摘 要

朗费罗是最早一批进入中国人视野的美国诗人之一，很多中国的英语诗歌爱好者通过他的抒情小诗《箭与歌》步入了英语诗歌的殿堂，该诗在中国被译成多个版本，本文通过对叶玉森、胡适、穆旦、杨德豫和罗长斌的译诗进行分析比较，发现在语体选择上叶诗和罗诗使用了工整的古体诗的形式，将新的诗歌理念和内容融入了中国古体诗的韵律和意境中，其余三位则采用了自由体诗形式，语言句法更加灵活，其中胡适的译诗体现的尤为明显，在形式和内容上都显示出了对原作的偏离；罗诗着重体现出了对诗歌思想主题的理解；杨德豫和穆旦对原诗的翻译出入最小，与原诗的结构和意义保持一致，最贴近原诗语境，不过也在一定程度上显示出缺乏对细节的变通处理和对诗歌词汇用意的深入理解。

关键词：朗费罗；《箭与歌》；中译本；意蕴；形式

Abstract

Longfellow is one of the first American poets who were introduced to Chinese people. His lyric poem “The Arrow and the Song” , ushering lots of Chinese people into the world of English poetry, has been translated into multiple versions, of which the translators include Ye Yusen, Hu shi, Mu Dan, Yang Deyu and Luo Changbin. By comparing the five different translations, this paper is expected to demonstrate that Ye Yusen’s and Luo Changbin’s version uses a neat form of classical poetry in style, which combines the new poetic concept and content with the rhythm and artistic conception of ancient Chinese poetry. While the other three translators adopts the form of free-style poetry with more flexible language and syntax, among which Hu shi's version, particularly obvious, shows the deviation from the original work in both form and content aspects; Luo's translated poem focuses on the understanding of the theme of poetry. Yang Deyu and Mu Dan makes the least discrepancy in the translation of the original poem, which is consistent with the structure and meaning of the original poem and closest to the context of the original. However, the lack of flexibility in details and a deep understanding of the poetry’s implicature is also found in the both versions.

Key Words: Longfellow; The Arrow and the Song; Chinese version; implication; form

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Literature Review 3

2.1 Longfellow and "The Arrow and the Song" 3

2.2 "The Arrow and the Song" in China 3

2.3 Relevant Research 4

3 Analysis of Implication of the Chinese translation of "The Arrow and the Song" 6

3.1 Ideological and thematic analysis 6

3.2 Lexical meaning 8

4 Analysis of Form of the Chinese translation of "The Arrow and the Song" 12

4.1 Poetry skills and translation styles 12

4.2 Sentence structure and mood 13

5 Conclusion 16

References 17

Appendix 18

Acknowledgements 20

Study on the Chinese translation of “The Arrow and the Song”

1 Introduction

In the second half of the 19th century, Chinese began to translate American literature. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, one of the greatest American romantic poets in the 19th century, is the first American poet to be introduced from the West to China, whose "A Psalm of Life" is the first English poem translated into Chinese. His poems were introduced into China in great numbers and they were translated by many famous translators or scholars, which have played a great role in promoting the creation of Chinese new style poems.

Longfellow was the first American poet who skillfully applied the European classical poetry form to express the new emotion and the new theme. His poems are fresh and sweet, simple and implicit, full of philosophical and thought-provoking implication. He is good at using symbols, metaphors and repetition, and integrating common wisdom into his poems. From “The Arrow and the Song”, it may be found that these characteristics are perfectly embodied.