朗费罗-影子

鲍海飞 译 2011-07-15

前些日子,发现了朗费罗的这首诗,A Shadow ,《影子》,读来颇受启发，翻译如下。

影子

自言自语若我死，这些孩子将如何？

尽皆仰目注视我，祈求帮助与进步。

浩瀚书卷其人生，我只读罢第一幕，

余下篇章难再续，章章美丽或愁苦。

聊以心慰天长古，代代相传代代复。

成群身影日复日，古老传说千遍述；

世界终属后来者，承前启后展雄途。

这是父亲望着孩子的身影嘛？还是什么？仔细查了一下字典，原来shadow有几个层含意，除了阴影、影子之外，还有影响力和庇护力之意，还有不祥预感、征兆之意。我想此片目之名称，或多或少可能都含有一些这样的含意吧。

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) 是十九世纪美国著名诗人和教育家。出生于波兰。主要诗集Voices of the Night.他的一个朋友说他：“no other poet was so fully recognized in his lifetime”。

这首诗描写的是一位父亲对自己的孩子未来的焦虑和期盼。该诗前八行为一节，后六行为一节。前节写出了作者的担忧，后节写出了作者终于坦然并且欣慰了。不过看了下面的这段描述，我才更理解了这首诗：

This piece decries in exquisite verse the longing thoughts of any loving parent aging and fearful of lessons untaught to offsprings. Worrying for that which might of been overlooked in instructions. A parents roadmap in navigating the life unexperienced as yet by children. Yet eventually in its ending. Provided strength in hopes for them as was through generations past.

其大意是作为父亲和母亲不要为孩子的未来担心，前人的路未必就是后人的路，孩子终将成为有能力能够主宰未来的人。

是啊，我曾经也有过这样的想法，担心孩子的未来。让孩子走我们的路，还是给孩子铺一条路。读了这首诗，或许我们就该淡化或者忘掉它吧！也许我们能够。

每个人都有自己的路，孩子终究会成长起来！走自己的路！

附：

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow     A Shadow

I said unto myself, if I were dead,
What would befall these children? What would be
Their fate, who now are looking up to me
For help and furtherance? Their lives, I said,
Would be a volume wherein I have read
But the first chapters, and no longer see
To read the rest of their dear history,
So full of beauty and so full of dread.
Be comforted; the world is very old,
And generations pass, as they have passed,
A troop of shadows moving with the sun;
Thousands of times has the old tale been told;
The world belongs to those who come the last,
They will find hope and strength as we have done.