航向拜占庭

南飛烏鵲曰：
老貓部落格舉行翻譯協力活動，我也挑了一段試翻。

Help the man who is down today.
Give him a lift in his sorrow.
Life has a very strange way,
No one knows what will happen tomorrow.

見人路途坎坷，
援手撫慰悲傷。
浮生禍福難測，
誰知來日景況。

南飛烏鵲曰：
湊韻之譯。

Way Down South in Dixie
(Break the heart of me)
They hung my black young lover
To a cross roads tree.

Way Down South in Dixie
(Bruised body high in air)
I asked the white Lord Jesus
What was the use of prayer.

Way Down South in Dixie
(Break the heart of me)
Love is a naked shadow
On a gnarled and naked tree.

給黑人女孩的歌
原作：蘭斯頓‧休斯 (1902-1967)

遙遙南方之南唷
(總教我心傷)
我年輕的黑人戀人
給吊死在十字路口樹上。

遙遙南方之南唷
(軀體瘀紫高懸天際)
我問白人的主耶穌
祈禱有何助益。

遙遙南方之南唷
(總教我心傷)
吾愛赤裸身影
在錯節赤裸樹上。

南飛烏鵲曰：
試譯短詩一則，更知譯詩之難，有過於譯文者。

But there was another side to Frederick. He was a cultivated, sensitive gentleman. He was a good musician, he had read widely, and he had made a careful study of French. He even composed a number of French poems-they are not good, still they serve to show that to him German wasn't everything. He was, in this way, more civilised than Hitler. There was no Nordic purity nonsense about him. He did not think that Germany was destined to rule the world: he knew that the world is a very complicated place, and that we have to live and let live in it; he even believed in freedom of speech. "People can say what they like as long as I do what I like" was the way he put it. One day, as he went through Berlin he saw a caricature of himself on a wall, and all he said was: "Oh-hang it down lower so that it can be seen better."

The visit began in a whirl of compliments. Voltaire called Frederick "The Solomon of the North," Frederick declared that of all his victorious titles the most precious was Possessor of Voltaire. He made his guest a court official, housed him royally, gave him a handsome salary, and promised an extra salary to his niece, Madame Denis, if she would come to keep house for him. (We shall hear more of poor Madame Denis in a minute.) Witty conversation, philosophic discussion, delicious food-Frederick liked good food, though he was careful to get it cheap. Everything seemed perfect-but! Not long after his arrival, Voltaire wrote a letter to a friend in France in which the ominous little word "But" keeps occurring.

"The supper parties are delicious. The King is the life of the company. But, I have operas and comedies, reviews and concerts, my studies and books. But, but. Berlin is fine, the princesses charming, the maids of honour handsome. But."

E. M. Forster (1879-1970):
"Voltaire and Frederick the Great"

I have read many books on English prose, but have found it hard to profit by them; for the most part they are vague, unduly theoretical, and often scolding. But you cannot say this of Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage. It is a valuable work. Fowler liked simplicity, straightforwardness and common sense. He had a sound feeling that idiom was the backbone of a language and he was all for the racy phrase. He was no slavish admirer of logic and was willing enough to give usage right of way through the exact demesnes of grammar. English grammar is very difficult and few writers have avoided making mistakes in it. It is necessary to know grammar, and it is better to write grammatically than not, but it is well to remember that grammar is common speech formulated. Usage is the only test. I would prefer a phrase that was easy and unaffected to a phrase that was grammatical. I have given the matter of style a great deal of thought and have taken great pains. I have written few pages that I feel I could not improve and far too many that I have left with dissatisfaction. I cannot say of myself what Johnson said of Pope: "He never passed a fault unamended by indifference, nor quitted it by despair." I do not write as I want to; I write as I can.

Anything is better than not to write clearly. There is nothing to be said against lucidity, and against simplicity only the possibility of dryness. This is a risk that is well worth taking when you reflect how much better it is to be bald than to wear a curly wig. But there is in euphony a danger that must be considered. It is very likely to be monotonous. I do not know how one can guard against this. I suppose the best chance is to have a more lively faculty of boredom than one's readers so that one is wearied before they are. One must always be on the watch for mannerisms and when certain cadences come too easily to the pen ask oneself whether they have not become mechanical.

W. S. Maugham (1874-1965):
"How to Write Perfectly"

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

南飛烏鵲曰：
為著撰寫編者言，線上搜尋賈伯斯演講全文。他勉勵史丹佛畢業生的兩句話： "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish"，網路上東傳西抄，多翻作"求知若飢，虛懷若愚"。譯句雅則雅矣，信達則未必。 前句"求知"譯得太死，後句"虛懷"純屬無稽。

我幾經斟酌，譯作"不饜，有愚"。拙譯還請朋友指正。

 "And he always carried a tiny blue dictionary with him, the size of a matchbox, making sure to learn a new word every day" (The Buddha of Suburbia  28).

南飛烏鵲曰：
想起一名朋友。此公好學，往來系所，必雙手各提一布袋，袋中備有辭典若干，方便隨時查考。平素閒談，常聽他提及某師措辭講究，或是自己新學得一二生難字云云。用心語文之專之深，平輩中找不到第二個。

. . . please send us your suggestion for the best pre-twentieth-century classic novel to twin with Midnight's Children, and your reason for this choice.

詳見：The Man Booker Prize

南飛烏鵲曰：
從Moments of Being部落格得知這則消息，覺得有趣，於是連上曼布客獎網站一觀究竟。

這項活動考驗讀者學識，須得看過《午夜之子》，還要熟悉20世紀前的小說經典，從中挑選一本與魯西迪的大作相互發明。Vintage Classic Twins 系列，選出20部傑構，依主題兩兩對照，今昔輝映，拿來作活動獎品，再適合不過了。

孤雛淚：
書名。英國小說家狄更斯所寫的長篇小說名著。描述出身貧寒的大衛歷盡艱辛，終獲成功的故事，為自傳式的小說。或譯作「大衛‧高伯菲爾」、「塊肉餘生錄」。

南飛烏鵲曰：
教育部線上國語辭典說，「孤雛淚」又譯作 「大衛‧高伯菲爾」、「塊肉餘生錄」。市面常見譯本，冠上「孤雛淚」一名的，是 Oliver Twist，而非 David Copperfield，國語辭典的編纂者恐怕搞錯了。狄更斯還有一本小說，書名或譯「孤星血淚」，原名為 Great Expectations.

Oliver Twist 是狄更斯早期的作品，就中可見作者一貫的關懷：The themes and psychological patterns of Oliver Twist were to be those of all of Dickens' novels thereafter, more or less: the horrors of exploitation . . . the search for lost parents and happy homes . . . and the redeeming potential of charity and love (preface, ix).

Harry Potter has been burdened with a dark, dangerous and seemingly impossible task . . . (詳見第七集書衣)

南飛烏鵲曰：
報紙上說，香港有人罵羅琳抄襲金庸，還告上法院。其中是非，自有公正法官裁奪。倒是，晚間讀《哈利波特》第七集，想起金老爺子《倚天》、《射鵰》等名著。兩本小說先是讓張翠山、殷素素或是江南七怪登場，花了好多篇幅寫這些人的故事，接著才讓正主兒上台，演出離合悲歡。羅媽媽與老爺子或許心有靈犀，新書鋪陳了200多頁，主角仍像無頭蒼蠅亂竄，該辦的事一項也沒辦，標題所謂"Deathly Hallows"不明所指，害我這個讀者跟著心煩。