To me, Chinese is more of an art than a language, and most Chinese literature, especially these classical ones, cannot be translated to another language without losing their original beauty and meaning.
Below is a modern short poem (fragment?) that I have found to be more or less translatable without being sacrilegious.
(Let me know if you have a better translation; I cannot even make it rhyme.)
母難日
The day Mother suffered
余光中的一段詩
A poem by Guan-Chun Yu
今生今世
In this life
我最忘情的哭聲有兩次
Twice I cried my heart out
一次在我生命的開始
Once at the beginning of my life
一次在妳生命的告終
The other at the end of yours
第一次我不會記得是聽妳說的
The first one I cannot remember but you told me so
第二次妳不會曉得我說也沒用
The second one you cannot know even if I tell you
但兩次哭聲的中間啊
But between these two cries
有無窮無盡的笑聲
Are endless laughs
一遍一遍又一遍
That has been going on and on
迴盪了整整三十年
For 30 years
Nice translation!
Yu is one of my favorite poets.
Comment by Lvdi — July 22, 2010 @ 6:37 pm |