輕紗，以至蟋蟀歌唱的地方

那裏半夜幾乎都是泛着微光；而正午暈映着紫霞

到黃昏時，則四處都可見朱雀翩飛的翅膀了

故我現在就要動身了；事關恒常在日頭或夜間

我都聽到湖水低聲舔着水涘

當我站到公路上，或在灰樸的行人道時

我都聽到它的聲音，在我內心的最盡處

 
16/4/2019初稿
22/7/2021二稿
 
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
by William Butler Yeats
 
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
 
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.
 
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

1890

*In his autobiography Yeats writes: "I had still the ambition, formed in Sligo in my teens, of living in imitation of Thoreau on Innisfree... and when walking through Fleet Street [in London] very homesick I heard a little tinkle of water and saw a fountain in a shop-window which balanced a little ball upon its jet, and began to remember lake water. From the sudden remembrance came my poem Innisfree, my first lyric with anything in its rhythm of my own music."

2020年1月20日攝於南生圍。

試譯：《字詞》葉慈【Words－William Butler Yeats】

字詞　葉慈 (試譯：淺白)

片刻前我有了這個想法——

「我的至親並不能明白

我做了些甚麼，或者說，

在這瞽聵、苦澀的大地上

我所做的會有甚麼用」

而烈日很快便為我厭倦

直至思路再次在我眼前清晰

記得自己所能做過最好的

就是盡可能把它說得直白

就如每年我也曾激動叫喊：「終於！

我愛的人全部明白了

因為我的力量終於來到

而字語，也服從了我的使喚」

就假如她真的這樣懂了，那誰還曉得

會有甚麼可從這筲箕裏篩出來？

我也可能早已將微弱的字詞拋開

而自此滿足於生活

10/4/2019

Words 

by William Butler Yeats (From his 1910 Collection The Green Helmet and other Poems)

I had this thought a while ago,

"My darling cannot understand

What I have done, or what would do

In this blind bitter land.”

And I grew weary of the sun

Until my thoughts cleared up again,

Remembering that the best I have done

Was done to make it plain;

That every year I have cried, "At length

My darling understands it all,

Because I have come into my strength,

And words obey my call;”

That had she done so who can say

What would have shaken from the sieve?

I might have thrown poor words away

And been content to live.

2020年2月19日攝於城門水塘。

2023年11月22日攝於大棠楓香林。