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英語詩歌中的韻律和在翻譯中的處理
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2019/1/8 15:26:28
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英語詩歌中的韻律和在翻譯中的處理
(1)英語詩歌中的韻律

最近在我的《博客》中,曾有網(wǎng)友問及英語詩歌的押韻問題,也有網(wǎng)友和我討論關(guān)于英語詩歌韻律在翻譯中的處理問題。下面先對英語詩歌中的韻律作一個介紹,然后談?wù)勎覍τ⒃婍嵚稍诜g中處理的看法。

一 英語詩歌中的韻律

詩人比其他的作家更注重語言的音樂性,他們常常通過語言的音樂性來烘托或加強他們所要表達(dá)的思想內(nèi)容。愛倫·坡說,詩歌就是“音樂……與愉快思想的結(jié)合”(‘musical … combined with a pleasurable idea’);龐德說,“詩歌離開音樂太遠(yuǎn)就殘缺了”(‘Poetry atrophies where it gets too far from music’);而托馬斯·卡萊爾則干脆說,詩歌就是“音樂思想”(‘musical thought’)。

兒童從小就喜歡兒歌,這多半并不是由于兒歌的內(nèi)容,而主要就是由于語言的這種音樂性吸引他們,使他們感到興趣,例如:

Pease porridge hot,

Pease porridge cold,

Pease porridge in the pot,

Nine days old.
上面的四行其實不是詩(poetry),只能稱其為韻文(verse),內(nèi)容也沒有什么意義,但整個四行音韻清晰有味,節(jié)奏感很強,讀起來瑯瑯順口,因此,孩子們喜歡。在這四行中,幾乎有一半的詞都是輔音“p”開頭的頭韻,一、三行的短音‘hot?pot’壓韻,二、四行的長音 ‘cold?old’壓韻;還有‘pease porridge’三次重復(fù)。英語詩中稱這種詩為“nonsense poetry”,就內(nèi)容而言,這種詩往往是一種胡說八道,它的存在多半是由于它的音樂效果所產(chǎn)生的諧趣。


詩歌中語言的音樂性包括語音(sound)和節(jié)奏(rhythm)兩大要素。語音有悠長短促之分,節(jié)奏有輕重快慢之別。英語詩人常常利用語言的這些特點來幫助加強詩歌的主題或增加詩歌的諧趣效果。

請讀下面的詩節(jié):

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,

The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea,

The ploughman homeward plods his weary way

And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

(from Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray)

這一詩節(jié)中幽長的音韻和緩慢的節(jié)奏,大大加強了低沉、幽思和哀婉的氣氛,詩人一開始就以音義結(jié)合非常緊密的音樂性突出了全詩哀婉的主題。

下面分別比較詳細(xì)地介紹詩歌中的韻律和節(jié)奏,先介紹英語詩歌中的韻(Rhyme)

什么是韻?

押韻的語言是一種特殊的語言,盡管現(xiàn)代詩歌不太講究押韻,但詩歌中的韻畢竟是區(qū)分詩和其他文學(xué)品種的重要標(biāo)志之一,也是詩歌音樂性的重要因素之一。 “韻”是和諧之音,廣義言之,英語中的“韻”就是任何兩個相同的音的重復(fù),包括元音或輔音的重復(fù)。狹義言之,英語中的“韻”是詩行末尾幾個單詞音節(jié)讀音的一致。

在英語中,“韻”指的是單詞相同的發(fā)音,而不是單詞的拼寫,如“calm—arm”,“l(fā)ight—height”, “time—rhyme”,“no—know”,“hay—sleigh”,這四對詞,盡管每對詞拼寫不一樣,但每一對詞中的元音或元音后面輔音的發(fā)音都相同,所以它們都分別押韻。

韻律(rhyme scheme)是指一首詩中韻式的安排, 常用一個斜體字母代表詩行末尾某個相同的韻,如下面詩節(jié)的韻律(pattern of rhyme)是ababcbcd:

When we two parted a

In silence and tears, b

Half broken-hearted, a

To sever for years, b

Pale grew thy cheek and cold, c

Colder thy kiss; d

Truly that hour foretold c

Sorrow to this! d

(From When We Two Parted by George Gordon Byron)

韻一般都落在詩行末尾的重讀音節(jié)上,這種韻稱之為陽韻(masculine rhyme),如:

Since to look at things bloom a

Fifty springs are little room, a

About the woodland I will go b

To see the cherry hung with snow. b

(From Loveliest of Trees by A.E. Housman)

如果單詞重讀音節(jié)后的非重讀音節(jié)讀音也一致,這種韻就稱之為陰韻(feminine rhyme),如:

And will make thee beds of roses a

And a thousand fragrant poses; a

A cap of flower,and a kirtle, b

Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle. b

(From Marlow's Passionate Shipherd)

韻的種類

英語中韻的種類可細(xì)分成很多類。其種類可以按照發(fā)音的情況、在詩行中的位置和押韻音節(jié)的多少來分類,下面分別介紹:

(1)按照發(fā)音的情況來分,英語中有元音韻 (assonance) 和輔音韻 (consonance):

1)元音韻是相同元音的重復(fù),如“time—tide”, “free—easy”, “born—warm”,“hard and fast”等。拜倫在他的 She Walks in Beauty 一詩中,元音 [ei] 在下面兩行詩中重復(fù)了四次,描寫和強調(diào)出了那不可名狀的美:

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impaired the nameless grace.

2)輔音韻是相同輔音的重復(fù),如 “first and last”, “odds and ends”,“short and sweet”, “a stroke of luck”。W. H. 奧登在下面的詩行中有意運用了輔音韻(r和d),以求達(dá)到某種特殊的效果:“‘O where are you going?’said reader to rider”(其中的輔音“r”是頭韻)。

(2)按照押韻所在位置來分,有尾韻(end rhyme),頭韻(alliteration)和行中韻(internal rhyme):

1)尾韻(end rhyme)顧名思義落在詩行之末尾,前面已經(jīng)提到,這是詩歌中運用最多的押韻方式。不同的詩節(jié)尾韻有不同的韻律安排,以四行詩為例,有aabb,abab,abcb, abba, aaab等押韻方式,英語詩歌中以雙行押韻和隔行押韻最常見:

a)Ask me no more where Jove bestows  a

When June is past, the fading rose;   a

For in your beauty‘s orient deep   b

These flowers, as in their causes, sleep.  b

(From Song by Thomas Carew)

b)Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, a

The bridal of the earth and sky;  b

The dew shall weep thy fall to night,  a

For thy must die.  b

(From Virtue by George Herbert)

英語詩歌中的民謠體(ballad stanza)主要采用“abcb”式的韻律安排,如:

It is an ancient Mariner, a

And he stoppeth one of three. b

—“By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, c

Now wherefore stopp'st thou me? b

(from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Talor Coleridge)

(from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Talor Coleridge)

有人把“abba”式的韻律稱之為“抱韻”,有一些道理:

I envy not in any moods a

The captive void of noble rage, b

The linnet born within the cage, b

That never knew the summer woods; a

(from In Memoriam A. H. H. 27 by Alfred, Lord Tennyson)

丁尼生在《悼念集》的一百三十一首詩中全部用的是“抱韻”,第一行和第四行的a韻把兩行b韻抱在中間,仿佛把作者的思想包含在腦子里一樣;第一行的a韻和第四行的a韻相隔較遠(yuǎn),造成一種懸空和不穩(wěn)定感。這種韻律最適合表現(xiàn)內(nèi)省、猶豫、懷疑的情緒。丁尼生運用抱韻來寫《懷念集》是最恰當(dāng)不過的,但在漢語詩歌中找不到這樣的韻律。

2)頭韻(alliteration,也稱beginning rhyme),這主要是指詩行中單詞開頭輔音的重復(fù)。在“His death is a bitter blow to me”中, ‘bitter blow’兩個單詞中重復(fù)了詞首字母‘b’,起到了強調(diào)的作用。在成語中,頭韻是常見不鮮的,如 ‘good as gold’, ‘safe and sound’, ‘thick and thin’, ‘right as rain’, ‘with might and main’。頭韻用得好,讀者會從中發(fā)現(xiàn)某種惟妙惟肖的聯(lián)系。在下面的例子中,“married” 與 “marred”, “mice” 與 “men”詩人運用頭韻,分別巧妙地暗示了他們之間的內(nèi)在聯(lián)系。

a) A young man married is a man that's marred.

(William Shakespeare: All's Well that Ends Well, II.iii)

b) The fair breeze blow, the white foam flew,

The furrow followed free;

We were the first that ever burst

Into that silent sea.

(From The Ancient Marriner by S.T. Coleridge)

c) But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,

In proving foresight may be vain:

The best-laid scheme o’ Mice an’ Men

Gang aft a gley,

An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,

For promised joy!

(From To a Mouse by Robert Burns)

(但是,小鼠啊,證明預(yù)見是空勞

這豈止是你老鼠一家的煩惱:

人和鼠都一樣,計劃再好,

都免不了有差誤,

留下的只是悲傷和痛苦,

那有歡樂和幸福!)

頭韻在Anglo-Saxon 時期的詩歌中是一種非常普遍而重要的押韻方式:

In a somer seson - when soft was the sonne,

I shope me in shrouds - as I a shep were,

In habite as an hermite - unholy of werkes

Went wyde in this worlde - wondres to here.

Ac on a May mornynge - on Malvern hulles

Me byfel a ferly - of fairy, me thoughte;

I was wery forwandred - and went me to reste

Under a broke banke - by a bornes side,

And as I lay and lened - and loked in the waters

I slombred in a slepyng - it sweyved so merye.

(William Langland: Prologue to Piers Plowman lines 1 - 10)

下面是用現(xiàn)代英語改寫的:

In a summer season, when soft was the sunlight,

I shook on some shreds shepherd clothing

And habited like a hermit, but not a holy one,

Went wide in this world, watching for wonders.

But on a May morning, on a Malvern hilltop,

A marvel befell me, as might a fairy-tale.

I was weary and far-wandered and went to rest myself

On a broadish bank by a running brook,

And as I lay leaning and looking in the water

I slipped into a slumber, it slid away so merrily.

(Modern version by Nevill Cahill?)

Anglo-Saxon 時期的詩歌,每行有四個重音(偶爾也增加到5個重音),中間有一停頓把詩行隔成前后兩部分,每部分各有兩個重音。詩行中的前三個重音都押頭韻,最后一個重音則不必押韻。

14世紀(jì)以后,英語詩歌主要以音節(jié)的數(shù)目為詩行長短的標(biāo)準(zhǔn),但頭韻一直被詩人們沿用著,或用以強調(diào)意思,或使聲音有一種回環(huán)往復(fù)的音樂感,如在 “round and round the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran”一行詩中,頭韻就起到了上述的效果。

元音有時也能作頭韻,如“all the awful auguries”,但用得比較少。

需要提醒一下的是,頭韻也不是以拼寫而是以發(fā)音為準(zhǔn)的,如“Know” 和 “nail”是押頭韻, 但是 “know”和“key” 則不能視為押頭韻。

3) 行中韻(Internal rhyme)是詩行中間的某一個或幾個詞中的某個音與行末那個詞的重讀音節(jié)押韻,如:

For my mind, of all mankind,

I love but you alone.

(From the ballad The Nut-Brown Maid)

在下面兩行詩中:

Her goodly eyes like sapphires shining bright,

Her forehead ivory white(Edmund Spencer).

其中[ai]這個音反復(fù)出現(xiàn)在“eyes”, “l(fā)ike”, “sapphires”, “shining”, “bright”, “ivory” 和“white”之中,這是典型的行中韻。從這個例子可以看出,押韻的詞也可分別出現(xiàn)在上下兩行。如下面兩行中的"fair" 和 "air"也算是行中韻:

We have seen thee, O Love, thou art fair, thou art goodly, O Love;

Thy wings make light in the air as wings of dove.

(Algernon Charles Swinburne)

(3) 按押韻音節(jié)的多少來分,有陽韻(masculine rhyme)和陰韻(feminine rhyme),前面已經(jīng)提到,其中陽韻只有一個重讀音節(jié)押韻,如果用得恰當(dāng),能表現(xiàn)出陽剛之氣或激昂的情感,如拜掄的“Greek War Song”的尾韻押的就是陽韻,與內(nèi)容結(jié)合緊密,韻律是a b a b,現(xiàn)錄該詩的第一節(jié)為例:

Sons of Greeks, arise! a

The glorious hours gone forth, b

And, worthy of such ties, a

Display who gave us birth. b

下面再看一例:

Under the greenwood tree a

Who loves to live with me, a

And turn his merry note b

Unto the sweet bird’s throat. b

—W. Shakespeare: Under the Green wood Tree

陰韻涉及到兩個或兩個以上的音節(jié)同時押韻,即不僅重讀音節(jié)押韻,重讀以后的非重讀音節(jié)也押韻。陰韻常用在具有喜劇氣氛的詩(comic verse)中, 能幫助表達(dá)一種嬉戲、輕佻或輕松的情感;但如果在一般比較嚴(yán)肅的詩中用得恰當(dāng),也能起到很好的效果,如:

a)We poets in our youth begin in gladness,

But thereof come in the end despondency and madness.

(From Resolution and Independence by William Wordsworth)

b)Teach me to hear mermaid’s singing

Or to keep off envy’s stinging.

(From Song by John Donne)

c)The age is best which is the first,

When youth and blood are warmer;

But being spent, the worse and worst

Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time;

And while ye may, go marry,

For having lost but once your prime,

You may forever tarry.

(From To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick)

陰韻在下面這首詩中有很多運用,如crowing―flowing,twitter―glitter,grazing―raising,defeated―retreated,mountain―fountain,等等,表現(xiàn)出春回大地的輕松歡快情調(diào):

Written in March

The cock is crowing,

The stream is flowing,

The small birds twitter,

The lake does glitter,

The green fields sleeps in the sun;

The oldest and the youngest

Are at work with the strongest;

The cattle are grazing,

Their heads never raising;

There are forty like one.

Like an army defeated

The snow has retreated,

And now does fare ill

On the top of the beare hill;

The plowboy is whooping—anon—anon:

There’s joy in the nountains;

There’s life in the fountains;

Small clouds are sailing,

Blue sky prevailing;

The rain is over and gong!

一William Wordsworth

(4) 就押韻的性質(zhì)而言,在英詩中有完全韻(perfect rhyme)和不完全韻 (imperfect rhyme)之分。

在完全韻中,除了重讀音節(jié)中的元音必須是相同外,元音之后的輔音也必須是相同的,如“red—bread”, “deep—leap—steep”, “wealthily—stealthily”, “walk to her—talk to her”等。

不完全韻只有輔音相同,如在“sun—bone—moon—rain—green—thin”中,它們的元音讀音不同,但每個詞的詞尾都有輔音“n”,其實,這是一種輔音韻,或稱之為“半韻”(half或partial rhyme)。

英語中還有一種情況,即單詞拼寫一樣,但發(fā)音不一樣,如“plough—through”, “blow—cow”,嚴(yán)格說,二者不能算是押韻,但詩人們偶爾也利用這種形式以求達(dá)到某種目的。在英語詩歌中這種情況稱之為“眼韻”(eye rhyme),顧名思義,因為拼寫相同,眼睛看上似乎發(fā)音也應(yīng)該是相同的。其他類似的例子如“rough—dough”, “idea—plea”, “Venus—menus”。Christopher Marlowe的 The Passionate Shepherd to His Love一詩中的“l(fā)ove—prove”和move— love就是屬于這種韻:

Come live with me and be my love

And we will all the pleasure prove



If these delights thy minds may move,

Then live with me and be my love.

上面提到的半韻,眼韻,等等,他們都屬于不完全韻。不完全韻常用于表示不協(xié)調(diào)、失望、否定、拒絕等語氣或情感,詩人為了取得某種特殊的戲劇性效果,他們也常常使用這種不完全韻。例如下面布萊克的兩行對偶句就比較典型:

He who the ox to wrath has moved

Still never be by woman loved.

下面再看兩個例子:

a) And by his smile, I knew that sullen hall,

By his dead smile I knew we stood in Hell.

(Wilfred Owen: Strange Meeting)

(b)

The little boy who says “I’ll try”

Will climb to the hill-top.’

The little boy who says “I can't”

Will at the bottom stop.

“I’ll try” does great things every day,

“I can't” gets nothing done;

Be sure then that you say “I’ll try”

And let “I can’t” alone.

(I’ll Try by C. Rossetti)

韻在詩中的作用

韻在詩中的作用,前面在分述中已經(jīng)提到一些,總的來說,詩中的韻不僅便于吟誦和記憶,更能使作品具有節(jié)奏、聲調(diào)之美,具體一點說,詩韻運用得當(dāng)能起到下列四個方面的效果:

1) 押韻的語言像音樂一樣,聽起來能給人一種愉悅感。

2) 押韻的語言特別容易記憶。小孩喜歡讀押韻的兒歌,原因多半在這兩個因素。

3) 因為韻是語音的重復(fù),重復(fù)往往能表達(dá)某種強調(diào)的作用,所以,詩人利用韻來強調(diào)某個詞語所表達(dá)的意思。

4) 英語詩人有時利用韻律幫助組織詩篇的思想內(nèi)容,這時,詩中的韻律可以指導(dǎo)和幫助讀者理解內(nèi)容結(jié)構(gòu)。莎士比亞的十四行詩基本上就是按照韻律來組織思想內(nèi)容的,柯勒律治的“Kubla Khan”(《忽必烈汗》)和奧登的“The Unknown Citizen”兩首詩中的韻律都與內(nèi)容有著密切的關(guān)系,描述的內(nèi)容變了,韻也改變了。

朗讀押韻的詞語時一般應(yīng)該重讀、慢讀,或稍稍停頓思考一下。所以讀詩與讀一般散文不一樣,讀詩時應(yīng)該以慢速為宜。

有些詩的韻用得非常巧妙,不僅給人愉悅感,而且還給人驚奇感,如在下面的三行詩中,

Julius Caesar,

The Roman geezer,

Squashed his wife with a lemon squeezer.

詩人用韻把Caesar- geezer- squeezer三者連系在一起,令人驚奇不已,或捧腹大笑。又如,在Robert Herrick寫的下面的兩行詩句中,詩人把decaying和a-Maying用韻連接起來,形成強烈的對比:

The while time serves, and we are but decaying,

Come, my Corina, come, let‘s go a-Maying.

但是,如果韻運用不當(dāng),就會顯得單調(diào),正如Alexander Pope描述的那樣,

Where're you finding “the cooling western breeze”,

In the next line it “whispers through the trees”;

If crystal streams “with pleasing murmurs creep”,

The reader’s threatened (not in vein) with “sleep”.

這是為押韻而押韻,是沒有價值的韻,這樣的韻只會令人聽了昏昏入睡。在嚴(yán)肅的詩篇中,韻不應(yīng)該是單純的裝飾品,而應(yīng)該是詩人表達(dá)思想內(nèi)容的形式之一,應(yīng)該能給人有新鮮感,能起到“船舵”(rudder)的“導(dǎo)航”(steer their courses)作用。詩人用韻應(yīng)該如17世紀(jì)詩人Samuel Butler所說的那樣:

Rhyme the rudder is of verses,

With which, like ships, they steer their courses.


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